Teen Sex Case Takes a Turn

Judge throws out 'cruel and unusual' 10-year sentence; AG plans to appeal
By Dustin Lushing,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 11, 2007 6:10 PM CDT
Teen Sex Case Takes a Turn
'   (Associated Press)

A judge ordered a 21-year-old Georgia man freed from prison today, ruling that his 10-year sentence for aggravated child molestation—receiving consensual oral sex from a 15-year-old when he was 17—was "cruel and unusual" and that keeping him incarcerated would be a "miscarriage of justice." The attorney general promptly announced his intention to appeal, stalling Genarlow Wilson's release.

In 2003, when the act occurred, a loophole in the law made oral sex a felony and intercourse a misdemeanor. Wilson has served over two years for a crime that is now a misdemeanor—but the statute is not retroactive. His conviction sparked widespread outrage, and his lawyer is filing for his release on bond pending the AG's appeal. (More Georgia stories.)

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