ESPN effectively covers Genarlow Wilson’s sad saga

January 24, 2007

As of this writing, the front page of ESPN.com features this lengthy article on the Genarlow Wilson case from Georgia (which I blogged about at length last month). The piece is entitled “Outrageous Injustice” and carries this sub-heading: “Genarlow Wilson, honor student and football star, had consensual sex with a fellow teenager. What happened to him next was a crime.”

There are many intriguing facets and new details in this major article on Genarlow Wilson (and also many moving pictures of Wilson in prison). Here’s is one notable passage:

No one involved believes Wilson should be in jail for 10 years. The prosecutors don’t. The [Georgia] Supreme Court doesn’t. The legislature doesn’t. The 15-year-old “victim” doesn’t. The forewoman of the jury doesn’t. Privately, even prison officials don’t.

Yet no one will do anything to free him, passing responsibility around like a hot potato. The prosecutors say they were just doing their job. The Supreme Court says it couldn’t free him because the state legislature decreed the new law didn’t apply to old cases, even though this case was the entire reason the new law was passed….

The legislature still could pass a new law that would secure Wilson’s freedom, so [Wilson’s lawyer, BJ] Bernstein is pushing hard for that. One such bipartisan bill was introduced this week, pushed by state Sens. Emanuel Jones, Dan Weber and Kasim Reed. This is Wilson’s best shot. “I understand the injustice in the justice system,” Jones says, “and when I heard about Genarlow and started studying what had happened, I said, ‘This is a wrong that must be righted.’ Everyone agrees that justice is not being served.”

Here is another passage that spotlights the reasons why prosecutors are resisting a resolution that would secure Wilson his freedom:

Every story needs a villain, and in this one, the villain’s hat has been placed squarely on the head of [Eddie] Barker, the prosecutor and a former college baseball player. Barker doesn’t write the laws in the books to the left of his desk. He simply punishes those who break them.

“We didn’t want him to get the 10 years,” he says. “We understand there’s an element out there scratching their heads, saying, ‘How does a kid get 10 years under these facts?’ ” In Barker’s eyes, Wilson should have taken the same plea agreement as the others. Maintaining innocence in the face of the crushing wheels of justice is the ultimate act of vanity, he believes….

Barker is quick to point out that he offered Wilson a plea after he’d been found guilty — the first time he has ever done that. Of course, the plea was the same five years he’d offered before the trial — not taking into account the rape acquittal. Barker thinks five years is fair for receiving oral sex from a schoolmate. None of the other defendants insisted on a jury trial. Wilson did. He rolled the dice, and he lost. The others, he says, “took their medicine.”…

The folks in Douglas County are playing god with Genarlow Wilson’s life. “We can set aside his sentence,” Barker says. “Legally, it’s still possible for us to set aside his sentence and give him a new sentence to a lesser charge. But it’s up to us. He has no control over it.” The position of Barker and the district attorney, McDade, who refused to comment, is that Wilson is guilty under the law and there is no room for mercy, though the facts seem to say they simply chose not to give it to Wilson.

At the same time this trial was under way, a local high school teacher, a white female, was found guilty of having a sexual relationship with a student — a true case of child molestation. The teacher received 90 days. Wilson received 3,650 days. Now, if Wilson wants a shot at getting out, he must throw himself at the prosecutors’ feet and ask for mercy, which he might or might not receive. Joseph Heller would love this. If Wilson would only admit to being a child molester, he could stop receiving the punishment of one. Maybe. “Well,” Barker says, “the one person who can change things at this point is Genarlow. The ball’s in his court.”

Related posts on the Genarlow Wilson case: