OUTRAGEOUS INJUSTICE: ON ESPN FRONT PAGE - Page 12

BWillie · 01-24-2007, 11:01 PM

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.

KCChiefsMan · 01-27-2007, 03:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lzen

Then move to another country, dumbass.

oh really? you are really stupid, blind and naive. if that is your only argument....you don';t think I know it could be worse? this country is evil in a different way than others. You are probably some ignorant, uneducated **** that has 6 kids since you were 25 and are another good example of why I think abortion should be mandatory in this country. because too many dumb****s keep reproducing and having more and more worthless people around. Tell me to move to a different country, yes I am ashamed to be an American...and you are part of that reason dumbass....why should I be proud to live in a country surrounded by idiots like yourself

Mosbonian · 01-27-2007, 06:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by (Zach)

I guess I just don't get this sexually active = juvenile delinquent connection.

Then you aren't understanding what i was trying to impart.....it had nothing to do with your equation.....sexually active=juvenile delinquency

Are you telling me that there was nothing illegal going on there?

mmaddog
*******

Mosbonian · 01-27-2007, 06:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KCChiefsMan

oh really? you are really stupid, blind and naive. if that is your only argument....you don';t think I know it could be worse? this country is evil in a different way than others. You are probably some ignorant, uneducated **** that has 6 kids since you were 25 and are another good example of why I think abortion should be mandatory in this country. because too many dumb****s keep reproducing and having more and more worthless people around. Tell me to move to a different country, yes I am ashamed to be an American...and you are part of that reason dumbass....why should I be proud to live in a country surrounded by idiots like yourself

Gotta love a guy who doesn't think before posting....and whose short fuse to anger makes hypocrisy of his posting thoughts.

mmaddog
*******

HonestChieffan · 01-27-2007, 07:52 AM

This could degrade further but Im not sure how.

memyselfI · 01-27-2007, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Metrolike

Nowhere in the article does it say he was the one who got the drugs and alcohol. If you're referring to the consumption of those things, if every highschooler who had ever smoked weed or drank alchol was sent to prison, half the teenagers in this country would be rotting away in jails. I can't believe people are actually accepting this insanity. It boggles my mind.

It doesn't matter if he was the one who got the drugs and alcohol in regards to this conviction as he wasn't charged for that, was he? If they wanted to prosecute him on that then they should have done so. But for the purpose of this discussion, his providing the drugs and alcohol doesn't matter if they didn't make it part of his prosecution.

It's bull shit. To think if his johnson had just entered her vagina (God forbid sodomy) then he would have only done 2 years vs. 10. That is if he would have even been prosecuted in the first place.

It's an outrage that has gone past the prosecutors office. The GA Supreme Court is now an accomplice. And why the hell can't the Gov. pardon the kid.

I haven't heard, did the girls get any sort of punishment here? I mean it seems unfair for them to ruin these boys lives (all of them now deemed sex offenders) over consensual behavior.

**RNR** · 01-27-2007, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mmaddog

Gotta love a guy who doesn't think before posting....and whose short fuse to anger makes hypocrisy of his posting thoughts.

mmaddog
*******

The boy aint right! it is good to see he has moved on from the (you are white trash) reply he used whenever he debated someone.

jrowe · 01-27-2007, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by memyselfI

It doesn't matter if he was the one who got the drugs and alcohol in regards to this conviction as he wasn't charged for that, was he? If they wanted to prosecute him on that then they should have done so. But for the purpose of this discussion, his providing the drugs and alcohol doesn't matter if they didn't make it part of his prosecution.

It's bull shit. To think if his johnson had just entered her vagina (God forbid sodomy) then he would have only done 2 years vs. 10. That is if he would have even been prosecuted in the first place.

It's an outrage that has gone past the prosecutors office. The GA Supreme Court is now an accomplice. And why the hell can't the Gov. pardon the kid.

I haven't heard, did the girls get any sort of punishment here? I mean it seems unfair for them to ruin these boys lives (all of them now deemed sex offenders) over consensual behavior.

A basic understanding of the appeals process and the rights granted to the GA supreme court and governor provide and easy answer to why they haven't stepped in. They can't under the law. It gives the governor the right to pardon in limited circumstances and the court can only review certain aspects of the case to see if legal standards were violated in reaching a conviction. They don't have a magic wand to do whatever they want.

