OUTRAGEOUS INJUSTICE: ON ESPN FRONT PAGE
 

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/etick...ry?page=wilson

Kind of a repost, but this story is getting a ton of attention now, and it damn well should. This is about the story of the 17 year old black homecoming king, 3.3 GPA scholar athlete gettin' a hummer from a 10th grade 15 year old girl when he was a senior in HS. They get into the details in the article about how everything went down..

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. -- There is a cardboard box in Genarlow Wilson's old bedroom.


The Bernstein Firm
Despite lacking size, overachieving Genarlow Wilson was being recruited by several college football programs.

It rests on the floor of his empty closet, near the deflated football and basketball. It's filled with things he needed in his old life. Mostly, it's overflowing with recruiting letters, from schools big and small. A "Good luck on the SAT" postcard from the coaches at Columbia. From another Ivy League college, Brown, a note from the football coach: "You have been recommended to me as one of the top scholar-athletes in your area."

There's a questionnaire from the Citadel. A brochure from Elon. An envelope from Sewanee. College after college, all wanting the undersized but overachieving Genarlow Wilson to consider their football programs. One open letter, dated three months before everything in this box became a reminder of a life derailed, invites him to take a campus visit. It begins:

Dear Genarlow,

Here you stand, on the threshold of four of the most influential, challenging, and rewarding years of your life.

Being Inmate No. 1187055
Genarlow Wilson is standing on a threshold all right, at the end of the last hall of Burruss Correctional Training Center, an hour and a half south of Atlanta. He's just a few feet from the mechanical door that closes with a goosebump-raising whurr and clang. Three and a half years after he received that letter, he's wearing a blue jacket with big, white block letters. They read: STATE PRISONER.

He's 20 now. Just two years into a 10-year sentence without possibility of parole, he peers through the thick glass and bars, trying to catch a glimpse of freedom. Outside, guard towers and rolls of coiled barbed wire remind him of who he is.
Video
Genarlow Wilson explains why he wouldn't take a plea bargain. Watch

Video courtesy of ABCNews Primetime live. Stay tuned to ABC News for updates on this story.

Once, he was the homecoming king at Douglas County High. Now he's Georgia inmate No. 1187055, convicted of aggravated child molestation.

When he was a senior in high school, he received oral sex from a 10th grader. He was 17. She was 15. Everyone, including the girl and the prosecution, agreed she initiated the act. But because of an archaic Georgia law, it was a misdemeanor for teenagers less than three years apart to have sexual intercourse, but a felony for the same kids to have oral sex.

Afterward, the state legislature changed the law to include an oral sex clause, but that doesn't help Wilson. In yet another baffling twist, the law was written to not apply to cases retroactively, though another legislative solution might be in the works. The case has drawn national condemnation, from the "Free Genarlow Wilson Now" editorial in The New York Times to a feature on Mark Cuban's HDNet.

"It's disgusting," Cuban wrote to ESPN in an e-mail. "I can not see any way, shape or form that the interests of the state of Georgia are served by throwing away Genarlow's youth and opportunity to become a vibrant contributor to the state. All his situation does is reinforce some unfortunate stereotypes that the state is backward and misgoverned. No one with a conscience can look at this case and conclude that justice has been served."

Wilson's mother, Juanessa Bennett, certainly doesn't understand. She has just bought a new house the next county over, hoping that a change of scenery might do her good. The past few years have been hard on her.

"You think, what in the world could I have done to God to make him punish me like this?" she says. "Am I that terrible a person?"


Tracy Smith/Special to ESPN.com
"It was like I had everything one day, and the next day I didn't have anything," Wilson says.

Her home feels empty without her son in it. He's not there to enjoy the five burgers for five bucks on Tuesday at the Sonic Drive-In, or chatting away on his telephone late at night. Now, she can only think about the past three years of their lives, and how everything is so different from before.

She points to a picture above her fireplace. There's a grinning 3-year-old boy in the frame, posing with big alphabet blocks.

"He was cute, huh?" she says, quietly.

She looks at the picture, but doesn't cry. There aren't many tears left. After it first happened, she says she cried so much she got an eye infection. Bumps broke out on her face, brought on by worry and grief.

"You need to stop stressing," the doctor told her.

She asked him how exactly she might do that.

"He didn't have an answer," Bennett says.

Now, she's numb. Now, she can only remember the boy he was and pray that when his ordeal is finally over, some of that boy will remain.

