Oral Sex gets him a 10 year sentence

[Michael Tee]

I agree with domer, the proper exercise of prosecutorial discretion could have found a much more benign way of dealing with the "crime" and in any civilized jurisdiction this would undoubtedly have been the case.  Unfortunately you can't deal with this case in a geographical vacuum - - it happened in the South, and a more primitive and inhuman legal environment you are not going to find anywhere else in the U.S.A.   

Even after the last exit of prosecutorial discretion had been passed, I would assume the sentence itself could be attacked on principle, primarily the disproportionality of the sentence to any actual harm done (to a layman's sense of the issues) but maybe even technically on grounds such as the age of the accused, the lack of prior convictions, the relative closeness of age between accused and "victim" and absence of aggravating factors.

That the prosecutors would attempt to argue that the effect of a successful defence effort in this case would encourage similar efforts  on other cases in the state is appalling - - if the appeals court finds an unacceptable injustice in this case, is the state arguing that similar injustices in other cases would be better left standing?

[BT]

Are you aware that the State Attorney General , elected twice statewide i might add. who is vigorously fighting reduction in the sentencing,  is himself a black man? And a Democrat to boot.

Kindly stick your prejudiced view of the South where the sun don't shine.

[gipper]

Well, let me see who should shove it and whether the South is still a racial backwater (no matter what Uncle Thomas may pull the strings): on the one hand, the boy is doing 10 years for a blow job by an age-contemporary; on the other hand, the boy is doing 10 years for a blow job by an age-contemporary. Strange fruit, indeed, even if the head man is a fruit himself.

[Michael Tee]

<<Are you aware that the State Attorney General , elected twice statewide i might add. who is vigorously fighting reduction in the sentencing,  is himself a black man? And a Democrat to boot.>>

He's as benighted as the rest of them.  The fact remains, this backwards and primitive situation could and did arise in the South, the home of ignorance, backwardness, prejudice and inhumanity.  The historical record doesn't lie and all your twisting and spinning won't change it.

<<Kindly stick your prejudiced view of the South where the sun don't shine.>.

 I've got a much better idea - - kindly stick the South and every bigoted ignorant ass-hole in it where the sun don't shine.

[BT]

Well, let me see who should shove it and whether the South is still a racial backwater (no matter what Uncle Thomas may pull the strings): on the one hand, the boy is doing 10 years for a blow job by an age-contemporary; on the other hand, the boy is doing 10 years for a blow job by an age-contemporary. Strange fruit, indeed, even if the head man is a fruit himself.

This is what passes for northeaster liberalism. A black man states his conscience and you disagree and therefore he is automaticaly an Uncle Tom.

Randy Newman was right! It's all about "keepiing the Niggers down".

 

[gipper]

This is cheap-shit debating via which you hope to hide the fact that you are refusing to comment on the substance. And by the way, in context, whether the bozo State's Attorney knows it or not, my figurative language is apt. I mean, 10 years? I mean, prison at all? If there are unknown facts, like the use or threat of force, or a mental handicap on the girl's part, something bad and aggravating, please do let me know.

[BT]

And calling Thurmond Baker an Uncle Tom wasn't a cheap shot?

Alcohol and drugs were involved, Wilson was also accused of rape with a 17 year old during that same party, though he was acquited of that cherge.

Was the law as written too harsh? Probably, due to the closeness in age for this particular case. That should have been excepted. It has since been changed .

Does that automatically give Wilson a free ride? The courts will decide. The basis of theappeal that ten years for oral sex with a minor is cruel and unusual punishment is on shakier ground. Should the church altar boy scandals all be reduced to misdemeanors? That was the rationale behing the law.

[Universe Prince]

I agree with domer, the proper exercise of prosecutorial discretion could have found a much more benign way of dealing with the "crime" and in any civilized jurisdiction this would undoubtedly have been the case.  Unfortunately you can't deal with this case in a geographical vacuum - - it happened in the South, and a more primitive and inhuman legal environment you are not going to find anywhere else in the U.S.A.

