Friday, January 26, 2007

ESPN.com's Wright Thompson writes stirringly about Georgia teenager Genarlow Wilson, who's two years into one of the most preposterous ten-year prison sentences you'll ever read about:

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.
And the saddest part (to quote a New York Times editorial from about a month ago): "Even if he could win an early release, Mr. Wilson could not go home to his family. He would have to register as a sex offender and would be prohibited from living with his 8-year-old sister."

There's a bill pending before the state senate that would grant the sentencing court jurisdiction to "correct" Wilson's sentence. I don't know Georgia politics from a hole in the ground, so I couldn't begin to guess at the bill's chance of passage, but the fact that it was sponsored by at least seven of Georgia's fifty-six state senators (and the fact that at least one of those seven is a Republican) has to be a good sign.

(Thanks to Deadspin for the ESPN link.)

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