The image of a bright future dimming with each passing day is what infuriates so many people. Wilson should be held up as an example of a kid who was making it. His life should be protected by society, not destroyed. He was a good student, with a 3.2 grade point average. He was popular, the school's homecoming king, liked by students and teachers. He never got into any trouble with the law. He was a track and football star. His last two years, he was the defensive back assigned to cover Calvin Johnson, the former Sandy Creek High star who went on to Georgia Tech and is now projected as a top pick in the NFL draft. Wilson studied film, trying to figure out how to outsmart a better and taller athlete. He did well, coaches remember, limiting Johnson to four catches in two games.

Three years later, sitting in their office overlooking the field, finishing up another workday, Wilson's old coaches also remember a good but not great high school player who would have played college ball. They remember his last game, in the playoffs, way down in south Georgia. He got hit so hard on a kickoff return that he ended up spitting up blood on the sideline. The trainer shined a flashlight in his eye, figuring he had a concussion. Wilson grabbed his helmet, determined to go back in the game. He went to the hospital instead.


The Bernstein Firm
From drinking to smoking pot to acting like a cocky star athlete, Wilson now cringes at some of the mistakes he made in high school.

He admits he wasn't perfect. Far from it. He drank. He smoked pot. He'd been sexually active since he was 13. And a month or so after that final playoff game, he and some buddies were plotting a New Year's Eve bash. His mama heard them whispering in his bedroom that afternoon. She knew kids whispering usually meant trouble, so she went in and looked those boys up and down.

"Don't do anything stupid," she warned.

Something Stupid
Genarlow Wilson and his friends checked into the Days Inn right off Interstate 20. At some point in the night, according to court documents and evidence presented at trial, some girls came over to party with them. Bourbon and marijuana were consumed. One of the young men turned on a video camera.

Later in the evening, a 17-year-old girl began to have sex with the young men, first in the bathroom, then on the bed. Genarlow is captured on tape appearing to have sex with the girl from behind. Her hand is clearly visible on the floor supporting herself. Witnesses said she was a willing participant.

The next morning, the girl awoke in a stupor, wearing nothing but her socks. She called her mother and said she had been raped. Police came to the room after sunrise and took the revelers in for questioning. Genarlow had already gone home -- he didn't want to miss curfew -- but the video camera remained.

On tape, the cops saw a 15-year-old girl, a 10th-grader, performing oral sex on a partygoer and, after finishing with him, turning and performing the act on Genarlow. She was the instigator, according to her mother's testimony. Problem was, the girl was a year under the age of consent. Local prosecutors called the act aggravated child molestation, following the letter and not the spirit of the law, which was designed to prosecute pedophiles.

A week later, on the first day of the second semester of his senior year, the police went to the school and arrested the boys. Wilson was charged with four felonies and taken from the building in handcuffs. Not long before, he'd been in the newspaper for being all-conference in football. Now, he was on the front page, branded a rapist and child molester.

"It was like I had everything one day," he says, "and the next day I didn't have anything."

For the next eight months, Douglas County District Attorney David McDade, who likes to wear an American flag in his lapel and play to his law-and-order-loving base, dangled plea bargains. The other boys didn't want to risk a jury, and one by one each took an offer and went to prison, including the other football player arrested, Narada Williams, who accepted five years with the possibility of parole.

In Douglas County, according to law professors following about the case, admitting sins and begging forgiveness -- not insisting on your innocence -- is the road to mercy. Williams is already out of jail, in part because McDade wrote a letter to the parole board, praising Williams for being the first to plead guilty and "take his medicine." As for Wilson, McDade called him a "martyr" in the media.


The Bernstein Firm
If he had accepted the plea bargain, Wilson would've had to register as a sex offender and wouldn't have been permitted to live in the same house as his younger sister.

Wilson refused to admit to being a child molester. If he pled to or was convicted of any charge that put him on the sex offender registry, he couldn't live at home with his younger sister. He wouldn't accept that, so he waited for his trial.

The Saturday before it began, his last weekend as a free man, Wilson tried out for a local semi-pro football team. He wanted to be that other person once more, the one who could outrun all of life's problems. For two glorious hours, he sprinted and jumped and dived. When it was over, the coaches were impressed. They traded cell phone numbers, just another opportunity that would soon pass him by.

Two days later, in February 2005, Genarlow Wilson walked into a courtroom. Two charges already had been dropped, and it was clear from the first witness that the rape charge wouldn't stick either. The aggravated child molestation, though, was on tape. Genarlow tried to defend himself against the assigned prosecutor, Eddie Barker.

