Sex In The Public Square - Genarlow Wilson - Comments

you're welcome

Elizabeth — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 19:53:52 -0800

It's good to have you back and when you get yourself reoriented I am really looking forward to your help getting that age-of-consent conversation going!

Thanks

JanieBelle — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:53:39 -0800

I'll need a few days to get re-oriented, of course.

And thank you again for the good news on Genarlow. Now we do indeed need to raise the issues involved in age of consent laws. Some of them are just medieval.

Time to talk about teens and sex -- again

Elizabeth — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 07:10:27 -0700

I posted a Wilson update on my Wordpress blog this morning indicating that there are still teens on sex offender registries because of consensual sex, too. It continues to amaze me that we would rather criminalize than educate.

Here's a link to the Atlanta Journal Constitution article that talks about Wilson's release and also about the other teens on sex offender registries: Genarlow Wilson is free but others are not.

Lets reopen a forum on teens and sex and age and consent, shall we?

Oh .... and WELCOME BACK!!

You know me well

JanieBelle — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 07:00:43 -0700

And your link to MSNBC now indicates that Genarlow has actually walked out of prison! W00T!

On the down side (there's always a down side, isn't there?), it's still a misdemeanor for a 17 year old boy to get a blow job from a 15 year old girl in Georgia. Better than a felony, but WTF? It's sort of a lesser degree of Stupid.

The outcome of this case

Chuck Gallagher — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 17:12:22 -0700

The outcome of this case will surely be decided within a week or two at the latest. But, beyond the minimum sentence issue, at hand, a larger question exists: what will Genarlow Wilson do to benefit others from his experience? Certainly, his sentence and incarceration has caused a law to be changed. One could say that is good. But beyond that, Genarlow is an example of a simple, yet profound, principle: Every choice has a consequence. As former inmate from Federal prison, today I share with business executives and young people that simple message: Every choice has a consequence. http://www.chuckgallagher.com And, while I am extraordinarily sympathetic to Mr. Wilson's plight, his example has helped other young people evaluate the power of their seemingly simple choices. As the founder of the Choices Foundation, perhaps Genarlow would consider stepping up and helping others understand the power of choice.

Thanks, Elizabeth!

JanieBelle — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 18:21:56 -0700

Wow, although I was aware there was a rape alleged, everything I had thus far read seemed to indicate that the alleged rape was the blow job in question.

The conflation of the two events is disturbing, but again as you say he was aquitted of that crime (whether justly or not) and it does seem that he's being punished in one instance for the act in the other instance in light of this.

Still, it is a very dangerous precedent. If he was aquitted, he was aquitted. He should not be serving time for a crime for which he was acquitted.

It is indeed disturbing however, that nobody was convicted in the rape of the elder girl, despite the video evidence. I think I would need to see the evidence to make an informed opinion on that case, but it seems the people who needed to see it did see it, and concluded there was not enough evidence to convict.

Now that the tape is being labeled "child pornography", it's quite the conundrum on that score for us, the general public.

So where does one go from here? Legally, it would seem we have no choice but to abide by the decision of the jury. I can't help but admit some internal unrest over this now.

After all is said and done however, he was convicted and sentenced for something that should never have been a crime in the first place. We simply cannot, as a law abiding people, punish people for things we know they did but cannot prove they did. The one case must be separate from the other. Otherwise nobody is safe from fickle and arbitrary prosecution.

One thing that gets to me...

Elizabeth — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:48:15 -0700

One thing that gets to me in all this, and you know I believe that Wilson should never have been prosecuted for that blow job, is that it appears a rape really happened that night and nobody was convicted of it, and that part of the story gets lost most of the time. The other alleged rapists pleaded to lesser charges, and Wilson -- who insisted on being tried -- was acquitted by the same jury that found him guilty of the child molestation charge.

A while back Pandagon had a piece about Wilson that referred to his essentially being punished for the crime they couldn't convict on (the rape). I suspect that's true. I didn't see the video. And as JanieBelle has pointed out, that tape is now likely to be considered child pornography. But I'm just as disturbed by the inability to get a rape conviction in a situation that people described as a pretty clear instance of guys having sex with a passed out woman, as I am appalled by the overzealous prosecution of a young man for something that shouldn't have been a crime in the first place.

Well, did I call that or what?

JanieBelle — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:21:23 -0700

The Atlanta Journal Constitution is reporting,

Advocates of a Douglas County man serving a 10-year prison sentence for having consensual teenage sex are pushing for criminal charges against the district attorney who prosecuted the case.

