Monroe County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson’s decision to release former Douglas County High School athletic standout and honor student Genarlow Wilson from prison on Monday has once again brought attention to Georgia’s teen sex laws.
Wilson, 21, has spent the past 27 months in Forsyth’s Burress Correctional Training Center as part of a mandatory 10-year sentence he received in 2005 after being convicted of aggravated child molestation for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl during a 2003 New Year’s Eve party.
The scene was captured on video by one of five other male teenagers at the party who, along with Wilson, also had sexual intercourse with a 17-year-old female in attendance. All five were charged with rape, but Wilson was acquitted on the charge.
His conviction for conduct with the 15-year-old sparked bitter outrage, even among the jurors who convicted him, because had the then 17-year-old Wilson had sexual intercourse with the other teenager he would have fallen under the state’s “Romeo and Juliet” exception.
According to the law in 2003, however, consensual oral sex between teens constituted aggravated child molestation and carried a mandatory sentence of 10-years without parole. It also required those convicted to be placed on the state’s sex offender registry.
The Georgia General Assembly revised the law in 2006 to make consensual oral sex between teens a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of one year in prison and removed the requirement to register as a sex offender.
During court appeal proceedings last Wednesday, Wilson’s lawyer, B.J. Bernstein argued the GGA’s decision to amend the law was proof her client’s sentence was “cruel and unusual punishment.”
“It is wrong when the Legislature has passed the law to make this a misdemeanor with no sex offender registry [requirement] and instead the state is trying to keep this young man in prison for 10 years and on the sex offender registry,” she told reporters last week.
On Monday, Judge Wilson agreed with Bernstein, calling the prior ruling “a grave miscarriage of justice.”
The judge reduced Wilson’s felony conviction to a misdemeanor without the requirement of registering as a sex offender, despite the state’s highest court ruling that the 2006 rule change could not be applied retroactively to cases.
Hours later, however, Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker filed a notice saying the state would appeal the ruling to the Georgia Supreme Court, claiming Judge Wilson overstepped his authority.
“The law in Georgia is clear...there is absolutely no authority for a habeas court to reduce or modify the judgment of the trial court, in this case, the Superior Court of Douglas County,” said a statement released by Baker’s office.
As the legal wrangling took place throughout the day, former Republican state House member Matt Towery, who authored the Child Protection Act under which Wilson was originally convicted, said it was never his intent to jail teenagers for consensual sex.
“This has been just an absolute nightmare to see young people such as Genarlow go to jail...” he told reporters.
Towery said when the law was written in 1995 it was meant to strengthen laws against adult child molesters. However, the legislation was amended to raise the age of consent from 14 to 16, which meant consensual sex acts with a 15-year-old became punishable with a felony sentence.
State Senate President Pro Tempore Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) said he “continues to express sympathy for Genarlow Wilson,” but it is time for legislators to stop trying to solve the young man’s problem.
“Today’s unusual ruling reinforces the fact that this is a judicial matter to be decided in the courts and not in the legislature,” the senator said in a statement released on Monday.
Johnson, who criticized a bill in the 2007 GGA session that would have given judges the right to revisit more than 1,000 cases involving people convicted of felony consensual sex crimes between teenagers, added on Tuesday he worries about the precedent it would set if the new ruling stands.
“It’s not just about Genarlow, it’s about 1,100 other people,” he said.
As of late Tuesday, Wilson was still in custody at the Burress Correctional Training Center awaiting a decision on whether or not he will be released on bond during the state’s appeal.
According to an Associated Press report, Georgia prisons currently hold 189 inmates who were sentenced for aggravated child molestation when they were 21 or younger. Attempts to obtain local statistics were not successful.
Wilson, 21, has spent the past 27 months in Forsyth’s Burress Correctional Training Center as part of a mandatory 10-year sentence he received in 2005 after being convicted of aggravated child molestation for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl during a 2003 New Year’s Eve party.
The scene was captured on video by one of five other male teenagers at the party who, along with Wilson, also had sexual intercourse with a 17-year-old female in attendance. All five were charged with rape, but Wilson was acquitted on the charge.
His conviction for conduct with the 15-year-old sparked bitter outrage, even among the jurors who convicted him, because had the then 17-year-old Wilson had sexual intercourse with the other teenager he would have fallen under the state’s “Romeo and Juliet” exception.
According to the law in 2003, however, consensual oral sex between teens constituted aggravated child molestation and carried a mandatory sentence of 10-years without parole. It also required those convicted to be placed on the state’s sex offender registry.
The Georgia General Assembly revised the law in 2006 to make consensual oral sex between teens a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of one year in prison and removed the requirement to register as a sex offender.
During court appeal proceedings last Wednesday, Wilson’s lawyer, B.J. Bernstein argued the GGA’s decision to amend the law was proof her client’s sentence was “cruel and unusual punishment.”
“It is wrong when the Legislature has passed the law to make this a misdemeanor with no sex offender registry [requirement] and instead the state is trying to keep this young man in prison for 10 years and on the sex offender registry,” she told reporters last week.
On Monday, Judge Wilson agreed with Bernstein, calling the prior ruling “a grave miscarriage of justice.”
The judge reduced Wilson’s felony conviction to a misdemeanor without the requirement of registering as a sex offender, despite the state’s highest court ruling that the 2006 rule change could not be applied retroactively to cases.
Hours later, however, Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker filed a notice saying the state would appeal the ruling to the Georgia Supreme Court, claiming Judge Wilson overstepped his authority.
“The law in Georgia is clear...there is absolutely no authority for a habeas court to reduce or modify the judgment of the trial court, in this case, the Superior Court of Douglas County,” said a statement released by Baker’s office.
As the legal wrangling took place throughout the day, former Republican state House member Matt Towery, who authored the Child Protection Act under which Wilson was originally convicted, said it was never his intent to jail teenagers for consensual sex.
“This has been just an absolute nightmare to see young people such as Genarlow go to jail...” he told reporters.
Towery said when the law was written in 1995 it was meant to strengthen laws against adult child molesters. However, the legislation was amended to raise the age of consent from 14 to 16, which meant consensual sex acts with a 15-year-old became punishable with a felony sentence.
State Senate President Pro Tempore Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) said he “continues to express sympathy for Genarlow Wilson,” but it is time for legislators to stop trying to solve the young man’s problem.
“Today’s unusual ruling reinforces the fact that this is a judicial matter to be decided in the courts and not in the legislature,” the senator said in a statement released on Monday.
Johnson, who criticized a bill in the 2007 GGA session that would have given judges the right to revisit more than 1,000 cases involving people convicted of felony consensual sex crimes between teenagers, added on Tuesday he worries about the precedent it would set if the new ruling stands.
“It’s not just about Genarlow, it’s about 1,100 other people,” he said.
As of late Tuesday, Wilson was still in custody at the Burress Correctional Training Center awaiting a decision on whether or not he will be released on bond during the state’s appeal.
According to an Associated Press report, Georgia prisons currently hold 189 inmates who were sentenced for aggravated child molestation when they were 21 or younger. Attempts to obtain local statistics were not successful.