According to CNN, Genarlow Wilson, was released from prison late last week, after spending more than 2 years behind bars for a (consensual) teen sex 'conviction' in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Georgia Supreme Court earlier Friday ordered that he be released, ruling 4-3 that his sentence was 'cruel and unusual punishment'.
Wilson, 21, was convicted in 2005 of having oral sex with a consenting 15-year-old girl when he was 17 years old. At the time of Wilson's conviction, Georgia law made the crime punishable by 10 years in prison. The 10-year sentence was mandatory under the law. Gotta love mandatory minimums...
CNN reported that Friday's decision came after "a protracted legal battle that has galvanized international attention and drawn the involvement of civil rights leaders." Partly as a result of Wilson's conviction, state legislators changed the law to make such consensual conduct between minors a misdemeanor, rather than a felony.
"The release of Genarlow Wilson by the Georgia Supreme Court is a significant victory in redressing the reckless and biased behavior of the criminal justice system that now operates in many states across the union," said Reverend Al Sharpton.
"The bad news is that his young life was so unfairly interrupted with time that no state court can recover for him," Sharpton added. "This is why the Justice Department and federal government must review state courts that willfully and almost without pause violate the civil rights of people, particularly young black men around this country."
Genarlow was a high school honor student, a football star and his high school's homecoming king before being convicted of his crime.
Changes in the law made such conduct "punishable by no more than a year in prison and no sex offender registration," the Georgia high court noted.
The high court upheld the decision of a Monroe County judge. In a 48-page opinion, the court said the "severe" punishment Wilson received and his mandated sex offender registration make "no measurable contribution to acceptable goals of punishment."
In the decision, Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears wrote that changes in the law "represent a seismic shift in the legislature's view of the gravity of oral sex between two willing teenage participants."
"Although society has a significant interest in protecting children from premature sexual activity, we must acknowledge that Wilson's crime does not rise to the level of culpability of adults who prey on children," the court's majority found.
"For the law to punish Wilson as it would an adult, with the extraordinarily harsh punishment of 10 years in prison without the possibility of probation or parole, appears to be grossly disproportionate to his crime," concluded Chief Justice Sears' majority opinion.
According to reports, Wilson's plight drew pleas for his release, including from former President Carter, himself an ex-Georgia governor, and even some jurors who convicted him.
CNN also reported that Genarlow Wilson said he was looking forward to spending time with his family and plans to enroll in college.
Let's hope he goes to law school...