Genarlow Wilson Finally Released

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/10/26/wilson.freed/index.html

Wilson's story is briefly recounted in this article. A more complete and detailed account is here http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=wilson

Basically, when he was 17 Wilson had consentual oral sex with a fifteen year old white girl and was sentenced to 10 years minimum in prison because of an archaic law in Georgia. Wilson had rejected a plea bargain of 5 years and registration as a sex offender. He lost in court and was put in prison.

Shortly after, Georgia changed the archaic law but inexplicably did not free Wilson from prison, specifically wording the law so that it would not be retroactive. In Georgia, the prosecutor has the power to basically pardon the criminal, but Wilson's prosecutor refused to do so.

When I first read this story on espn I was shocked. I can't even undertand how he went to prison with a ten year sentance in the first place, and then afterwords they changed the law and still wouldn't let him out. And the prosecutor repeatedly refused to let him go. I can't imagine how he must have felt.

Now, two years later, he has finally been released.

I have to think there was racism involved in this case. That so many people could have ruled against him or fought against him is really ridiculous. I personally don't think he did anything wrong, but even if one believes that he did, the punishment was still horribly out of proportion to the "crime".