Outrage After Teen Gets 10 Years for Oral Sex With Girl

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by Maverick, Jun 12, 2007.

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Maverick Lord Vader

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Wow, 10 years for ...

Outrage After Teen Gets 10 Years for Oral Sex With Girl

Georgia Reconsiders Law That Imprisoned High School Senior

Feb. 7, 2006 —

A wild New Year's Eve two years ago has landed a Georgia teen in prison for 10 years on charges of child molestation in a case that has state legislators reworking the strict law that put him behind bars.
Genarlow Wilson and a group of friends had the kind of bash no parent would want their teenager to attend. Crime scene investigators combing the room in a Days Inn in the small town of Douglasville, Ga., found evidence of drinking, as well as condoms and wrappers littered all over. Plus, there was a video camera.
In a portion of a tape obtained by "Primetime," Wilson, then 17 and an honor student and star athlete who was homecoming king, is seen having intercourse with a 17-year-old girl, who was seen earlier on the bathroom floor. During the sex act, she appears to be sleepy or intoxicated but never asks Wilson to stop. Later on in the tape, she is seen being pulled off the bed.
Other portions of the tape show a second girl, who was 15 and later said she did not drink that night. She was recorded having oral sex with several boys in succession, including Wilson.
The following morning, Wilson got a phone call that would change his life. He learned from a friend that the 17-year-old had gone to the police to report that she'd been raped.
"I was, like, 'What? When was this happening? Did this happen at the same party I was at?'" Wilson said. "It was shocking to me."

A Decade in Prison

Authorities believed the 17-year-old alleged rape victim and said she was too intoxicated to consent to any sexual acts, which is what Georgia law requires, otherwise these acts can be considered rape.
Six boys, including Wilson, were arrested on various charges, including rape. District Attorney David McDade said the videotape was critical to his case. "There is no doubt that without the videotape we would have to be relying on the statements of these young people, and that would have been a more difficult prosecution," he said.
Wilson maintained his innocence. "I know that it was consensual," he told "Primetime." "I wouldn't went on with the acts if it wasn't consensual. I'm not that kind of person. No means no."
Five of the boys accepted plea deals, but Wilson -- the only one without a police record -- held out. "I knew Genarlow's state of mind," said his attorney, Michael Mann. "He wasn't going to prison willingly. He wasn't going to plea to something in his mind he didn't do."
He stood trial in February 2005 for five days. And at first, the jury's deliberations moved swiftly. Jurors voted to acquit Wilson of raping the 17-year-old.
"I mean it wasn't even an hour," said jury forewoman Marie Manigault. "We immediately saw the tape for what it was. We went back and saw it again and saw what actually happened and everybody immediately said not guilty."
But there was one other charge the jury had to decide on. The second girl in the videotape was 15, and the age of consent in Georgia is 16. And under state law, prosecutors charged Wilson with aggravated child molestation. To those close to the young man, it was an outrage.
"Nobody could believe that this is the law," Mann said.
Even jurors frowned on the charge. "A bad law, absolutely," Manigault said.
And in Georgia, that they'd had oral sex made matters worse. Until 1998, oral sex between husband and wife was illegal, punishable by up to 20 years in prison. In Wilson's case, even though he is only two years older than the girl, she was 15 and -- willing or not -- could not consent legally that night.
Whatever their feelings about the law, jurors felt they had no choice but to find Wilson guilty of aggravated child molestation. Moments later, back in the jury room, jurors were told for the first time that the conviction came with a mandatory sentence of at least 10 years in prison. In addition, Wilson would be forced to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
McDade said Wilson could have had a better outcome if he had accepted the plea deal. "What I believe is that Genarlow Wilson listened to people who were trying to use this case for another agenda and he followed their advice," he said. "Do I believe that [in] Genarlow Wilson's case justice would have been served if he accepted a lesser plea? Sure I do. I wish he had of. Sure I do."

'Doing What's Right'

Before the incident, Wilson -- by any measure -- had beaten the odds. The son of a single mom, the high school senior was an honor student and an all-conference football player and track star, with offers to play in college. He was popular enough to be elected homecoming king at Douglas County High.
"I was the first-ever homecoming king at my high school," he said. "That was a very great privilege for me."
Atlanta attorney B.J. Bernstein has filed Wilson's appeal. She said prosecutors should never have brought charges and that justice should have been meted out at home.
And a state legislator who helped pass the molestation law said it was never meant to police teen sex.
"The legislative intent was to protect women and children from sexual predators," said Rep. Tyrone Brooks, a Democrat in the Georgia State Assembly.
As the court considers Wilson's appeal, the Georgia legislature is rewriting the law that sent Wilson to prison. In a bill that has passed the House and is pending in the Senate, the crime would become a misdemeanor, punishable by no more than a year in prison, or even probation. And anyone convicted would not have to register as a sex offender.
Today Wilson remains as steadfast as ever about not taking the deal that would have reduced his sentence by half.
"It's all about doing what's right," he said. "And what's right is right, and what's wrong is wrong. And I'm just standing up for what I believe in."
Click to expand...

