The Genarlow Wilson case

Are there lawyers (or even judges!)who can speculate on this? Anyone?

Has Tom weighed in on this yet? I haven't had a chance to peek over there. (so many blogs, so little time...)

Dream a little dream of me.

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.