Genarlow Wilson Is Freed

Wilson was freed Friday afternoon, hours after the Georgia Supreme Court ruled in a 4-3 split vote that his 10-year sentence for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl and “the defendant was a 17-year-old high school student at the time and” amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment.”

The ruling brought to an end a 4-year legal battle that gained national attention and, like the Jena 6 case, raised concern about racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

Wilson was convicted of felony aggravated child molestation, which state law at the time called for a minimum 10-year sentence. The law has since been revised, making acts between teens relatively close in age a misdemeanor instead of a felony.

The State Of . . . the Wilson legal case is now over. While Mr. Wilson was locked up, the Georgia legislature also passed a “Romeo and Juliet” law that would make what Mr. Wilson and the young lady did legal. But recall what they did: The young woman gave Mr. Wilson and a group of other men oral sex while it was being videotaped at a party sans adult supervision. Sadly, it was the latter part-adult supervision-that was needed during this party and Mr. Wilson could have avoided this whole mess.