"Sir," Wilson told him, "you don't even know me. I understand you're just doing your job, sure, but I mean, how would you feel if you were my age and you were put on the stand with these serious charges at this young age? I have a little sister. Why would I molest anyone, sir?"

"I'm not on trial here, Mr. Wilson," Barker said. "You're the one who did these acts, not me."

The day before the trial was expected to end, in the last night he'd ever spend at his home, Wilson went to a church down the street and asked the preacher to pray with him. He awoke early the next morning. He knotted his tie carefully and went to the courthouse. The trial finished that afternoon, and the jury came back with "not guilty" on the rape but "guilty" on the aggravated child molestation.

He looked at the forewoman. She was crying, seeming to understand they'd just undone a promising future. Indeed, when the jurors found out there was a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence, several were incensed. The prosecution told them to write a letter, then moved on to the next case.

Genarlow Wilson put his head in his hands and wept.


Tracy Smith/Special to ESPN.com
Once identified as a promising football prospect, Wilson is now just known as inmate No. 1187055.

Deputies yanked him from his seat. Not long after, Prisoner 1187055 found himself in the predawn darkness, riding in a bus, surrounded not by his teammates but by murderers, thieves and rapists. Some were headed to the penitentiary for the second or third time.

A scared kid looked out the window as the bus chewed up pavement. He didn't know what it was going to be like, only that he didn't want to go.

Doing Hard Time
Wilson moves to the rhythm of the prison now, up early with the shift change, tidying his cell, sitting down to rest before chow, wearing white pants with a blue stripe. It has been 23 months.

These walls and bars haven't taken his youth, though. Not yet. When he smiles, it's the same one from that old photo on his mom's mantel. Bennett wonders how her son has managed to keep that light in such a dark place and how much longer he can hold out.

With nothing but time, he has taken stock of his old life. He doesn't like the person he was back then, the cocky star athlete with the world as his yo-yo. When he thinks about the kid on that videotape, with a Pittsburgh Pirates hat cocked just so, he cringes.

"It's embarrassing to me," he says. "You see yourself. ... 'Man, I acted like that?' "

He has followed his appeals from behind bars. He watched as the state legislature changed the law that put him there, then declined to make it retroactive, for reasons that still boggle the mind. That was a dark day.

He watched as B.J. Bernstein, his new attorney, filed a petition for writ of certiorari, asking the Georgia Supreme Court to review the case. The petition was denied, then set aside, then denied again, then appealed, then denied again. Those were darker days.

The first time the Supreme Court voted on Genarlow's case, it was 4-3. The four judges who voted against the black teen were white. The three judges who voted for him were black.

"I don't understand the Supreme Court," Bennett says. "Do these people not have hearts? Can they not look and see this isn't right?"


Tracy Smith/Special to ESPN.com
Wilson's attorney, B.J. Bernstein, is working pro bono to try to get her client out of prison.

In its decision, the Supreme Court called Wilson a "promising young man," a paragraph that he has read a thousand times. All the e-mails Bernstein gets in support of him, he has those, too. He reads them over and over, reminding himself that he once had a future and, one day, might have it again. It's not easy.

Other people's lives have moved on.

He has corresponded with Williams, his co-defendant and old high school teammate. Williams is enrolled in college now.

Wilson sat in prison and watched Calvin Johnson, the guy he once covered, become the best college receiver in the country and a soon-to-be millionaire.

"That has made my ambitions higher," Wilson says. "That makes me want to succeed even more because I don't want to be left behind."

The Halls of Power
In Atlanta, Bernstein makes her rounds at the state capitol. It's the first day of the legislative session and men in power ties click their wingtips over marble floors, lobbyists back-slapping each other in their little groups.

"He's sitting in jail," she says. "He's in jail every day they're sitting around chatting."


Tracy Smith/Special to ESPN.com
Instead of an Ivy League school, Wilson went straight from Douglas County High to Burruss Correctional Training Center.

When Bernstein met Wilson, who had a different attorney for the trial, she saw that light in his eyes and didn't want prison to extinguish it. Truth is, she's a rescuer. One of her cats she found on the interstate. She stopped her car in the rain on a six-lane highway to save it. In her heart, she wants to save the world, starting with Genarlow Wilson. That means working pro bono, even as every small check the firm earns goes straight into the operating account. That means figuring out this strange power-brokers' dance.

It's frustrating work. No one involved believes Wilson should be in jail for 10 years.

The prosecutors don't.

The Supreme Court doesn't.

The legislature doesn't.

