[Peace-discuss] how easily the state wastes lives

[Ricky Baldwin]

>From NAACP...

Free Genarlo Wilson Now!
BACKGROUND
As a high school senior in Douglas County Georgia,
Genarlow Wilson had a 3.2 GPA and multiple offers of
football scholarships to competitive universities. His
whole future should have been ahead of him. Instead,
Genarlow Wilson has spent the last two years in prison
for the “crime” of a consensual sex act with a fellow
high school student. 
FACTS OF THE CASE 
•	At age 17, during a New Year's Eve Party, Genarlow
Wilson engaged in consensual oral sex with a
schoolmate who was three weeks from her 16th birthday.

•	Genarlow and 5 of his peers were brought to trial
for sexual acts at the party involving the 15 year old
girl. Genarlow was the lone defendant who refused to
accept a 5 year sentence as a plea bargain because he
could not bear to be labeled for the rest of his life
as a “sexual predator” for an act which was initiated
by the alleged victim. 
•	Because the age of consent in Georgia is 16, a jury
was forced to find Genarlow guilty of aggravated child
molestation. 
•	According to the Center for Disease Control and
Prevention, approximately 47% of 9th through 12th
graders have already had sex, and over 14% have had
sex with 4 or more partners. While these staggering
numbers suggest that perhaps as a society we should
take a greater role in educating our teenagers about
the risks of teen sexual behavior, unless we believe
that millions of our teenagers should be imprisoned,
Genarlow should not be singled out and forced to waste
his youth for a consensual sex act. 
•	At around the same time that Genarlow was sentenced,
a high school teacher was convicted of having sex with
a student. The white female teacher was sentenced to
just 90 days. Genarlow received a mandatory sentence
of 10 years. 
•	Under the archaic Georgia law, it was a more serious
crime for teens less than 3 years apart to have oral
sex than intercourse. If there had been intercourse
instead of oral sex, Genarlow would have been
convicted of a misdemeanor and received a much lighter
sentence. 
•	The Georgia legislature has modified the law to make
oral sex the lesser misdemeanor; however the law did
not free Genarlow because it was not retroactive. 
•	Georgia State Senator Emanuel Jones has courageously
introduced Georgia Senate Bill 37 which, if approved
by the Legislature, would give the court discretion
to, at last, free Genarlow Wilson. 
•	It is a waste of tax dollars to imprison Genarlow
Wilson for his victimless crime, depriving him of the
chance to earn an education and his own livelihood. 
•	The community and the State of Georgia would be
better served to have Genarlow Wilson in an
institution of higher learning than a penal
institution. 
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE 
•	The sentencing of Genarlow Wilson is evidence of a
justice system that is broken and more beholden to the
interests of prison-builders than to the well-being
and rehabilitation of individuals and communities. 
•	The NAACP seeks to free Genarlow Wilson today and to
call permanent attention to the fact that state
resources are squandered and the community pays when
such promising lives are ruined. It is time to rethink
our justice system from the ground up and make a
radical switch from punitive to restorative justice. 
•	Restorative justice is an alternative to the
traditional justice system which implements
consequences at the community level that ensure safer
neighborhoods, truly penitent offenders, restitution
for victims, lower recidivism rates, fewer families
torn apart and no lives needlessly sacrificed to the
blind and ineffective rhetoric of being “tough on
crime.” 
TAKE ACTION! 
1.	Visit www.naacp.org or http://wilsonappeal.com 
2.	Call, fax or write members of the Georgia
legislature and urge them to pass Senate Bill 37.
If you are a resident of Georgia, you can find your
state representative at http://www.legis.state.ga.us/ 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 
NAACP Field Operations 
NAACP National Director of Field Operations Reverend
Charles White, [410.580.5777, cwhite at naacpnet.org] 
NAACP Region V Director, Dr. Francys Johnson
[404.688.8868, francysjohnson at gmail.com] 




 
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