Two state senators, a state representative, a civil rights veteran, and the pastor of historic Ebenezer Baptist Church all criticized Douglas District Attorney David McDade at a Thursday afternoon press conference for what they characterized as his "overzealous" prosecution and subsequent mishandling of the Genarlow Wilson case.

Some of the group, all of whom are African-American, compared McDade's actions to those of Mike Nifong, the North Carolina prosecutor recently sanctioned for his handling of the Duke lacrosse rape case. They suggested McDade should be prosecuted criminally for distributing a tape of Wilson, who was 17 at the time, for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old. McDade has defended his actions, saying he was required to give the tape to anyone who requested it under Georgia's open records laws.

But the federal prosecutors' office in Atlanta issued a statement on Wednesday saying that the tape constituted child porn, and the possession or distribution of it was a criminal violation.

Cool Hands on Genarlow Wilson

JanieBelle — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 18:32:33 -0700

Cool Hands-The Prison Services Project Blawg calls for the immediate release of Genarlow Wilson.

A Little More About the AG

JanieBelle — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 06:37:02 -0700

In our local paper this morning is a bit of background on the Attorney General in the Genarlow Wilson case. It's off the AP wire.

By SHANNON McCAFFREY
Associated Press Writer
ATLANTA (AP) -- The angry protests that followed Thurbert Baker's refusal to release an inmate serving a 10-year sentence for a consensual sex act between teens was nothing new for Georgia's attorney general.
Such rallies were common in 1999 when Baker led the charge to prosecute state Sen. Ralph David Abernathy III, son of the civil rights icon, for misappropriating state funds.
For Baker, it's simple: The law is the law.
Baker, a Democrat, is Georgia's top black elected official, but he has repeatedly found himself at odds with black leaders and his own party. He vigorously defended Georgia's voter ID law, criticized as disenfranchising poor and minority voters; critics also have complained he has done little to stop Georgia's prisons from filling up with black youths.

The rest of the article contains nothing earth shattering, but worth the few minutes to read.

Born in '52 in Rocky Mount, NC, attended segregated schools mostly, graduated from UNC Chapel Hill, law school at Emory, had his own law firm, worked for the EPA, spent nine years as a Georgia state congresscritter, now in his third four-year term as AG.

"He's by the books, as straight an arrow as there is," Hodges said. "I've seen some people pull out the race card with him, but that is just not the way he operates."
Some black leaders said they were troubled by Baker's history in the Abernathy case and in the mail fraud prosecution of state Sen. Diana Harvey Johnson, also black.
"Those cases were nothing but political persecution and lowdown politics," said state Rep. Tyrone Brooks, an Atlanta Democrat. "Prosecutors have discretion and I would like to see him exercise that discretion a little better."
Baker, who is notoriously press-shy and rarely holds news conferences, declined to be interviewed for this story.

He's made his share of rather unpopular decisions as an AG, some of which are touched on in the article.

What I found most encouraging in the article was this, from the end:

A bond hearing is set for July 5 to determine if Wilson can be released during the appeal process. No date has yet been set for hearings on the appeal.

Dream a little dream of me.

Okay, Okay...

Elizabeth — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:26:41 -0700

Not quite the right choice of words perhaps! :)

What I meant to say is that I did divert a bit of Tom's attention by pestering him with questions about incorporating as a nonprofit, and about legal issues surrounding discussions like the ones we'll have here. So.

Perhaps we need a forum on the power of the unconscious? Any Freudians out there?

Me too...

Visitor — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 19:58:41 -0700

Now where were we?

Could you run that by me again?

JanieBelle — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 19:06:15 -0700

I'm sorry. I lost you after "I sucked away"...

Dream a little dream of me.

Left A Little Note

JanieBelle — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 19:04:09 -0700

I wonder what he'll think of this little gem I left him...

JanieBelle stands alone in the dusty street, six shooter on each hip, listening to the wind whistling through the alley between the bank and the cathouse. A bead of sweat runs down her bare back leaving a single trail of clean skin from the nape of her neck to the crack of her ass. Swinging doors on the Wagon Wheel Saloon bang on broken hinges and a four foot tumbleweed bounces by ominously…

Dream a little dream of me.

Tumbleweeds at The Free Lance?

Elizabeth — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:27:17 -0700

I'm afraid I'll probably have to take some responsibility for that because I sucked away some of his attention putting this site together. But, I'm afraid he seems to also have lots of other interesting and important things that draw him away. I think we need to poke him a bit on this. We could really use his insight!