Judicial reversal
A young Georgia man, Genarlow Wilson, was released from prison over the weekend after serving two years for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17. Georgia's Supreme Court was right to call Wilson's 10-year sentence "cruel
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
What happened
A young Georgia man, Genarlow Wilson, was released from prison over the weekend after serving two years for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17. The Georgia Supreme Court ruled on Friday that Wilson’s 10-year sentence constituted “cruel and unusual punishment” for the crime. Wilson, who was a star high-school football player and honor student, said he was “coming out a man.”
What the commentators said
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Genarlow Wilson isn’t the only one who should be “rejoicing,” said Donald E. Wilkes Jr. in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. This ruling “advanced” everybody’s rights, even if you view this case as something less evil than a racist prosecution of a black teen. The decision “corrected a grave miscarriage of justice and liberated an American citizen imprisoned in violation of his constitutional rights,” but it also gave “teeth to the important constitutional ban on imposing cruel sentences.”
This case also proved that judges are more than bureaucrats, said the Los Angeles Times in an editorial (free registration). They are “righters of wrongs.” Dissenters on the court said that reversing the conviction would amount to “tyranny of the judiciary” over the legislature, which reacted to the outcry by making Wilson’s behavior a misdemeanor punishable by no more than a year in jail without making the change retroactive. “But judges who free the wrongfully imprisoned aren't doing someone else's job. They're doing their own.”
Setting one man free doesn’t solve all the justice system’s problems, said Maureen Downey in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Wilson is not the only young offender caught in a maze of draconian sex laws.” And many of these young people punished under sweeping sex offender laws are serving a double sentence—fenced off from society by their inclusion on the registry of sex offenders for “non-violent and consensual sex acts” as teens.
It’s great that Wilson won’t serve any more time in prison, said the RedState blog. But he’s no “saint.” The only reason Wilson got caught was that he allowed his sexual activities to be videotaped. Yet Jesse Jackson compares “this young man to Jesus”? Any more talk like that and it will be time to write off Jackson as “a pathetic nutcase.”
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
The daily business briefing: September 28, 2023
Business Briefing China Evergrande suspends trading on Hong Kong stock exchange, oil prices jump to highest level in a year, and more
By Harold Maass Published
-
Boys from the Blackstuff review
The Week Recommends A 'powerful' adaptation of Alan Bleasdale's 'masterpiece'
By The Week Staff Published
-
10 things you need to know today: September 28, 2023
Daily Briefing Republican rivals clash as absent Trump tries to upstage debate, the Senate approves a formal dress code, and more
By Harold Maass Published