This guy is really ridiculous. Totally.
Georgia’s attorney general confirms that he’s trying to keep behind bars a man who was sentenced to ten years in prison for consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17.
A judge today ordered the release of Genarlow Wilson, saying his 10-year sentence for a crime that is now considered a misdemeanor was a “grave miscarriage of justice.”
But Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker says he’s filed notice of appeal of today’s ruling. He says state law doesn’t give a judge the authority to reduce or modify the sentence imposed by the trial court.
The law in question – a 10 year sentence for consensual oral sex between a 15 year old and a 17 year old – is insane as is. But for Thurbert Baker to stil push for his incarceration is just sadistic. Genarlow Wilson does not belong in jail.
Take a look at the picture of Mr. Wilson. That’s why Baker and his ilk want him in jail.
http://www.wilsonappeal.com/index.php
I read about this case a while back. It’s an abomination that this sort of thing could happen in the U.S. Seriously… consensual oral sex between a 17-year-old and a 15-year-old? What is this world coming to?… I would’ve pushed for the electric chair if I was the attorney general of Georgia.
Who are Baker’s “ilk”? Other black Democrats?
http://www.thurbertbaker.com/
I live in Georgia and everyone I talk to agrees this young man was wrongly imprisoned. It is also my understanding that she was the one “performing”. The kid had no criminal history and was from all accounts an excellent student and decent young man. Being “tough as nails”, Mr Baker, doesn’t mean you can just be ignorant about justice.
I wonder what Baker’s aspirations for higher office are. This is the kind of shit that we expect from politicians looking to move up the ladder.
I live in Georgia, but in Atlanta, and most people believe this incident reflects poorly on our state. Teenage sex: You just been put on notice!(redneck accent implied).
Enlightened Liberal, perhaps you should become more enlightened and realize that Mr. Baker is an African-American before you start whipping out the race card. Jackass.
As for Baker’s decision, whatever one thinks of the law, Baker has an obligation as the Attorney General to make sure that the laws are followed. To say that he’s ’sadistic’ is to be totally ignorant of the situation that he is in. I’m sure he didn’t gleefully file the appeal, but what choice did he have? If he just let it go, how many other judges would reduce sentences simple because they felt it wasn’t right?
In this case, the legislature are the ones who should be chastised. While the law has since been changed, it was not made retroactive, which would give a judge the legal authority to reduce the sentence.
Jay, while I agree with the fact the legislature should have made it retroactive – doesn’t the prosecutor have discretion? I would think so. This is an extraordinarily severe punishment.
Wow! You mean negroes in positions of power never use that power to oppress other negroes for political gain? Great; now I have to find another explanation for Sambos like Kenneth Blackwell.
Right, and prerogatives like prosecutorial discretion are why we have our courts staffed with human beings instead of adding machines.
Jeez, OW, I can remember when your wingers used to at least try. After six-plus years of ‘Chimpie in Charge’, I guess they’re just phoning it in.
Jeez, OW, I can remember when your wingers used to at least try. After six-plus years of ‘Chimpie in Charge’, I guess they’re just phoning it in.
Their morale has been low since Frankie cut & ran.
My God – Me and most of my friends in high school would have jail records now if the man knew what went on between us and our girlfriends. This is just absurd! Why aren’t they trying to stop real criminals?
I thought the guy had to be 18 for it to be statutory rape. When I was 19 I had a 16 year old girlfriend and used to worry about sometimes.
Merl, you’re sick, man! Sick, sick, sick!
heh.
I live in metro Atlanta and Bridges is about right. From flaming liberals to conservative talk radio, the theme was how the punishment was unjust and how backward this law is.
And it may not be over.
Jay, while I agree with the fact the legislature should have made it retroactive – doesn’t the prosecutor have discretion? I would think so. This is an extraordinarily severe punishment.
