Atlanta: An unrelenting tough-on-crime law aimed at sex offenders sent Genarlow Wilson to prison on a mandatory 10-year term for having consensual oral sex at 17 with a 15-year-old girl.
Now — even after a state judge called the punishment “a grave miscarriage of justice” and ordered the former high school football star released — an unwavering prosecutor means to make that sentence stick.
Cheers went up on Monday morning from the legal team for Wilson, now 21, after the judge issued his order in the closely-watched case, and Wilson’s mother Juannessa Bennett wiped away tears as she called the decision “a miracle.”
But some 90 minutes later, the mood in the Wilson camp was sober, even angry, as Georgia’s attorney general announced he would appeal. Wilson, who has grown into a symbol for what happens when the push to crack down on sex offenders strays into the realm of teen sex, wouldn’t be walking out of prison Monday after all.
In his notice of appeal, Attorney General Thurbert Baker argued that Georgia law does not give a judge authority to reduce or modify the sentence imposed by the trial court. He said he would seek an expedited ruling from the Georgia Supreme Court. And he noted that a plea deal is on the table that would spring Wilson in a maximum of five years and keep him off the sex offender registry.
Not good enough, said Wilson’s lawyer, B.J. Bernstein. "It is really ridiculous when you consider that we had a judge that just said it is a misdemeanor that carries no sex offender registration,” she said.
Jubilant at the prospect of seeing her son a free man, Wilson’s mother looked stricken after learning of the appeal. “It’s heartbreaking,” Bennett said.
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