The 15-year-old "victim" doesn't.

The forewoman of the jury doesn't.

Privately, even prison officials don't.

Yet no one will do anything to free him, passing responsibility around like a hot potato. The prosecutors say they were just doing their job. The Supreme Court says it couldn't free him because the state legislature decreed the new law didn't apply to old cases, even though this case was the entire reason the new law was passed. One possible explanation is that Bernstein, an admitted neophyte at backroom dealing, simply didn't know enough politics to insist on the provision. That haunts her.


Tracy Smith/Special to ESPN.com
As an honor student, football star and homecoming king, Wilson conquered challenges in high school ... but he now faces an uncertain future.

The legislature still could pass a new law that would secure Wilson's freedom, so Bernstein is pushing hard for that. One such bipartisan bill was introduced this week, pushed by state Sens. Emanuel Jones, Dan Weber and Kasim Reed. This is Wilson's best shot.

"I understand the injustice in the justice system," Jones says, "and when I heard about Genarlow and started studying what had happened, I said, 'This is a wrong that must be righted.' Everyone agrees that justice is not being served."

Afterward, Bernstein can file a writ of habeas corpus, which could get him out of jail, but those are legal Hail Marys. She's a true believer, but if the legislature denies this latest attempt, she knows she might not be able to save Genarlow Wilson. Until it's over, nothing's off the table. Not even simple positive thinking. Sitting at a midtown-Atlanta Chinese restaurant on a lunch break from all the political wrangling, she picked up her fortune cookie, smiled thinly and said, "Gimme a good one: Genarlow will be free."

She's still working every angle, from the capital to cookies, riding up an elevator to the 53rd floor of an Atlanta high-rise to see David Balser, the attorney who got Marcus Dixon out of jail. The Dixon case was similar: As an 18-year-old, he had sex with a 15-year-old girl and was sentenced to 10 years before the conviction was overturned.

Sitting in a conference room overlooking Stone Mountain, Balser listens. The light shines off his gold cufflinks, the high-thread-count shirt hanging perfectly off his shoulders. He's got a little salt in his pepper and a Virgin Islands tan. They talk media strategy. They talk last-ditch plans, including a constitutional amendment returning pardon power to the governor. When they're done, Balser walks Bernstein to the elevator.

"I think less is more, B.J.," he says. "You've got to get him out and solve the world's problems after that. Just get him out."

"I'm trying," she says.

"I have faith in you," he says.

Letter of the Law
Every story needs a villain, and in this one, the villain's hat has been placed squarely on the head of Barker, the prosecutor and a former college baseball player. Barker doesn't write the laws in the books to the left of his desk. He simply punishes those who break them.

"We didn't want him to get the 10 years," he says. "We understand there's an element out there scratching their heads, saying, 'How does a kid get 10 years under these facts?' "

In Barker's eyes, Wilson should have taken the same plea agreement as the others. Maintaining innocence in the face of the crushing wheels of justice is the ultimate act of vanity, he believes.

"I understand what he's saying," Barker says. "I think he's making a bad decision in the long run. Being branded a sex offender is not good; but at the same time, if it made the difference between spending 10 years as opposed to two? Is it worth sitting in prison for eight more years, and you're still gonna be a sex offender when you get out?"

Barker is quick to point out that he offered Wilson a plea after he'd been found guilty -- the first time he has ever done that. Of course, the plea was the same five years he'd offered before the trial -- not taking into account the rape acquittal. Barker thinks five years is fair for receiving oral sex from a schoolmate. None of the other defendants insisted on a jury trial. Wilson did. He rolled the dice, and he lost. The others, he says, "took their medicine."

While Bernstein works on every possible legal solution, the Douglas County District Attorney's Office has the power to get Wilson out of prison. If the prosecution wanted, this could all end tomorrow. The D.A.'s office says Bernstein hasn't asked. Bernstein says she has. Not that any legal he said/she said matters. Only the prosecutors' opinion does, and according to at least one legal expert, prosecutorial ego is more of a factor in this case than race. The folks in Douglas County are playing god with Genarlow Wilson's life.

"We can set aside his sentence," Barker says. "Legally, it's still possible for us to set aside his sentence and give him a new sentence to a lesser charge. But it's up to us. He has no control over it."

The position of Barker and the district attorney, McDade, who refused to comment, is that Wilson is guilty under the law and there is no room for mercy, though the facts seem to say they simply chose not to give it to Wilson. At the same time this trial was under way, a local high school teacher, a white female, was found guilty of having a sexual relationship with a student -- a true case of child molestation. The teacher received 90 days. Wilson received 3,650 days.

