Genarlow Wilson’s Release from Georgia Prison

The mother of Genarlow Wilson said she's still in shock over the Georgia Supreme Court's decision to overturn her son's conviction and order him released from prison on Friday.
"It feels pretty good, but it hasn't really sunk in yet," said Juannessa Bennett.

On Friday, the state’s highest court ruled 4-3 that Wilson’s 10-year sentence was cruel and unusual punishment.

Wilson, now 21, served 32 months of a 10-year prison sentence after he was convicted in 2005 on aggravated sexual molestation charges after having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl at a party at a motel on New Year’s Eve 2004. He was 17 at the time.

Wilson and four other young men admitted to detectives that they had sexual intercourse with one teenaged girl and that another had performed oral sex on them at a party involving about a dozen youths at a Douglasville, Georgia hotel. Under Georgia law at the time, oral sex with anyone under the age of 16 could be classified as aggravated child molestation, even if it occurred between consenting teenagers fewer than three years apart in age. The offense carried a mandatory sentence upon conviction of 10 years in prison.

Sexual intercourse was, and remains, a misdemeanor under Georgia law. The code governing oral sex was amended in July 2006 to treat consensual oral sex between teenagers no more than four years apart as a misdemeanor, punishable by no more than 12 months in prison with no sex offender registry requirement.

Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears wrote in the majority opinion last week that the changes in the law “represent a seismic shift in the legislature’s view of the gravity of oral sex between two willing teenage participants.”

Further, Sears wrote, the original sentence made “no measurable contribution to acceptable goals of punishment” and that Wilson’s crime did not rise to the “level of adults who prey on children.”

The original law, under which Wilson was convicted, was intended to protect women and children from sexual predators.

District Attorney David McDade, in his filing at the time, asked the court to reject the motion to grant Wilson a new trial, arguing that the constitutional issue was not raised during the trial, that the argument for it was rejected when the high court returned the case to the state Court of Appeals, which had ruled against Wilson, and that it should not be raised again before the state Supreme Court.

Wilson, McDade and two assistant district attorneys argued in the filing, wanted to change the law after the fact.

In December 2006, the Georgia Supreme Court turned down the appeal seeking a new trial for Wilson.

Presiding Justice Carol Hunstein noted that in easing the penalties for teens, “the Legislature expressly chose not to allow the provisions of the new amendments to affect person convicted under the previous version of the statute.”

Hunstein added she was “very sympathetic” to Wilson’s plight, but that the court was bound by the limits set by the legislature.

In January, state Sen. Emmanuel Jones and four primary co-sponsors introduced a bill that would allow a court imposing a sentence on several charges, including sodomy and aggravated child molestation charges, on convictions before July 1, 2006 to “correct or reduce the sentence and to suspend or probate all or any part of the sentence imposed.” That would have allowed a judge to revere Wilson’s conviction.

The bill never made it out of committee during the legislative session.

In April, Bernstein filed a habeas action that allowed her to raise legal questions that Wilson’s original trial lawyer did not. The filing was basically a civil suit that contended that Wilson had been imprisoned improperly.

In June, Monroe Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson (no relation to Genarlow Wilson) threw out Genarlow Wilson’s conviction and ordered him released, but a little more than an hour later, the office of Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker announced it would appeal, meaning Wilson would remain in prison.

After Friday’s ruling, Baker said in a statement he would not file another appeal.

“I have received and reviewed the decision by the Georgia Supreme Court in this matter, and I respectfully acknowledge the Court’s authority to grant the relief that they have crafted in this case,” Baker said. “As the Supreme Court found, the habeas court’s order resentencing Mr. Wilson, however well-meaning, was unauthorized under Georgia law. It was for this reason that I appealed, in order to insure a fair and consistent application of the law not just to Mr. Wilson, but to others similarly situated.

"I hope the Court’s decision will also put an end to this issue as a matter of contention in the hearts and minds of concerned Georgians and others across the country who have taken such a strong interest in this case,” said Baker.

About 2,000 people rallied in Atlanta in July calling for Wilson’s release. He also received support from the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Rev. Al Sharpton and former President Jimmy Carter. The case received national attention on CNN and ABC, and Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and CEO of HDNet, which produced a special report on the case, helped fund Wilson’s defense.

A group of citizens organized by an investment manager and philanthropist in New York had pledged $1 million for bond that could be wired on Wilson’s behalf with 24 hours notice, if a bond had been approved.

“Thank God that common sense, the will of the General Assembly and the popular opinion of most Georgians still has a place before the powers of government,” Georgia NAACP State Conference President Edward O. Dubose said Friday in a statement reacting to the court’s decision. “America's history is littered with instances when laws have been misused -- their intended purposes subverted and lives destroyed. The NAACP monitors and intervenes when necessary because, all too often, the misuses of said laws are predicated by race or results in racial disparity.”

“The Wilson case, along with Jena 6 and countless lesser known rulings, speak to a systemic flaw in our nation’s criminal justice system,” Rep. Carolyn C. Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said in a statement on Friday. "There must be a thorough assessment of both state and federal laws to ensure that the punishment parallels the crime. Overzealous prosecutors must be condemned for allowing their political aspirations to prejudice the judicial process."

Meanwhile, Wilson and his family are looking forward to getting back to a normal life, his mother and lawyer said Sunday.

Wilson’s first few days of freedom, were filled with sleeping, getting a haircut, shopping for new clothes for church, which he attended on Sunday, and “he kept peeping in the fridge,” Bernstein said with a laugh.

Bernstein said Wilson wants to focus on school and preparing for college, adding that “he’s already getting calls from different schools.”

Asked if he was bitter about the experience, Bernstein said Wilson is trying to stay focused on the future.

“He says he’s facing forward, and really what he’s paying attention to [is] if he gets caught in that [situation again], he’ll be right where he started from,” Bernstein said.

After this initial rounds of interviews to thank his supporters, Bernstein said, Wilson and his family will try to lie low for a while as they ponder his future.

“We don’t want to put too much on him. We have to be careful,” Bernstein said. “He was in prison for 32 months. It’s a fine line you’re asking him to walk. He’s actually appreciative of the help, but we want to protect him a little bit because we don’t want him to fail.”

“We’re trying to get to the household things,” mom Juannessa Bennett said, noting the media attention following her son's release has kept the family from settling back into a family routine. She hasn’t had time to run errands or go grocery shopping, she says, because “people have been in and out interviewing.”

"Probably in a week or so, it'll feel normal again,” Bennett said. “(But) it feels normal to have him back in the house."