UPDATE
Genarlow Wilson should be free

Published on: 06/06/07
Genarlow Wilson — sentenced to 10 years in prison for consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17 — has become a cause célèbre, the unlikely figure at the center of a national struggle over competing views of justice.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has come to his defense. So has former President Jimmy Carter. So has the Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor of Atlanta's historic Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Wilson's supporters have portrayed a young man with good grades, college aspirations and no criminal history, tripped up by a rigid law that criminalized adolescent recklessness. The severe sentence — mandated by a Georgia law since revised — has been dissected in national media and discussed in countless blog posts and e-mails, all denouncing a criminal justice system that would mete out 10 years in prison for teenage behavior that was foolish but hardly malevolent.
On the other side of this morality tale are prosecutors and legislators who insist that they are defending young girls who were misused by a gang of drug-addled, predatory young men. Douglas County District Attorney David McDade is furious that he has been painted as a racist, incensed over "disinformation" he says has mangled the facts of the case.
He notes that all the teens involved are black — "If I had turned a deaf ear to these young ladies and their families when they cried out for help, I would have been accused of turning a deaf ear to African-American victims." He further points out that five other defendants pleaded guilty and were sentenced to as much as six years in prison and status as sex offenders. McDade has contended that Wilson wants to be a "martyr."
The low-key figure in the middle of this outsized battle of wills is a young man who just wants to reclaim his life — a prison inmate alternately buoyed by the favorable press and fearful of inciting the envy of fellow convicts.
"A lot of people don't want to see you do good. They want to see you down like they are. So I pretty much isolate myself," Wilson said Monday in an interview at Burruss Correctional Training Center in Forsyth.
When fellow inmates tease him about his celebrity, he shrugs it off, he said. "I'm fighting for my freedom. I'm just trying to piece my life back together."
He spends time reading, he says, because books "take me outside this prison." Among those books are Rick Warren's "The Purpose-Driven Life"; Barack Obama's memoir, "Dreams from My Father"; and all six Harry Potter books.
Wilson, who faces a Monroe County judge today for an appeal hearing, freely admits to poor decisions on that fateful night that robbed him of his carefree youth. On New Year's Eve 2003, he and a group of other teenagers — boys and girls — gathered in a Douglas County motel room for an evening of sex, drugs and exhibitionism. A video camera captured scenes of drug-addled conversation, tedium and squalid sex.
But a jury found that the only sex crime Wilson committed was on a technicality. He was found not guilty of raping a 17-year-old, who claimed she was too impaired to consent to intercourse. They did find him guilty, however, of aggravated child molestation against a 15-year-old, who willingly performed oral sex on him and others. At the time, the law drew a bright line, with Wilson on one side, an adult, and the girl on the other, a child.
"The decisions I made were not some of the best ones," he said, "but I don't think one mistake should cost you 10 years in prison and a lifetime on the sex offender registry."
The Georgia Legislature apparently agreed because it revised the law last year; under the "Romeo and Juliet" provision, the sex act between Wilson and the 15-year-old would be a misdemeanor. But the General Assembly refused to apply the law to Wilson's case.
Some legislators continued to condemn Wilson and the other boys in the room as out-of-control predators. "If I was the parent of one of the girls in that hotel room, I would want those boys put away for 10 years, if not executed," said state Sen. Eric Johnson (R-Savannah).
Any parent who watches that video would undoubtedly be appalled. But the behavior of virtually all the kids in that motel room was unseemly, reckless and irresponsible. Holding drug-and-alcohol-addled adolescent boys to a higher standard than drug-and-alcohol-addled adolescent girls takes the law back to the '50s — the 1850s.
While Wilson ponders his latest appeal — "I'm praying for the best, but I'm expecting the worst" — one of his co-defendants, Narada Williams, has already been released. After discussions with state Sen. Kasim Reed (D-Atlanta), McDade agreed to support Williams' request for parole; Reed helped Williams to enroll at Fort Valley State University. (Williams, however, remains on the sex offender registry. Wilson rejected a plea because he didn't want that stigma.)
Surely, it has become clear that Wilson doesn't belong behind bars, either.
Click to expand...

#1 Maverick, Jun 12, 2007
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that's crazy but wouldn't the people watching the video tape be breaking laws because they are viewing child pornography?

#2 [N], Jun 12, 2007
wind2000 Self Schemata

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17 yrs old and filming sex acts? This is freacking insane.

