Word: wilsone
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...recently as December, the Georgia Supreme Court rejected Wilson?s first appeal on the grounds that the Legislature had explicitly decided not to apply their legal changes to Wilson's case. In the court's opinion, Justice Carol Hunstein wrote: "While I am very sympathetic to Wilson's argument regarding the injustice of sentencing this promising young man with good grades and no criminal history to ten years in prison without parole and a lifetime registration as a sexual offender ... this Court is bound by the Legislature's determination...
...when leaders in the state Senate refused to hold hearings on a bill that would have set him free. In an op-ed he must surely regret now, Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson defended the legislature's failure to act. "Life comes with accountability for our decisions. Genarlow Wilson could have selected different friends to hang with...
...Friday's ruling made clear that it was lawmakers - not Wilson - who had made the most serious errors. "We must acknowledge that Wilson's crime does not rise to the level of culpability of adults who prey on children and that, for the law to punish Wilson as it would an adult, with the extraordinarily harsh punishment of ten years in prison without the possibility of probation or parole, appears to be grossly disproportionate to his crime," wrote Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears...
...What's striking about the decision to set Wilson free is the majority's reliance on the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Criminal defense attorneys often cite the language in seeking their client's release, but are rarely successful. In recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court has relied on the Eight Amendment to steadily chip away at the death penalty in recent decisions barring the execution of juvenile offenders and the mentally ill. But even the harshest prison sentences are rarely reversed...
...every step of the way, Wilson was offered - and refused - a lesser sentence in exchange for an admission of guilt. He refused to accept a plea before the trial, and refused again before sentencing. "I mean what kind of chance would he have in life, if he came out of prison as a sex offender for the rest of his life," said Wilson's mother, Juannessa Bennett, in an interview with TIME earlier this year...