Sometimes you hear stories that defy imagination, defy all logic and common sense, that you assume that they must be made up. There are times that the law is so flawed, so fucked up… in post-industrial democratic societies like the United States these miscarriages of justices no longer occur. Things like this aren’t allowed to happen, are they? Unfortunately, they do. Which brings us to the tragic case of Genarlow Wilson. What has been allowed to happen to this young man is truly a crime.

At the age of seventeen, Genarlow Wilson had his entire life ahead of him. Honour student, Home-Coming King and football star for his high school team. He was being recruited by all the leading colleges to join their football program. Then, on the day he was due to sit his SAT’s, his life changed forever. He was arrested. In Douglas County, he was accused of inappropriate sexual acts at a News Year’s Eve party. A jury acquitted him of the allegation of rape but convicted him of Aggravated Child Molestation for a voluntary act of oral sex with another teenager. He was 17, and she was 15.

Imagine the scene. Genarlow Wilson and his friends checked into a hotel/motel for New Years. Some girls, some bourbon and a little marijuana. One of the young men turned on a video camera.

On tape, cops saw a 15-year-old girl, a 10th-grader, performing oral sex on a partygoer and, after finishing with him, turning and performing the act on Genarlow. She was the instigator, according to her mother’s testimony. Problem was, the girl was a year under the age of consent. Local prosecutors called the act aggravated child molestation, following the letter and not the spirit of the law, which was designed to prosecute pedophiles. A week later, on the first day of the second semester of his senior year, the police went to the school and arrested the boys. Wilson was charged with four felonies and taken from the building in handcuffs. Not long before, he’d been in the newspaper for being all-conference in football. Now, he was on the front page, branded a rapist and child molester.

For the next eight months, Douglas County District Attorney David McDade, who likes to wear an American flag on his lapel and play to his law-and-order-loving base, dangled plea bargains. The other boys didn’t want to risk a jury, and one by one each took an offer and went to prison, including the other football player arrested, Narada Williams, who accepted five years with the possibility of parole. In Douglas County, according to law professors following the case, admitting sins and begging forgiveness, not insisting on your innocence, is the road to mercy. Williams is already out of jail, in part because McDade wrote a letter to the parole board, praising Williams for being the first to plead guilty and “take his medicine.” As for Wilson, McDade called him a “martyr” in the media.

If he had accepted the plea bargain, Wilson would’ve had to register as a sex offender and wouldn’t have been permitted to live in the same house as his younger sister. He wouldn’t accept that, so he waited for his trial.

In February 2005, Genarlow Wilson walked into a courtroom. Two charges already had been dropped, and it was clear from the first witness that the rape charge wouldn’t stick either. The aggravated child molestation, though, was on tape.

The trial finished , and the jury came back with “not guilty” on the rape but “guilty” on the aggravated child molestation. Wilson looked at the forewoman. She was crying, seeming to understand they’d just undone a promising future. Indeed, when the jurors found out there was a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence, several were incensed. The prosecution told them to write a letter, then moved on to the next case. Genarlow Wilson put his head in his hands and wept.

Along with the label “child molester” which will require him throughout his life to be on a sexual offender registry, Genarlow received a sentence of eleven years — a mandatory 10 years in prison and 1 year on probation. Wilson has been convicted of aggravated child molestation even though he and the girl were both minors at the time. Even if he could win an early release, Wilson could not go home to his family. He would have to register as a sex offender and would be prohibited from living with his eight year old sister. In December 2006, the Georgia Supreme Court last week refused to hear his appeal.

He has followed his appeals from behind bars. He watched as the state legislature changed the law that put him there, then declined to make it retroactive, for reasons that still boggle the mind. That was a dark day. He watched as B.J. Bernstein, his new attorney, filed a petition for writ of certiorari, asking the Georgia Supreme Court to review the case. The petition was denied, then set aside, then denied again, then appealed, then denied again. Those were darker days.

What makes this case more absurd is that if Wilson and the young woman had sexual intercourse, he would have been guilty only of a misdemeanor and not required to register as a sex offender, thanks to a provision in the law meant to avoid just this type of draconian punishment for consensual youthful indiscretions, the “Romeo and Juliet” exception. And since Mr. Wilson’s conviction, the law has been changed to exempt oral sex as well. But the courts say that can’t help Mr. Wilson retroactively.

No one involved believes Wilson should be in jail for 10 years.

The prosecutors don’t.

The Supreme Court doesn’t.

The legislature doesn’t.

The 15-year-old “victim” doesn’t.

The forewoman of the jury doesn’t.

Privately, even prison officials don’t.

Genarlow has been incarcerated since February 25, 2005.

Came across this story on BlogMaverick.
For more info, check out this ESPN special feature, a NY Times editorial or follow the progress at the law.com site. Please, also check out the Wilson Appeal site. Take the time to fill in the petition and help right this truly grevious wrong.