Genarlow Wilson's Appeal Case »
Posted By Dakota 1 year, 4 months ago in NewsThe bizarre story of a 17-year-old boy who was given a 10-year jail sentence for participating in a sex act.
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Dakota
A reporter for Propeller, Dakota writes the Overlooked column for the web site. If you submitted a story and feel it deserves a second look ...
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Comments So Far: 127
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tommmmie1 year, 4 months ago
40 years ago the cops would take you home and let your parents deal with the problem. Now it's 10 years in prison. They were both minors, 2 years apart in age
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Wil1 year, 4 months ago
I'm so glad this is on Netscape, and that it was featured in Newsquake.
This is one of the most abhorrent miscarriages of justice I can think of in the last decade, but I believe that the harsh glare of public attention may just give Genarlow a chance to get out of prison and back to his life.
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coreyspring1 year, 4 months ago
This kid was unjustly punished, I can't believe the public outrage for this hasn't been higher... or that he has been in jail for so long already. Give me a ****** break.
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aceofspades11 year, 4 months ago
The strange part is that this is now a misdemeanor offense but the judge still decided that the prior penalties apply.
Can't believe I actually agree with slapalib if he is not pulling our legs - shows everyone is redeemable
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aceofspades11 year, 4 months ago
Yesterday Jim Clark the unrepentant sheriff of the Bloody Sunday of Selma Ala. died - I guess his ghost still lives in Ga.
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Justice4All1 year, 4 months ago
How much did the system make from this? Laywers and judges had to be paid, probably all with our tax dollars.
The could not care less about this kid, to the system it is just another opportunity to make a profit.
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WCFIELDS1 year, 4 months ago
Someone mentioned that Michael Jackson went free. Lady Justice is peeing her already very wet panties.
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gfarral1 year, 4 months ago
I ask myself over and over where were these adults raised when I see laws enacted and school rules created that greatly penalize our children, our future? Have these people forgotten their childhoods? Have they forgotten that part of their lives, the maturing process is experimentation? Learning from experience!
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djrevelky1 year, 4 months ago
Let's be fair to the justice system here...The girl was a minor and minors cannot legally give consentual sex.
Sure, everyone is fine with him getting a BJ from a 15 year old but when does it suddenly become wrong? What if the girl was 14 but consented? Is that ok?
What about 13? 12? 11? 10? I'm sure, if you tried hard enough you could find an 11 year old girl who would consent to giving you a BJ...does that make it ok then?
I do agree that 10 years, in this case, was too harsh of a sentence though. The girls parents should have gotten 10 years for letting their daughter go to this party though.
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144paintedclowns1 year, 4 months ago
There's no way someone should get the book thrown at them and their life ruined for statutory rape based on the fact that the majority of kids don't wait until the legal age of consent to have sex. Kids should be allowed to as soon as they understand fully the risks involved.
I'm not sure how long it's been since you were a minor, but I can remember the fact that not a whole lot changed from 15 to 16 for me (the age of consent in my state). similarly, reaching the age of majority didn't affect my consciousness or my ability to recognize right or wrong. I remember kids in my middle school teasing me for being a virgin...when I was 12! Maybe kids are just growing up faster than you think.
Of course, I think that my experience maybe extreme, but I don't think it was that far from Wilson's experience.
I disagree with your 'slippery slope' reasoning. it's just changing a circumstance in this entire case. fact is, a 15-year-old will know lot more than an 11 year old, generally.
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djrevelky1 year, 4 months ago
But it is a slipperly slope. If consentual sex from a minor is fine when she is 15 then what difference is one year? Why not 14?
If people don't like the law then they need to change it sand decide that is perfectly ok to have sex with 15 year olds. The court followed the letter of the law in this issue although the punishment was excessive.
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Charlson1 year, 4 months ago
The boy was a minor also. You could also say he didn't legally give consent to get blown. But really, if you look at this case, it's about a black boy who got a bj from a white girl. Both were minors but the power structure is white. Who do you think they went after and why?
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tanglang1 year, 4 months ago
I agree with you on this comment Dj. However there was a mandatory 10 year sentance for all statutory rapes in Ga. Yes this has now been changed, but he was sentanced before the change.
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TOtheMOON1 year, 4 months ago
Thank God they locked him up! I couldn't imagine a society filled with people who, as teenagers, pranced around having 0ral sex with one another! They'd probably think it was okay to keep doing it as adults! What is wrong with you people!! We can't have that! The sheer horror of it!! It makes me shudder! :O
Seriously tho, I wonder how many people involved in prosecuting this kid is guilt free of this crime. Prisons would be packed with the offenders - and imagine all the re offending going on in those prisons.
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Beau78901 year, 4 months ago
So, let's say for argument's sake, that his sentence is commuted. Will he still be a listed on sex-offender registries?
Will he be required to live a certain distance from children and schools? Find it impossible to get a job? Have neighbors who discover him online on the registry slap warning posters with his picture, name and details of his conviction all over the neighborhood?
He will serve his sentence for his entire life, regardless of whether he's released from prison.
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Beau78901 year, 4 months ago
That's true. But what I consider worse is that after an offender has done his time, he's still on the registry, and that's public information. If the people want to protect society from sex offenders, then penalties should be increased. But the deal with our justice system is supposed to be that once you've done your time, you're free.
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