Now, if Wilson wants a shot at getting out, he must throw himself at the prosecutors' feet and ask for mercy, which he might or might not receive. Joseph Heller would love this. If Wilson would only admit to being a child molester, he could stop receiving the punishment of one. Maybe.

"Well," Barker says, "the one person who can change things at this point is Genarlow. The ball's in his court."

Hanging On To Hope
Back at Burruss, Genarlow Wilson is standing against the wall, looking out through the glass of the control room, peering between the bars, watching his attorney and another visitor leave. He has had plenty of people who want to talk to him, including a group of concerned legislators who plan on visiting this week, which finally feels like a real step toward freedom. Problem is, they always go home after an hour or two. He stays behind.

The worst is when his mom comes. She visited on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, bringing him news of the outside world and a smile. She told him about the new house she bought, just over the Cobb County line, finally out of Douglas. She doesn't want him moving back there when he's released. Saying goodbye, though, kills him. He watches her go and is taken back to his cell, where he can just imagine her in her car, imagining him in this prison.


Tracy Smith/Special to ESPN.com
Wilson is facing another eight years behind bars if his sentence is upheld.

"When she leaves, a part of me leaves," he says. "I just have to get myself back together because we've got a long way to go. I try not to think about doing the whole 10. I'm putting claims on going home this year."

Hope is all he has left. He believes in a system that has failed him. He believes in those powerful men down in Atlanta. He believes in the kindness of others, and in the skills of Bernstein. He lets her work, spending most of his days in the prison library, reading all the books he can. Sometimes, he pretends he's a character, living in a fantasy world, not in a cellblock.

When the weather's nice, he can run laps around the yard, as if he's still on a football field, chasing down future first-round picks. The burn in his lungs feels like a time long past. It feels like freedom.

He looks through the windows just a moment more, sadness in his eyes, then turns around. Wilson stares down the hall of his prison, waiting on a day when he can go home.

"I've got a real good feeling about what's going on," he says. "I feel like 2007 is it. This is my year."

His mom has the house ready for him because any day now, her baby's coming back. She just knows it. Over past the dryer, that's his new bedroom. She picked it because it's close to the garage, so he could come and go as he pleases. She thought he deserved that.

Everything's set, in case it's tomorrow. She left the rapper posters rolled up, figuring a man would be coming home. She set out his football trophies and his high school diploma, to remind him what he used to be. She hooked up a television and a stereo. An alarm clock is on the nightstand, so he can get himself up for school. Even the bed is made.

The only thing missing is her son.

too much to read.

Georgia sucks.

That pretty much sums up the article.

indeed

could someone shorten this up for me? quick notes perhaps?

So Joey finally ran away?

Courts screw it up every day. I feel for the guy.

This kid was a good student/athlete. He had oral sex when he was 17 with a 15 yo girl. And now he's in prison for 10 years. "but because of an archaic Georgia law, it was a misdemeanor for teenagers less than three years apart to have sexual intercourse, but a felony for the same kids to have oral sex."

That terrible being punished for getting a bj.

Remember kids, always ask for ID before getting a BJ

This had nothing to do with the courts screwing up. It's the legislators and their knee-jerk supporters who push for these ridiculous minimum sentences because they want to appear to be "tough on crime" and they think judges are too "liberal".

The other safeguard that failed here is the prosecutor. who is supposed to exercise "prosecutorial discretion" to make sure that justice is done, not just blindly follow the literal letter of the law. Of course, that is now the exception rather than the rule.

I feel for the guy too. But the blame lies with the politicians who continue to marginalize the role of the court system, not the courts themselves.

I am trying to figure out which is worse. The idea of this kid being in prison for something of that nature or the fact that so many people can't sit for 3 mins to read the article itself but the take the time to ask others to explain it to them.

Scary on both accounts.

I was using the broadest sense of the word "court". Obviously the prosecutor screwed the pooch - he's an officer of the "court".

Kansas now has that law that states if a girl lies about her age you can still go to jail if they aren't 18.

I'm glad ESPN is publicizing this story. Someone needs to intervene on this guy's behalf cause he is getting royally screwed.

This kid needs to get the eff out of there. I hope the media gets ahold of this and runs with it. Probably the biggest load of bullshit I have read in a long time. I def. feel for the guy, insane what could've been for him if this didn't happen. I just hope he gets out soon.

