10-year sentence for teen consensual sex is injustice, judge says

ATLANTA — A former high-school football star who became a national symbol for the extremes of getting tough on sex offenders was ordered released from prison Monday by a judge who called his mandatory 10-year sentence for consensual teen sex "a grave miscarriage of justice."

But the joy felt by Genarlow Wilson's family rapidly turned to disappointment as Georgia's attorney general announced he would appeal the decision, a move that will keep the honor student behind bars for now.

Wilson's sentence was widely criticized as being too severe, even by members of the jury that convicted him and the author of the 1995 law that put him behind bars.

His case became a cause celebre that grew from local blogs and TV stations to national news shows and editorial pages. More than 120,000 people have signed an online petition calling for his release.

Wilson was videotaped receiving oral sex from a 15-year-old girl at a 2003 New Year's Eve party. Under Georgia law at the time, the encounter, though consensual, constituted "aggravated child molestation." The charge was "aggravated" because in Georgia, oral sex then carried a more severe penalty than sexual intercourse.

In 2005, Wilson was sentenced to prison and a lifetime on Georgia's sex-offender registry.

The next year, Georgia legislators revised the law to make most consensual sex between teenagers a misdemeanor, rather than a felony. They rejected a bid to make the new law retroactive, though, and later that year the state Supreme Court rejected Wilson's motion for an appeal of that decision.

This year, a bill that would have allowed judges to review sentences meted out under the old law stalled in the Georgia Senate.

Wilson's attorney, B.J. Bernstein, spoke emotionally as she told the media of the latest setback.

"It is extremely, extremely disturbing that the attorney general would take this action now," she said. "I don't know what message he's trying to send ... I don't know who's pulling the strings here. I don't understand why smarter heads can't prevail."

The initial good news for Wilson came in a written ruling faxed to Bernstein's office just before noon. In it, Douglas County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson voided the 10-year sentence and amended the conviction to a misdemeanor of aggravated child molestation with a 12-month term, plus credit for time served. Wilson would have been released and not have had to register as a sex offender.

"The fact that Genarlow Wilson has spent two years in prison for what is now classified as a misdemeanor, and without assistance from this court, will spend eight more years in prison, is a grave miscarriage of justice," the judge wrote.

Less than an hour after Wilson's ruling, Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker filed his notice of appeal to "resolve clearly erroneous legal issues created by the order."

In a statement, Baker's office said the judge had "absolutely no authority to reduce or modify the judgment of the trial court."

When the judge's order arrived Monday morning, Wilson's lawyers applauded and hugged his mother, Juannessa Bennett, who wiped away tears.

"I just feel like a miracle happened," Bennett said.

After the notice of appeal, she looked stricken. "It's heartbreaking," she said.