Also, the prosecutor is bound by his oath of office to prosecute all crimes that fit the criminal code without injecting his own personal standards. He was simply keeping his word to the people. Yes, there is limited prosecutorial discretion. This was exercised by offering a plea AFTER conviction - something that is unheard of. If the plea would have been accepted, with parole, it would only have been two years time, the same amount of time as regular intercourse.

This kid sits in jail due to a series of bad choices he has made and continues to make. Yes, his punishment is excessive, but he is not a victim.

memyselfI · 01-27-2007, 10:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jrowe

A basic understanding of the appeals process and the rights granted to the GA supreme court and governor provide and easy answer to why they haven't stepped in. They can't under the law. It gives the governor the right to pardon in limited circumstances and the court can only review certain aspects of the case to see if legal standards were violated in reaching a conviction. They don't have a magic wand to do whatever they want.

Also, the prosecutor is bound by his oath of office to prosecute all crimes that fit the criminal code without injecting his own personal standards. He was simply keeping his word to the people. Yes, there is limited prosecutorial discretion. This was exercised by offering a plea AFTER conviction - something that is unheard of. If the plea would have been accepted, with parole, it would only have been two years time, the same amount of time as regular intercourse.

This kid sits in jail due to a series of bad choices he has made and continues to make. Yes, his punishment is excessive, but he is not a victim.

Yeah, yeah, but there is more than just 'the law' going on here. The legislature made new law and then refused to make it retroactive. The SC voted 4-3 on the case down racial lines. Apparently, the prosecutor can ask for a reduction of the charges. He's offered 5 years. He's hunkered down and now, with all the publicity making him look like an embicil, he's probably not going to back down at all.

For some reason, everyone is sticking to the letter of the law. And yes, the young man made some bad choices that individuals his age make EVERYDAY. What makes this case unique and UNFAIR is that the individuals older and more experienced than he are making decisions they don't make every day (witness the lack of prosecution/conviction for similiar circumstances) and seem to be making an exception in this case to make a point.

When you have cowards hiding behind 'the law' to exercise other demons then it's quite difficult for an individual to learn a lesson about right and wrong.

Mosbonian · 01-27-2007, 11:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by memyselfI

Yeah, yeah, but there is more than just 'the law' going on here. The legislature made new law and then refused to make it retroactive. The SC voted 4-3 on the case down racial lines. Apparently, the prosecutor can ask for a reduction of the charges. He's offered 5 years. He's hunkered down and now, with all the publicity making him look like an embicil, he's probably not going to back down at all.

For some reason, everyone is sticking to the letter of the law. And yes, the young man made some bad choices that individuals his age make EVERYDAY. What makes this case unique and UNFAIR is that the individuals older and more experienced than he are making decisions they don't make every day (witness the lack of prosecution/conviction for similiar circumstances) and seem to be making an exception in this case to make a point.

When you have cowards hiding behind 'the law' to exercise other demons then it's quite difficult for an individual to learn a lesson about right and wrong.

So...should we pick and choose which laws we enforce and which ones we "let slide".....

I am all for leniency....but for everyone to act like this is common everday stuff and we should let is slide is outrageous. How would you feel about this if the girls were your daughters? Irregardless of whether they consented or not, this kid made his choice.

I'm not for having him in prison with all the worst criminal element of society. But this isn't as easy to gloss over as some has inferred in their posts. And he isn't the victim to the depth that this article is trying to portray.

Let me ask this....this kid, we believe, was drinking and maybe taking drugs. Just because "every teen does it these days" (and exaggeration if I have ever heard one) doesn't make it right.

Sorry...the more people post trying to exact sympathy, the less I am prone to exhibit it.

mmaddog
*******

Mr. Laz · 01-27-2007, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mmaddog

Let me ask this....this kid, we believe, was drinking and maybe taking drugs. Just because "every teen does it these days" (and exaggeration if I have ever heard one) doesn't make it right.