This will get really reeruned when it does come up and they release him and some dumbass conservative/religious group protests his release.

3 minutes you must be a sped redder.

Seems Georgia is quickly becoming known for this...

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/01/21/at....ap/index.html

If this kid gets out soon, i could see this becoming a movie.

I am a little confused. Genarlow chose not to take the plea bargain that was offered because he did not want the sex offender label. Since he was convicted of the crime, he recieved the sex offender label, anyway. At this point, the prosecutor offered him the same plea bargain (which would have greatly reduced the prison time) but Genarlow again chose not to take the plea bargain. Why the hell didn't he take the bargain? At this point, what negative would there have been to accepting the plea bargain? Am I missing something?

People want to villify the prosecutor but, according to the article, the prosecutor seems willing to make the same bargain and, if I am understanding this correctly, Genarlow hasn't asked. Why would he not ask? It makes no sense.

By the way, the BJ wasn't just a BJ from a younger girlfriend. It was part of an underage orgy that Genarlow and his friends videotaped. He doesn't deserve 10 years, but he earned some jail time and the sex offender label, IMO.

I'm guessing he is trying to get his conviction overruled by means of the new law.

Although the new law says it doesn't include previous cases. He is trying to get his case dropped becuase the new law was based on his case.

Get the case dropped how? The new law says it's legal to receive oral sex from 15 year old girls?

If I'm reading the article right, it is no longer a Felony to recieve oral sex from a 15 year old when you are 17

I'm sorry the prosecuter and the state of georgia sucks big balls.

This part was the most disturbing

"At the same time this trial was under way, a local high school teacher, a white female, was found guilty of having a sexual relationship with a student -- a true case of child molestation. The teacher received 90 days. Wilson received 3,650 days."

I guess I am still confused... would he still be considered a sex offender under the new law? Because that was the stated sticking point for Genarlow, wasn't it? He did not want the sex offender label.

This may be the main reason

"If he had accepted the plea bargain, Wilson would've had to register as a sex offender and wouldn't have been permitted to live in the same house as his younger sister.

Wilson refused to admit to being a child molester. If he pled to or was convicted of any charge that put him on the sex offender registry, he couldn't live at home with his younger sister. He wouldn't accept that, so he waited for his trial."

I believe he wouldn't be put on the sex offender registry LIST if he gets out. I believe he still would be a "Sex Offender" technically......even though everyone knows he really isn't.

I'll have to go reread the article. You may be right though.

+1

Hopefully the power of the media can so some good for a change.

I feel bad for that kid, he got screwed. Never been to Georgia, but its plenty bass ackwards I'm sure.

In Iowa, as long as you are below 40, you can have a gangbang with as many high school sophomores that are 16 as you like. Why is there a double standard? I know the states have the right to govern their laws, but this is pretty much bullshit. Ten years. Ten freaking years. The two kids just got drunk on new years, and had some fun like most people do on new years.

If I lost the years between my 18th and 28th birthday that would be about 90% of your life that is actually worth living down the crapper all from getting a blowjob from a chick who was 2 years younger. Man, I am 23, and I did a 20 year old chick the other day. Damn, that was 3 years apart, I should go straight to the pen for ten years. Lock me away and throw away the key

Thanks for sharing. That's total bullcrap!

You can stick it the poon, but not the mouth? Well...what about the ass?

This is outrageous compared with the sentence that teacher got.

Hopefully the ball keeps rolling.

Exactly. Just like the idiots that wrote this law can go screw ppl half their age and that's all fine and good. If he was 1 year younger or she 2 years older, the state would have no case.

When we are young, a small disparity in age can be huge in terms of development (both physical and mental). As we mature the disparity between ages is diminished. A majority of the time, 20 is closer to 23 than 15 is to 17 as far as maturity.

Maybe I am a prude, but knowing the circumstances of the event has definitely altered my view of Genarlow. When I first heard of the story, I (mistakenly) assumed he received the BJ from a girlfriend. The article in the original post indicates that was not the case. These kids held and videotaped an orgy with 15 year olds. IMO, that is deviant behavior. Again, I don't think this guy deserves 10 years in jail but he earned some jail time and the sex offender label.

When you were 17, would you think twice about getting a BJ from a 15 year old?

"I'm not on trial here, Mr. SPchief, Genarlow is the one who did these acts, not me."

The fact that it was an orgy sways my opinion quite a bit. If it was a BJ from his girlfriend I would view it as much more benign.

