If You Needed A Reason To Hate Georgia

ESPN has a good recap/update of the Generalow Wilson case, a high school athlete who was given a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison thanks to an archaic and since repealed Georgia law and the mentally stunted prosecutors who pursued.  If you haven’t the time, some of the choice bits…

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.

“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.

Sadly, the fact that the case has landed so squarely in the national spotlight probably makes it less likely that Wilson will receive any consideration from prosecutors since doing so would be an admission of their own idiocy.  Cases like this and the Duke rape case are strong reminders of the dangers of politically minded prosecutors, and a sad reminder that the best and brightest members of the legal profession rarely work for government pay.

ESPN.com – E-Ticket: Outrageous Injustice