In January, ESPN’s E-Ticket series wrote an excellent piece about a former football prospect from Georgia who used to give former Georgia Tech phenom Calvin Johnson trouble at defensive-back, Genarlow Wilson, who was put in jail two years ago for having consensual oral sex with a a 15-year-old girl when he was 17.
The main argument for Wilson, filed by his lawyers, stated that the mandatory 10-year sentence was “grossly disproportionate” to the crime.
For background on the story, read the ESPN E-Ticket piece.
For background on a similar injustice, read this piece by Bomani Jones years back, showing that the Georgia law books may need a serious dusting-off.
The reason he has garnered so much attention in the sports world is because allegedly in high school he would put the lock down on soon-to-be Detroit Lions receiver Johnson, a freak of nature in the sports world. When an athlete has sporting potential, they garner attention most average, non-athletic types could only hope for. At least in this case, Wilson’s story doesn’t seem as if he did a huge injustice to society. Again, the charge against him was one made so kids under 18 wouldn’t be sexually active. If every child having oral sex, or sex in general, was bound to do time, our future would be run from behind bars.
Other Links:
- Yahoo! News was the first place I found the breaking news on Wilson’s story
- Find the ESPN E-Ticket story here. Keep up with that E-Ticket series because that, along with Outside The Lines, seems to be the best journalism the World Wide Leader has going for them. (Although I do enjoy the occasional Page 2 columnist and sports beat reporters for the main-page)
- To follow-up with the trial, the following site was put together by supporters: http://www.wilsonappeal.com/index.php.
- A similar trial in Georgia was written about a long time ago by ESPN Page2’s Bomani Jones about a young athlete named Marcus Dixon.
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