To answer your question, in all honesty, I can say I probably would not have hosted, participated in and videotaped an orgy, especially with a 15 year old. I can tell you when I was 16 there was a 14 year old who had the hots for me and I completely blew her off because of her age.

As I said, maybe I am a prude? :shrug:

What punishment would you suggest for a 17 year old who hosts, participates in and videotapes and orgy with a 15 year old?

I'm guessing they didn't card everybody coming into the orgy.





Girls these days look older than they really are.

Well, I'd have done 10 years if I'd have been busted under similar laws. I know my old man would have done serious time even though he and my mother are still married to this day (she was well under-age).

I have teenage daughters and I'm just as terrified as the next guy, but the reality is that humans have been sexually active and even marrying in our early teens for all of history. I don't know why it suddenly became such a horrible crime in the United States in the past few decades, but it has.

I don't have all the answers. I can't explain the whole orgy thing. But I do strongly believe that a young man is having his life ruined for no good reason.

Again, it is the orgy scenario that changes my opinion. Unless you (Phobia) or your father hosted, participated in and videotaped orgies at that age then it isn't really a comparable situation, IMO.

Orgies with 15 year olds to me is neither normal nor acceptable behavior for 17 year olds and does not fall under the umbrella of accepting the fact that humans are sexual beings. I'm not stupid- I know teens are going to screw. I just think there should be some lines drawn defining what is and is not acceptable.

Any response to this question: "What punishment would you suggest for a 17 year old who hosts, participates in and videotapes and orgy with a 15 year old?"

I think it has alot to do with the extreme cases of child molestation, in which pre-pubescent adolesents were the victims, that have forced there to be a specific set of guidelines as to what is classified as illegal. The guildlines for statutory offenses seem a little harsh but there has to have been a case to warrent such strict guidelines...needless to say many laws and their guildlines are too general and leave no room for mercy or exceptions.

IMO bad deal all around...

Times are changing. Most 14-15 year old girls are either having sex, or giving BJ's

Are most 14-15 year olds in orgies?

Maybe I am just reeeeeeally out of touch. :deevee:

To quote an old addage:

"Sad, but true"

-Metallica

Why won't anyone answer this question, "What punishment would you suggest for a 17 year old who hosts, participates in and videotapes and orgy with a 15 year old?"

Oh my, MOST I missed that part the first time around...It's been less than ten yrs since I was that age...wasn't MOST back then... more like A FEW to SOME.

WOW :eek:

WOW tough one...I think he deserves some jail time, maybe some probation, definately fines and community service...that is... if it's not rape, but someone under the age of consent, right?

Do you think he should be labeled a "sex offender"?

I still don't know about the whole Sex Offender list...I am for it in the aspect that, I want to know if one moves in next door. But the Constitutional implications of it are "iffy" to me...

I believe in the ability for a person to change, and I also believe that people who are subject to having to serve time, and have to be "punished" after their sentances are up.

As the law stands right now, though, I would have to say "Yes".

IMO No. Just because it's such a blanket label. PPL will see that and assume he was raping kids. He was only 2 years older. Granted the orgy part is messed up, but he was basically a kid too.

I don't think he should have just gone free, but it's fair to say he's paid his debt and doesn't need to be deemed a pedophile the rest of his life.

I just see no reason why a community that he moves to will need to know this happened. He's not a predator.

Very good point...you've just made my position of "on the fence" more comfortable...

Also, I didn't read the whole article...Did they say what the other boy got? Was he a "minor" and therefore free to go?

This is so dumb that the court was unable show any discretion at all.

I have a few problems with certain parts of the article:

In Douglas County, according to law professors following about the case, admitting sins and begging forgiveness -- not insisting on your innocence -- is the road to mercy.

Does that seem to violate the 5th ammendment to anyone else?

And If Mark Cuban is so outraged, why is the kid's lawyer doing this Pro Bono? C'mon Cuban fork over a couple bucks to help this kid get out...

all the others went to prison as well.... the only other definate sentence stated in the article was about another football player, who got 5 yrs in prison with the possiblity of parole.

But he is out after 2 years IIRC...Because he followed the system of the system and took the ride they gave him.

This is aweful, is there a petition online or something? I hope this kid gets released and soon!

About time for a governor to step in and rectify the situation with a pen.

That's what Bob Dole was thinking as he read the story. A governor can commute a death sentence but he can't make this bullshit right?

yeah well, you're also ****ing stupid.

seriously, since when did being a senior trying to nail sophmores become some kind of weird deviant behavior.

the majority of kids have been trying to do that since time ****ing began. We've gotten so ****ing hysterical about protecting children nobody has any god damned sense anymore.