#3 wind2000, Jun 12, 2007
BabyRain Doppelgänger of da E.Twin

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First there's the women getting sperm from men through a blowjob. Now, there's this guy getting imprisoned for having oral sex with an underaged (which IMO, he totally deserved it )
Make guys think twice about getting a blowjob now? -whistle

#4 BabyRain, Jun 12, 2007
Yowie Active Member

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wind2000 said: ↑

17 yrs old and filming sex acts? This is freacking insane.
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Just in case they became famous, they could then do a Paris Hilton -lol

#5 Yowie, Jun 12, 2007
ab289 Well-Known Member

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well come on ... star athlete, homecoming king ... and drunk girl? consensual? highly doubtful. these athlete jocks think they can get away with anything.

#6 ab289, Jun 12, 2007
kakenx Well-Known Member

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even if the kid was wrong.. 10 years is just too serious. the guy's 17 and the girl was 15.. and the girl did it willingly too. She did it consecutively with other guys that nite.. If he wants to blame someone, blame it on the State of Georgia for being prudes lol!

Really cant believe oral sex was illegal even for husband and wife in Georgia in 1998. get 20 years of jails because of oral sex.. now u better lock ur doors if u gunna do some naughty stuff haha! oh well.. that was 1998 haha!

#7 kakenx, Jun 12, 2007
kdotc 안녕하세요빅뱅K-Dragon입니다

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its always they GUY'S fault...so sexist lol........im pretty sure the 17year old guy got raped by the girl =p

#8 kdotc, Jun 12, 2007
hiake Vardøgr of da E.Twin

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I don't understand why some people want to tape their sex...

But I am surprised that he got 10 years sentence... Usually it wouldn't cause such a huge fuss since the girl is not significantly younger than the guy...

I guess the "intoxicated" part played a huge role in this sentence...

#9 hiake, Jun 12, 2007
nunubutt Well-Known Member

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Someone here read digg? Anyhow, this is pretty old news but i gotta say 10 years is retarded for something they both wanted to do. A couple other guys with him pleaded for 5 years and register as sex offenders. Pretty cruel and unusual punishment if you ask me for something they both wanted to do. NO one would've gave a shat 20 years ago. Whats with all the sudden legality on when someone becomes an adult? Some kids are smarter than the adults out there making up our laws anyways.

#10 nunubutt, Jun 12, 2007
taichi_masta Well-Known Member

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omfg 16 is the age?!? lu lu lu...That law doesn't make sense...ppl should be allowed to have sex whenever they want! I know someone that killed someone while drunk, and he only got 6 years!!

#11 taichi_masta, Jun 12, 2007
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^apparently now sex is more punishable than murder, whoaaa

#12 [N], Jun 12, 2007
taichi_masta Well-Known Member

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nunubutt said: ↑

NO one would've gave a shat 20 years ago. Whats with all the sudden legality on when someone becomes an adult? Some kids are smarter than the adults out there making up our laws anyways.
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Yea, I agree...Just ask your parents how old they were! Make sure you get it on tape so you can send them to jail if they piss you off =P

They just make up these laws that 80% of the world don't even know about until they are charged with them. They didn't teach me any of these laws in school...all I know about age of consent is from this guy in school...but he didn't even know multiplication/division, and dropped out in grade 10...

#13 taichi_masta, Jun 12, 2007
xchodax Well-Known Member

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most normal people have some sort of an idea of how the party is gonna end up like wen they first arrive... i've been to countless parties and i've always known whether or not im gonna get smashed or not before hand lol..

hmmm theres also one other thing... these kids were in highschool...meaning most would be like wat? 14-19 years old? around that age? isnt it illegal for them to drink at that age in the u.s.? hmMmM that inn needs some major investigating...allowing underaged kids to drink...

#14 xchodax, Jun 12, 2007
The_Jelly NSFW? :P

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BabyRain said: ↑

First there's the women getting sperm from men through a blowjob. Now, there's this guy getting imprisoned for having oral sex with an underaged (which IMO, he totally deserved it )
Make guys think twice about getting a blowjob now? -whistle
Click to expand...

Yeah, we should check for ID...[/sarcasm]

#15 The_Jelly, Jun 12, 2007
pinklashbling Member

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10 years and register as sex offenders. thats too much. that girl did it willingly, but under intoxication. ugh, stupid people. stupid girl. ew. why would anyone tape that?

#16 pinklashbling, Jun 12, 2007
Resentless MIA

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this is so stupid... cant say anything else

#17 Resentless, Jun 12, 2007
zoom_zoom Well-Known Member

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nothing good ever comes out of participating in sexual activities while intoxicated... don't kids these days know this already?

#18 zoom_zoom, Jun 12, 2007
Dan 8-D

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hmm... nothing is wrong according to the law... but since the law itself is screwed up, this may be a chance to change the law.. make a new precedent...

but still... honor roll? homecoming king? football player?

and BJ illegal? damn... sometimes im glad im in canada lol

#19 Dan, Jun 12, 2007
fearless_fx Eugooglizer

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oh well, the US has revised the law so that this only counts as a 'misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of one year in prison."

#20 fearless_fx, Jun 12, 2007

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