news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070611/ap_on_re_us/teen_sex_case
AP Judge: No 10-year sentence for teen sex By SHANNON McCAFFREY, Associated Press Writer 32 minutes ago ATLANTA - A Georgia judge ordered the release Monday of a man sentenced to 10 years in prison for consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17, a sentence that had been widely criticized as grossly disproportionate to the crime.
Click Here Several influential people, including former President Jimmy Carter, publicly supported Genarlow Wilson's appeals, and state lawmakers voted to close the loophole that led to his 10-year term. Monday's ruling doesn't ensure Wilson's freedom, though. Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker said Monday afternoon that he had filed notice of appeal, arguing that Georgia law does not give a judge authority to reduce or modify the sentence imposed by the trial court. He said he would seek an expedited ruling from the Georgia Supreme Court. Wilson defense lawyer BJ Bernstein said she believes Baker is just trying to stop Wilson's immediate release. "It is extremely, extremely disturbing that the attorney general would take this action now," she said. "The fact that Genarlow Wilson has spent two years in prison for what is now classified as a misdemeanor, and without assistance from this Court, will spend eight more years in prison, is a grave miscarriage of justice," wrote Judge Thomas H Wilson, no relation to Genarlow Wilson. "If this court or any court cannot recognize the injustice of what has occurred here, then our court system has lost sight of the goal our judicial system has always strived to accomplish ... justice being served in a fair and equal manner," the judge wrote. Bernstein said she plans to look into filing a bond to have Wilson, now 21, release while the appeal is pending. When the judge's order arrived Monday morning, Wilson's lawyers had applauded and hugged his mother, Juannessa Bennett, who wiped away tears. A jury had found Wilson, an honor student, guilty in 2005 of aggravated child molestation for having oral sex with a 15-year-old girl during a 2003 New Year's Eve party involving alcohol and marijuana. Although the sex act was consensual, it was illegal under Georgia law. Wilson was also charged with rape for being one of several male partygoers at the Douglas County hotel to have sex with a 17-year-old girl, but was acquitted. The party was captured on a videotape that was played for the jury.
In this photo provided by the family of Genarlow Wilson he is shown at the age of 17 when he played high school football. Wilson is serving 10 years without the possibility of parole after a jury found him guilty of aggravated child molestation for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl in 2003.
Georgia judge voids teen sex sentence A Georgia judge has voided the 10-year sentence for a man accused of having sex with a 15-year-old girl while he was still a teen; Genarlow Wilson has served more than 27 months in prison.
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