This sums it up best for me: It's legal in Georgia for an 18-year old to have sex of any kind with a 14-year old.

He had sex with a 15 year old, supplied booze, and drugs....if he was not an athelete, no one would give a damn.

Come to think of it, I dont anyway.

Well the little twist is that its no longer a felony. The law has been amended to a misdemeanor. But not retroactively.

No sir. If he had gotten screwed it would have been OK. He's in jail because he only got a hummer.

Seriously, that's messed up.

From the legal system, no punishment should be given for the sexual act. Looking at the ages 17 and 15, that is on average a high school sophomore performing the BJ on a high school senior. That happens a lot more than people (especially the idiot far right wing bible-thumping conservatives) want to believe and IMO, it's just not a huge deal. Kids that age are going to sexually active more often than not and no amount of archaic ridiculous laws are going to change that.

The kid should be punished by the legal system for the drugs and booze present at the party, I wouldn't have a problem with that, and the kid's mother should give him the whipping of his life for exercising such horrible judgment, but that should be it. He screwed up, but he shouldn't be locked up in the system for the 10 most important years of his life (and being labeled a sex offender alongside rapists and pedophiles is an absolute joke). Our legal system has taken a kid that could have gone on to get a college education and maybe make something of himself and completely ruined his life.

Her own mother has said that she (the daughter, not the mother....that's another story) is the one that initiated it. So, to answer your question.....none.

How about a punishment that fits the crime? 10 years? Pssh.

The kid who brought the video camera should be shot. Anyone who gets busy while they know they are being videotaped is stupid.
Was the bj-giving 15 year old slut white?

I seem to remember that she was. Real Sports did a deal on this last year.

Intersting.
Regardless of what they might say there are an awful lot of white folks who look at sex between the little white girl and the big black buck as a social and criminal offense. Not all of them live in the South.
Wonder if this case might have been different if the girl had been black??

Now we're shooting kids for poor judgement. Brilliant.

Maybe you should be shot.

One of the things that gets me is that everyone seems powerless to change what has happened even though 99.9% of people want it to get cleared up. That is messed up.

And to el borracho, no I don't there should have been any time involved at all. She initiated the act that he was convicted for and obviously was there voluntarily. The fact that there was an orgy has nothing to do with anything and if I read the article right, she was the only one who was 15. Heck, I have a friend who had her first child at 15 and then got married to the father. They are still married to this day and the child is in his mid 20's now.

Kids, remember....NEVER ALLOW PICTURES OR ANY OTHER FORM OF RECORD WHEN YOU DO STUPID SH*T!

Maybe the gal who blew this kid can go blow the governor to ensure his release (no pun there).

Kind of a full circle zen thing.

He didn't earn jailtime in the sense that he, in actuality, did nothing wrong on a moral or ethical level. I imagine he didn't take the plea bargain because he doesn't consider himself guilty. Smart kid.

My brother in law and his g/f had sex in the same room with his best friend and his best friend's g/f when he was about that age. That's technically an orgy, and while they didn't videotape it, I'm sure he could probably be prosecuted under some law, but he's white, so they don't really care. The fact is, "orgies" happen all the time with younger kids, and while you or I may not like it, it goes on.

There's an even larger question of how ethical it is for us to legislate what someone else finds pleasurable. Even though they're minors, they were still consenting people well within what people consider a "normal" age range difference.

Shit, if I'd been prosecuted for every BJ I got from a freshman or sophomore girl when I was a junior/senior in HS, I'd be in jail for a lot longer than 10 years.

Not "most", but it's definitely not uncommon these days.

It happens.

I didn't mean that literally, forgive my poor choice of words. My feeling was that if I got sent to the big house for 10 years because some goofy **** felt the need to video tape me getting head I would have some negative feelings towards the dude.

According to law, yes. It is unfortunate that he is in prison for 10 years, but if I was the DA I wouldn't back down either.

You have a 17 year old punk kid that admits to acting like a cocky star athlete, (even though his coaches said he was good, not great), that plans a party with hard liquor and weed, provides the drugs to a a bunch of young girls then lets a 15 year give him a BJ. He may not be a sexual predator or a pedaphile that deserves 10 years, but he is far from innocent and refuses to take any blame for his actions. The DA even offered him a plea bargan AFTER he was convicted, and he refused it. No matter how ignorant the laws are, what he did broke the law yet he continues to say that he is innocent when there is video evidence proving otherwise.