Is Oregon in the South? Last time I looked, it was not. I only ask because I ran across a story just today about two young men, in Oregon, who may spend 10 years in juvenile prison and may be forced to register as sex offenders. What did they do you ask? What horrible act merits such punishment? While running down the hallway at school they slapped the buttocks of some girls. For this they were taken away in handcuffs to juvenile jail. Five days later, at hearing about whether the young men should be released, they were in shackles. Two of the alleged victims testified on behalf of the young men, who were released but barred from school and from contacting any friends on threat of returning to jail. The officer in charge of the case apparently would not discuss the case, but his supervisor said, "We totally support everything that has gone on in this case."

Here are a few excerpts from an article in The Oregonian:

The two boys tore down the hall of Patton Middle School after lunch, swatting the bottoms of girls as they ran -- what some kids later said was a common form of greeting. But bottom-slapping is against policy in McMinnville Public Schools. So a teacher's aide sent the gawky seventh-graders to the office, where the vice principal and a police officer stationed at the school soon interrogated them. After hours of interviews with students the day of the February incident, the officer read the boys their Miranda rights and hauled them off in handcuffs to juvenile jail, where they spent the next five days. Now, Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison, both 13, face the prospect of 10 years in juvenile detention and a lifetime on the sex offender registry in a case that poses a fundamental question: When is horseplay a crime?

   [...]

"The disproportionality of the charges is absurd," said Phillip Esplin, a forensic psychologist who has researched child sex abuse for the National Institutes of Health. "My question is, why this would constitute a sexual offense, as opposed to something inappropriate that should have been dealt with within the school -- not within the criminal justice system." To Rhonda Pope, mother of Christian Richter, 13, a girl named in the court papers as one of the victims, the charges are justified. "Slapping somebody on the butt is sexual harassment, and it is a crime," she said. "Considering what was going on and that my daughter was offended, it is a crime. And it's not OK."

   [...]

All told, Roache interviewed 14 students besides Cornelison and Mashburn. Seven confessed to bottom-swatting, including one girl who described it as "a handshake we do." Two of the alleged victims said they had swatted boys' buttocks themselves. "She will touch Cory after he touches her first," Roache wrote in the report. This second round of interviews took place while the boys were in detention. A day later, the juvenile court held a hearing on whether the boys should be released. The courtroom was packed with Patton students and families of both boys -- many were crying. The boys were there, too, in shackles and jail outfits. Two of the alleged victims spontaneously offered to testify on behalf of the boys. Under oath, they told the judge they were friends and did not feel threatened by them. The two girls also testified they felt compelled, during the initial interviews with Tillery and Roache, to say things that weren't true. "Well, when the (vice) principal asked me stuff, I kind of felt pressured to answer stuff that I was uncomfortable, and that it hurt, but it really didn't," the girl said, explaining that she didn't think anything sexual went on. The boys were released. But the judge ordered them out of school, required constant parental supervision and barred them from contacting friends. Any deviation, he said, would result in more time in juvenile jail.

   [...]

"This is scary," Tracie Mashburn said. "This is a child with potential who wants to grow up and go to college, and his life could be done now." Added her husband: "We'd all be in jail if everyone got arrested for this kind of stuff." Both families insist they will not take any plea deals and will fight the charges.

   [...]

Roache, the McMinnville police officer, declined to discuss the case. His supervisor, Capt. Rob Edgell, would not discuss specifics but said, "We totally support everything that has gone on in this case."

   [...]

Rachel Negra, Cornelison's attorney, called the initial felony counts from Berry's office "ludicrous." "These boys (were) charged with the same crime as a man who pulled a girl off the sidewalk and forced her to have sexual contact behind a bush," Negra said.

   [...]

