aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Sunday, July 29, 2007

85% say no tojail for Genarlow. McDade tape details.

According to an AJC poll:

An overwhelming majority of metro Atlantans polled by the Journal-Constitution believe Genarlow Wilson does not belong in prison.

A telephone poll of 622 adults living in metro Atlanta on Monday and Tuesday found 85 percent of those who knew of Wilson’s imprisonment for having oral sex with a girl two years his junior - at the time he was 17 and she was 15 - think he should not have to serve his entire 10-year sentence.

Meanwhile, Editor and Publisher has AP details on the tape:

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Georgia—Those who obtained a sexually explicit video used as evidence in a criminal trial are warned that the video constitutes child pornography and should be surrendered or destroyed, according to a U.S. Attorney’s office.

The video, released by Douglas County district attorney J. David McDade to journalists and state legislators, is the center of a felony child molestation case involving Genarlow Wilson, 17 at the time, and a 15-year old girl at a 2003 New Year’s Eve party of teenagers. The video shows unforced oral sex between Wilson and the girl.  [...]

The Associated Press is in possession of one of the videos. According to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, David Tomlin, associate general counsel for the AP, said that although he found it unlikely that the AP would be prosecuted for possessing a copy of the videotape, it nevertheless destroyed its copy, since Tomlin said it had no further use for the video.

McDade released approximately 35 copies of the sexually explicit video to journalists and seven state legislators. Nahmias likens the video to contraband similar to seized illegal drugs and weapons and says it shouldn’t be distributed outside of the justice system. McDade’s position is that it’s part of the court record which is subject to state open records law. He claims he was responding to public records requests when he released the 35 copies.