Oliver, I don’t disagree with you on that point. I read about this case some time ago when ESPN covered it and the whole thing makes me sick. But your characterization of Baker as a sadist is off base because he cannot just allow a judge to do what he did, otherwise as I said, it will just be a green light for judges to do it whenever they want.
Wow! You mean negroes in positions of power never use that power to oppress other negroes for political gain?
The implication is that the only reason this is happening is because Wilson black and the ‘Enlightened’ one merely assumed Baker was white. Don’t get cute.
Right, and prerogatives like prosecutorial discretion are why we have our courts staffed with human beings instead of adding machines.
No shit sherlock, but Baker’s decision to appeal has nothing to do with prosecutorial discretion. Tell that to the prosecutor in the case. Baker is merely saying that the judge in this instance doesn’t have the legal authority to overturn a sentence imposed by a trial jury.
Jeez, OW, I can remember when your wingers used to at least try. After six-plus years of ‘Chimpie in Charge’, I guess they’re just phoning it in.
That’s funny. You spout inane drivel from a position of ignorance and try to yuck it up about ‘phoning it in.’ Educate yourself a little better next time.
So your extensive knowledge of Georgia law tells that Baker is correct, or are you just taking his word for it? Apparently the judge who gave the order disagrees with both of you. Given that you’re taking the side of the opportunistic Sambo, I think I’ll put my money on the judge who took the honorable step of trying to end Wilson’s nightmare.
Anyway, the letter of the law is not always mathematically concise. In other words, ‘rule of law’ often means ‘he/she who is ruling gets to decide what the law means.’ So this whole thing boils down to a political fight over which segment of the Georgia voting population is to be appeased: those who want to see justice done, and those who want the nigger to stay in his cage. If Baker were interested in justice as opposed to pandering to the racist voting bloc, he’d have publicly bent over backward (if necessary) to find a legally palatable compromise with the judge’s order (whether or not the order follows the letter of the law).
So OW’s point remains salient, and you are still a right-wing jackass.
Bad idea.
Can I pre-emptively implore everyone to ignore that wording and concentrate on the subject? Please?
Baker is merely saying that the judge in this instance doesn’t have the legal authority to overturn a sentence imposed by a trial jury.
The jury imposed the sentence? Maybe I’m not familiar with the peculiarities of Georgia law, but isn’t sentencing in the judge’s domain?
And I’m with you, Mr. Gently. Secretary, could you dial it back a couple of notches please?
Wilson did not deserve his 10-year sentence.
That having been said, there are appropriate legal avenues to pursue to reverse this injustice. If the judge in this case did not pursue those avenues properly to get Wilson’s sentence overturned, it behooves the Georgia AG to call the judge on it lest some unintended consequences occur because of the precedent set by this move.
Jay’s right. The Georgia legislature f**ked up by not making the law retroactive.
As I understand it, his 10-year sentence was a mandatory minimum sentence upon the jury’s conviction.
Nevertheless, between this case and the Duke case, attorneys general, district attorneys and judges should not be elected officials. Take away the elections, you take away the pandering.
GP,
The Georgia AG had and has plenty of roads to correct this injustice – at trial, on appeal, through commutation or by seeking clemency – that you are ignoring while claiming he should set this new judge straight on some supposed procedural error. He’s a sadist as he has allowed this injustice to take place at every step when he could have intervened earlier and even now. All of his actions have been one with keeping the kid in jail for having consensual sex as a teenager.
I wouldn’t expect Jay to understand, but a lot of us had sex as teenagers and … GASP … with other teenagers.
My guess is a guy named Thurbert never got laid as a teenager and feels others should be punished for his shortcomings. He’s a sick puppy in failing to act to stop and acting only to continue this outrageous sentence.
BTW – a judge on a habeas petition does have jurisdiction to determine if a sentence is constitutionally excessive.
As I understand it, the judge changed the charge on which he was convicted (which carries a lower sentence) and didn’t simply change the sentence (which was mandatory and thus beyond the judge’s power to impose a lesser sentence).
