GENARLOW WILSON IS FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST.
IT APPEARS THAT THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY WHO PROSECUTED THIS CASE AND THE REPUBLICAN LEADER OF GEORGIA’S LEGISLATURE WHO FOUGHT WILSON’S RELEASE ARE AMONG THE FEW PUBLIC OFFICIALS WHO DISAGREE WITH THE GEORGIA SUPREME COURT’S DECISION
Nearly two years ago I heard about Genarlow Wilson’s 10 year prison sentence without the possibility of parole for having oral sex. At that time I wrote a scathing blog directed at the Douglas County Prosecuting Attorney, David McDade and the Republican leader of the Georgia legislature, Eric Johnson who fought Wilson’s release.
Since those of us who live in the 21st century know that oral sex has replaced a good night kiss in the dating habits of young Americans, to hear that a Georgia court sentenced this young man to 10 years at the maximum security prison without the possibility of parole left me dumbfounded. In addition, Wilson’s name would be placed on a list of sex offenders for the remainder of his life.
The circumstances leading up to Wilson’s conviction had none of the characteristics of a criminal mentality. Genarlow Wilson was a seventeen year old student who was a star football player, with no criminal record, no behavior problems associated with high school, Homecoming King, with an excellent academic record who was being recruited by a number of college teams.
Genarlow and several of his friends decided to rent a room at the Days Inn in Atlanta to celebrate the New Year. There were girls, alcohol and heavy doses of testosterone flowing through their teenaged bodies.
As one might expect, it did not take long for those at the party to become couples and to start making out as most teens are wanton to do. Genarlow paired up with a seventeen year old girl who was quite happy to be with the hottest football player and the only homecoming king in the room. Kissing led to fondling and fondling led to the bra being gently removed. While the French kisses became more passionate and more frequent they began to disrobe—a shirt was unbuttoned, a blouse was removed. The boy’s hands massaged the girl’s soft and perky breasts as her hands moved steadily toward the boy’s belt buckle and at long last, his zipper.
And with little hesitation both were naked and their bodies were entangled in a head long collision that would ultimately end up with his hard package thrusting out of his bikini shorts and her legs entwined around his narrow, muscular waist as they rode each other to climax.
We all remember these passionate early sexual encounters that made our chests ache from the heavy breathing provoked by the intense thrusts and the effortless withdrawals that continued until the purple heads of our penis' were about to explode inside the nearly virginal vagina or for safety’s sake a quick withdrawal that would burst forth over the girl’s abdomen in complete abandon.
When you are sixteen or seventeen you can climax over and over again spending every globule of energy in your young and enduring body for the pleasure that only sex can bring.
The initial charge filed against Genarlow was rape of this consenting seventeen year old girl. She testified in court that she was a willing participant and that he used neither persuasion nor force to consummate this encounter. The jury found him innocent of rape
It was the fifteen year old that brought him all of the trouble. Because of Genarlow's excellent academic and athletic record, District Attorney McDade attempted to strike a plea bargain. He would serve only a few years, his name would not appear on the sex offenders list and it would all be behind him. He warned Wilson that if he did not agree to the plea bargain, and should he be convicted of sexual abuse of a fifteen year old, he would, not could, but would definitely go to prison for ten years without the possibility of parole and his name would remain on the list of sex offenders for the remainder of his life.
Genarlow admitted having sex with the girl, but he testified that he had not pursued her, she had pursued him. The girl concurred during her testimony in open court.
Wilson was athletic and because football season had just concluded he was in superior shape. When he was approached by the fifteen year old young lady who was anxiously volunteering to wrap her lips around the rigid, rock hard penis of this high school football star, his reason surrendered to the desire of the moment. Between the alcohol, the testosterone and all of the intense sexual activity in which his buddies and their girl friends were taking pleasure, he was surrounded everywhere by temptation.
The fifteen year old testified in court that she pursued him, that she was the one who wanted to have oral sex; that she wanted to satisfy this hunk that previously she had only passed in the hallways of school.
In the heat of the moment, the girl took his already erected package into her mouth and with a constant movement up and down she continued until she felt the warm flow of semen rushing into her throat.
The jury found Genarlow guilty and before he could catch his breathe he was in a pair of prison coveralls, handcuffed and legs shackled while on his way to a Georgia maximum security prison.
During the entire New Year's eve party, one of the guys decided that since they were all going to have sex all night long, they needed a record for posterity. He video taped as much of the action that he could, including Genarlow's action with the fifteen year old.
Unfortunately, one of their motel neighbors got tired of the noise and the people coming in and out of their room and called the police.
The students got dressed as quickly as they could once they heard the cruisers with sirens rolling into the motel’s parking lot. But when the policemen found under aged girls, alcohol, and the prize of all prizes, a video camera with all of the events of the evening recorded in living color, they hauled the entire crowd to the police station where they were booked.
There was heavy media coverage of Genarlow's case. All of the other guys agreed to the plea bargain and went on their merry ways to the penitentiary frightened to death about what was going to happen to a bunch of seventeen year old studs in the hands of some horny lifers who counted on new young blood for fresh sex. The horror of rape by these hardened criminals was by far the students' most persistent dread. Would they end up the "prison lover" of some murderer or worse yet rapist and could they with stand the pain and shame?
But there was a loud uproar over the 10 year sentence that the court handed down to Genarlow. At seventeen, he would have served less time had he been convicted of rape. The Georgia law was all screwed up. Newspapers, radio stations and television networks covered his case from all over the world. There was a furor with a system that sent a kid away for ten years for oral sex even though it was with a fifteen year old girl.
In fact, there was such pandemonium that the legislature changed the law. In an effort to get Genarlow,released from the 10 year sentence several legislators attempted to include his case in the new bill which reduced the sentence from 10 years to one year and eliminated the required listing on the sexual offenders’ register.
The Republican leader from Savannah, Eric Johnson, fought arduously against Genarlow Wilson having his sentence reduced. In fact, he was determined to see Wilson serve every minute of this sentence for rape even though he was not charged with rape. Johnson persuaded enough of his fellow Republicans that while the bill was revised, Genarlow’s reduced sentence was not included.
But after nearly three years of fighting on the part of CNN, bloggers such as myself, newspapers, and magazines’ his case finally found its way to the Georgia Supreme Court and they ruled his sentence was cruel and unusual punishment for the crime he committed.
He went home a free man having served more time than he would have served had he accepted the plea bargain, but he made his point and hopefully saved other young men from having to endure the agony of justice gone wrong.
In an interview on his first day out of prison with Rick Sanchez from CNN, he revealed how much he had learned about responsibility and adulthood while wiling away the months in a small cell in a Georgia prison.
I truly hope that Eric Johnson and David McDade have also learned something about justice and fairness in the process of this enormously malicious case that McDade wrongly brought against Wilson and that Johnson refused to repair once the remainder of the world saw the terrible damage their law was imposing on those who committed fairly innocent crimes.
12:23:48 AM
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