Sorry...the more people post trying to exact sympathy, the less I am prone to exhibit it.

mmaddog
*******

so charge him with underage possession ... i've got no problem with the police charging ALL OF THE KIDS present with an alcohol and/or drug related charges.

but they didn't that i've heard

they only charged him with a sex related charge ... one that is complete crap.

she was 15 ... but you gotta figure since she was in high school that she was almost 16 and he was 17.

estimate a difference of 17 months difference in their actual age.

no way should that be illegal

no way should his life be destroy because he is labeled a child molestor/statutory rapist/sexual predator and be on the sexual offender list.

he will never get a decent job ... be harrassed by every neighborhood he lives in.

any real quality of life he could have is done ... over.

Sully · 01-27-2007, 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mmaddog

So...should we pick and choose which laws we enforce and which ones we "let slide".....

If they didn't charge him for the drugs and alcohol... that is EXACTLY what these people did.

memyselfI · 01-27-2007, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mmaddog

Let me ask this....this kid, we believe, was drinking and maybe taking drugs. Just because "every teen does it these days" (and exaggeration if I have ever heard one) doesn't make it right.

Sorry...the more people post trying to exact sympathy, the less I am prone to exhibit it.

mmaddog
*******

Oh, I'm not on the 'everybody does it' side of the argument here. I'm on the side of trying to hold this young man accountable in the SAME WAY AS EVERY ONE ELSE in the same situation...which would mean not at all.

The prosecutor found an archiac law and applied it in a fashion that was meant for serial pedophiles and NOT first time offenders. Thus, this young man is NOT BEING TREATED LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.

My problem is that he's being singled out and not that he should get a pass because 'everyone else' does it. He should be so lucky to be treated like everyone else. MOF, if everyone else was a consideration here then this young man wouldn't have a concern because it wouldn't be an issue.

memyselfI · 01-27-2007, 01:48 PM

CNN is running a special about this topic tonight. Check your local listings for the time.

Hopefully with increased awareness will come increased results. And hopefully prison has not ruined this young man.

memyselfI · 01-27-2007, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mmaddog

So...should we pick and choose which laws we enforce and which ones we "let slide".....

I am all for leniency....but for everyone to act like this is common everday stuff and we should let is slide is outrageous. How would you feel about this if the girls were your daughters? Irregardless of whether they consented or not, this kid made his choice.

mmaddog
*******

BTW, if the girls were my daughters I think I would believe they deserved to be punished as much if not more than the boys. None of them were forced to do a damn thing and if you are 15 and allowing one, two, or more different boys to have sex with you within minutes then something is VERY wrong with you. MOF, I think the parents of these girls should be held accountable as well.

NewChief · 01-27-2007, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by memyselfI

Oh, I'm not on the 'everybody does it' side of the argument here. I'm on the side of trying to hold this young man accountable in the SAME WAY AS EVERY ONE ELSE in the same situation...which would mean not at all.

The prosecutor found an archiac law and applied it in a fashion that was meant for serial pedophiles and NOT first time offenders. Thus, this young man is NOT BEING TREATED LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.

My problem is that he's being singled out and not that he should get a pass because 'everyone else' does it. He should be so lucky to be treated like everyone else. MOF, if everyone else was a consideration here then this young man wouldn't have a concern because it wouldn't be an issue.

Actually, I believe the other people were charged. They just all plead out. He entered an innocent plea. Regardless, I think the case is a joke, but just want to be sure you understand what happened.

01-24-2007, 11:01 PM
BWillie Are you ready to Rumble? Join Date: Apr 2006 Casino cash: $-1418759	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.
Posts: 52,791

01-27-2007, 07:52 AM	#169
HonestChieffan Seeking the Truth daily Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: In the Country in MO Casino cash: $-1545691	This could degrade further but Im not sure how. __________________ "We read books for knowledge; We read the Bible for wisdom!"
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01-27-2007, 01:48 PM	#178
memyselfI CHANGEd your mind yet???? Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Lunatics Anonymous Casino cash: $10005234	CNN is running a special about this topic tonight. Check your local listings for the time. Hopefully with increased awareness will come increased results. And hopefully prison has not ruined this young man. __________________ Meet the new boss same as the old boss. BigChiefDave:"Anyone who thought we would only be in Iraq for a few years is either stoned or just stoopid." "It is unknowable how long that conflict will last. It could last 6 days, 6 wks. I doubt 6 mths." Rummy 2/7/03
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