LITTLE ROCK — The Georgia Supreme Court on Friday ordered the release of a 21-year-old man who was serving an 10-year prison sentence for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl at a time when he was two years older.
In a 4-3 decision, the court upheld an earlier decision by a county judge who ruled that Genarlow Wilson's sentence constituted cruel and unusual punishment under the state and U.S. constitutions. He was released later Friday.
Writing for the majority, Justice Leah Ward Sears said the state has an interest in protecting children from premature sex, but "we must acknowledge that Wilson's crime does not rise to the level of culpability of adults who prey on children."
Sears wrote that Wilson's 10-year prison term without the possibility of probation or parole "appears to be grossly disproportionate to his crime."
Sentencing guidelines for a litany of other crimes were evidence of the disparity in Wilson's case, Sears wrote. For example, she said, a person in Georgia could get ina shoving match, walk away, retrieve a gun and kill the other person and receive a manslaughter conviction that carries as little as a one-year maximum prison sentence.
Like the recentJena Six case in Louisiana, the cases highlighted complaints by civil-liberties advocates that the criminal justice system dished out harsher punishment for black youths.
Wilson's attorney, Brenda Joy Bernstein was quoted on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Web site as calling the court's ruling just.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice George Carley argued that the majority showed disregard for a new law, and that the court's actionwould set a dangerous precedent.
"Any and all defendants who were ever convicted of aggravated child molestation and sentenced for a felony ... similar to Wilson are entitled ... to be completely discharged from lawful custody ... ," Carley wrote.
Sears addressed Carley's argument directly.
"The dissent's concerns about the impact of today's opinion is unfounded," she wrote. "Today's opinion will only affect a small number of individuals whose crimes and circumstances are similar to Wilson's, i.e., those teenagers convicted only of aggravated child molestation."
In 2003, Wilson was videotaped as he received oral sex from the girl during a rowdy New Year's Eve party at a Douglas County, Ga., hotel. He was convicted of felony aggravated child molestation in 2005.
At the time, Georgia law called for a 10-year mandatory sentence for a male age 17 years or older forhaving oral sex with a girl under age 16.
Last year, the Georgia General Assembly changed the law, making the crime a misdemeanor that carried a maximum one-year sentence.
But Wilson remained in prison when the state attorney general, Thurbert Baker, determined that his case was not subject to the new law.
In appeals that factored into the state supreme court opinion, Wilson's lawyers argued that a man of the same age would face a far lesser sentence for having intercourse with a girl of the same age, based on the law, which frowned on oral sex.
Baker said he would acknowledge the court's decision.
"I hope the court's decision will ... put an end to this issue as a matter of contention in thehearts and minds of concerned Georgians and others across the country who have taken such a strong interest in this case," Baker said in a statement.
Information for this article was contributed by Darryl Fears of The Washington Post and Daniel Yee, Dorie Turner and Ben Evans of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 10/27/2007