aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South
Monday, September 25, 2006
Free Genarlow
Gregg Dobbs in the AJC today:
A young man who shouldn’t be behind bars is serving 10 years in a Georgia prison cell.
Your Legislature has even changed the statute that put him there, basically proving he isn’t the kind of person the law was meant to confine. But because he was convicted before the change, he’s still there, facing a lifetime of disgrace as a registered sex offender.
He is Genarlow Wilson, and his offense was having oral sex on New Year’s Eve a couple of years ago when he was 17, with a willing female classmate from Douglasville who was just shy of 16. [...]
While producing a documentary for HDNet Television, I interviewed Wilson at the prison in Forsyth. He doesn’t claim he didn’t have oral sex. As another sign of irresponsibility, not to mention immaturity, another boy at the New Year’s Eve party videotaped it. But Wilson says without shame, “Having sex with someone you go to school with and classes with, you really don’t know that’s a crime.” [...]
The Legislature’s true intent became crystal clear when it amended the law - making things tougher for real predators, but listing an act such as Wilson’s a misdemeanor.
Wilson and his lawyer aren’t asking to excuse sexual perverts from society’s sanctions, or to reduce the mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years, followed by perpetual placement on the sexual offender registry. They’re asking to excuse a student who committed a crime unknowingly ... a crime that the Legislature decided is no longer a crime.