If the McMinnville boys are convicted of any of the counts of sex abuse, they will have to register as sex offenders, which could have a devastating effect, [Julie] McFarlane [supervising attorney at the Juvenile Rights Project in Portland] said. "It's basically the end of their lives," she said. "Everywhere they go and everything they do, they will have to disclose this. And these kids who do these minor offenses have to follow the same sex-offender registration requirements as someone who brutally raped someone."

This is not an issue of Southern ignorance or bigotry, because obviously this sort of inanity is also happening in places other than the South. All that "racial backwater" and "Uncle Tom" talk has obscured the real issue at the heart of this matter. Yes, racism is a serious issue, but that is not the underlying problem in this matter. In the South or in Oregon or wherever, while stopping sexual predators is an admirable goal, the zero-tolerance, zero-rationality application of these laws does almost as much harm as it is supposedly intended to prevent. That is the issue that needs to be addressed.

[Michael Tee]

My opinion of the South certainly didn't come from this one case and I certainly never claimed they had a monopoly on ignorance and assholism.

This kind of idiocy, I guess, can break out anywhere, but I will say that it is certainly par for the course and surprises me not one bit when it breaks out in Georgia;  it is somewhat surprising to me when it breaks out elsewhere, as for example in Oregon.

[The_Professor]

It is my impression that the parole board can resolve all this easily by just letting him off the hook. I assume they are not doing so due to political considerations. Too bad...

[_JS]

First, not everyone from the South is a biggot or politically (economically, socially, educationally, philosophically, or behaviorally) "backwater." I find that line of thought to be insulting, to say the least.

I agree with Domer in that some Prosecutorial discretion needed to take place here. He was taken to trial and acquitted for rape of a seventeen year-old girl. Fine. That is a deserving case for certain. Yet, for consensual relations with another girl close in age? Prison time is ridiculous in this case and it is up to the prosecutor to note the idiocy of adhering to such a strict view of the law. Clearly (as the law's author admits) the spirit of the law was quite different than the rigid literal view. Of course, as Domer also indicates, the judge should have seen that as well.

A little common sense from those two individuals would have gone a long way to helping the state of Georgia avoid what must be a costly legal issue.

[hnumpah]

My opinion of the South certainly didn't come from this one case and I certainly never claimed they had a monopoly on ignorance and assholism.

Of course we don't. You've just shown that Canada has it's fair share.

[kimba1]

Wilson serving 10 years for consensual sex at age 17 with 15-year-old

10 years is abit much

but damn it the girl is 15 years old

that aint near legal

2 years in teenage terms is massively far apart
any kids who say different is lying to your face

and one of my pet peeve words is mentioned in that sentence- CONSENSUAL

it is illegal for minors to have sex-,throwing the word consensual don`t mean a thing
never did.

the only reason so many minors do it is because it`s not enforced very well.

it`s like hate crimes
it`s alwayus illegal but hardly enforced to prevent it.

[_JS]

but damn it the girl is 15 years old

that aint near legal

That really gets into a different argument. The age of consent in Georgia is 16.

[The_Professor]

First, not everyone from the South is a biggot or politically (economically, socially, educationally, philosophically, or behaviorally) "backwater." I find that line of thought to be insulting, to say the least.

I agree with Domer in that some Prosecutorial discretion needed to take place here. He was taken to trial and acquitted for rape of a seventeen year-old girl. Fine. That is a deserving case for certain. Yet, for consensual relations with another girl close in age? Prison time is ridiculous in this case and it is up to the prosecutor to note the idiocy of adhering to such a strict view of the law. Clearly (as the law's author admits) the spirit of the law was quite different than the rigid literal view. Of course, as Domer also indicates, the judge should have seen that as well.

A little common sense from those two individuals would have gone a long way to helping the state of Georgia avoid what must be a costly legal issue.

JS, I think it has to do with mandatory sentencing guidelines here in Georgia. I believe the Judge had no choice in the matter. I spoke to the District Attorney here about this case a couple of weeks ago at a civic function and he also indicated that the prosecutor had no choice to prosecute either.