This happened a few days ago but I feel the need to chime in briefly, considering we haven’t had a full follow-up to the Genarlow Wilson story since roundabout June. The racial implications of Wilson’s case cried foul and made many of us doubt the balance of justice in our country. Add in that the case involved two young people (under 18) committing a consensual sexual act.

This points out two things: (1) The country is in denial that younger people are getting sexually active earlier than ever before, and (2) Racial implications are as alive as ever… but this case proves that with a loud enough voice, some wrongs can be righted.

The Wilson story first caught my eye back when I was perusing through the sites of a few folks — Bomani Jones, Sports On My Mind and TheStartingFive — and took special note of the story of a kid who used to shut down Calvin Johnson (he formerly of Georgia Tech, currently with the Detroit Lions) headed to jail with a charge usually brought down on child predators. Wright Thompson has written an E-Ticket piece every step along the way for ESPN and surely this helped the national campaign to free Wilson. Here’s his latest E-ticket piece on Wilson’s new-found freedom.

I’m glad 4/7 of the Georgia Supreme Court got it right. This story got much more play because of Wilson’s run-ins on the field with Johnson and his football talent. Mind you, had he not been a football talent this wouldn’t have gotten the same mainstream media (MSM) play, namely from ESPN and the New York Times. So as much as we like to lash out at the media giants we have to give them some credit here when it is due. This isn’t to discredit or downplay the activities arranged by the Free Wilson campaign. But as we know the louder the voice, the larger the impact.

Few random resources:

• Wilson v. State of Georgia Wikipedia page
• Even Mark Cuban briefly blogged about the Wilson story and gave more links.