Also, an attorney general would not have the power to offer clemency or commute a sentence. And, to top it off, the Georigia governor doesn’t have pardon power.
I’m just amazed something like this went to trial. 2 minors doing something they pro’ly shouldn’t. Alert the media.
Dial what back? The man is acting the role of Sambo. I’ve read Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book, and I know the character in question. He was a slave who– for the favor of his white master, for a few more ears of corn, whatever– willingly brutalized his fellow slaves.
A black man acting brutally against another black man on behalf of a racist white power structure– hmmm…. I think the shoe fits. But if we want to be comically polite in the face of such injustice, would you like it better if I called him a Quimbo?
I’m sure Church Secretary was equally outraged when some white kids in North Carolina were railroaded by a white district attorney pandering to his black constituency.
Duros, it went to trial because of the rape allegation for which he was acquitted. The jury probably thought they were convicting him on a lesser charge.
Sec, I’m sure you’re aware that Sambo has other, less literary connotations.
At any rate, this: “A black man acting brutally against another black man on behalf of a racist white power structure,” makes your point more clearly.
I can’t help it if people aren’t aware of literature. And those ‘less literary connotations’ have roughly the same definition. Thanks for the etiquette lesson, but bringing knives to gunfights (especially during election cycles) is what’s led us to six-plus years of Chimpie. I’ll leave the turning-the-other cheek stuff for more appropriate situations; politically, it’s better to hit one’s targets with something more assertive.
I totally understand, but a word like “Sambo” is neither a knife nor a gun, it’s a broken hand grenade liable to go off in your hand and make you dead.
So your extensive knowledge of Georgia law tells that Baker is correct, or are you just taking his word for it?
Actually state law is cut and dry in this case. A habeas court may grant habeas relief, there is absolutely no authority for a habeas court to reduce or change the judgment (not sentence as Quaker The Picker of Nits makes a big deal of) of the trial court. Like I said, educate yourself.
Apparently the judge who gave the order disagrees with both of you.
And judges are always right. Cripes what a maroon.
Given that you’re taking the side of the opportunistic Sambo, I think I’ll put my money on the judge who took the honorable step of trying to end Wilson’s nightmare.
How is it honorable for a judge to act outside his discretion and to take matters into his own hands? It’s unbelievable that people would support such idiocy. Of course, if the situation were different and it wasn’t something that played up to your left wing sensibilities, you’d probably have a shit fit calling for any such judge to be impeached.
If Baker were interested in justice as opposed to pandering to the racist voting bloc, he’d have publicly bent over backward (if necessary) to find a legally palatable compromise with the judge’s order (whether or not the order follows the letter of the law).
Oh please. Spare everybody the melodramatic bullshit. This isn’t an episode of ‘Law & Order.’ But you continue to spout more ignorance because the fact of the matter is, Baker has brought together Wilson’s attorneys as well as the prosecutor in the original case to attempt to work out an arrangement short of the legislature doing something.
(not sentence as Quaker The Picker of Nits makes a big deal of)
Judge. Jury. What’s the diff, eh?
Quaker, maybe next time, instead of just automatically being a hard-on about something, you can ask first, ok? I’m so sorry that I offended your perfectionism by typing ‘trial jury’ instead of ‘trial court.’
you can ask first, ok?
You mean, like this?
The jury imposed the sentence? Maybe I’m not familiar with the peculiarities of Georgia law, but isn’t sentencing in the judge’s domain?
Thanks for the tip, Jay. That’s just what I’ll do.
So you’re telling me you really did not know? Is that correct?
Shorter Jay: That kid should rot in jail over a blowjob.
Justice on not, he should take what he got and like it.
Is that correct?
So you’re telling me you really did not know? Is that correct?
I had a hunch. But since I wasn’t sure, I did just what you later recommended. I asked!
Sorry you got your underoos in a knot about it.