Genarlow Wilson update

Posted by Raznor

See my first post on this here.

Via Scott Lemieux there's a new article on Wilson. And in case you didn't think this was a grave injustice, check this out:

The District Attorney -- who makes the decision on how to handle cases: which ones to prosecute, which to drop -- charged Wilson with rape and aggravated child molestation. The jury found Wilson not guilty of the rape charge.

According to the jury forewoman, the jury did not know that by convicting Wilson of the aggravated child molestation charge that they had just sentenced him to a mandatory 10 years in prison. “People were screaming, crying, beating against the walls,” she recalls. “I just went limp. They had to help me to a chair.”

Yet right down the hall, Alexander High School English teacher Kari McCarley was standing trial for "carrying on a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old male student." She was married, with children. This wasn't a one-time sexual encounter. Her sentence? Three years probation and 90 days in jail.

But lest you think this has nothing to do with Wilson being black, check this out:

Atlanta Magazine points out the inconsistency when the Douglasville defendant is an adult white male:

But there are also other cases of adults—white adults—prosecuted by the Douglas County District Attorney’s office for sex crimes involving minors and received far lighter sentences than any of the teens in the Douglasville Six case.

Case in point: Jack Stewart, a 24-year-old volunteer coach at Heirway Christian Academy in Douglas County, who received 30 days in jail and 10 years probation for fondling the 15-year-old daughter of a couple whose house he was living at temporarily. McDade notes that he objected in court to the “inappropriately light” sentence.

In the case of 26-year-old George Tsimpides, First Offender status was extended in a sex crime. Tsimpides received 20 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to luring a 15-year-old girl he’d met on the Internet to Arbor Place Mall with the intention of engaging in sex with her. McDade says he publicly objected to that sentence.

The DA is white. At any time, previously and currently, he could change this. Maybe his decision to completely destroy the life of a young black man who did nothing wrong has nothing to do with his race, but I doubt it, and really would that make it better?

Wilson was 17 when he went to prison. He'll be 27 when he gets out. I'm 25 now. I think of everything I've done with my life for the past 8 years and simply shudder to think what my life would be like if I were incarcerated for that time.