Word: wilsone
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High school homecoming king Genarlow Wilson walked out of prison a free man on Friday, thanks to an extraordinary intervention by the Georgia Supreme Court. In ordering his immediate release, the court ruled that his 10-year prison term - which allowed no parole and included lifetime registration as a sex offender - was "cruel and unusual...
...decision is a stunning rebuke for prosecutors and the state Legislature. Wilson, now 21, was convicted of aggravated child molestation for having oral sex with a 15-year-old classmate in 2003. Howard J. Bashman, author of the widely-regarded How Appealing legal blog and one of America's leading appellate lawyers, told TIME the order for Wilson's release was "very, very unusual." But Bashman added that Wilson's sentence was so outrageous that the most surprising thing about the 4-3 ruling was that it was so close...
...Wilson was seventeen, a football star and honor student when he was arrested in 2003. At the time of his trial, sexual intercourse between minors less than four years apart was a misdemeanor, even if one of them was younger than 16, Georgia's age of consent. But oral sex - legally considered sodomy in Georgia - carried no so-called Romeo and Juliet provision, and remained a felony in all cases if either party was under...
...That changed in 2006, when lawmakers dropped the distinction between oral sex and intercourse. But they refused to apply that change retroactively in order to set Wilson free...
...Meanwhile, Wilson sat in prison, studying for the SAT and, he told reporters Friday, never quite losing faith in the courts, despite repeated setbacks. And they were many...