Case in Point: Genarlow Wilson

Here's a good example of how the poor get screwed by the legal
system in the United States. Now granted, this case happened
in Georgia, which is not exactly the United States. Georgia
is well known for its corruption and human rights violations.
It should be illegal for anyone to live in Georgia for no other
reasons than the cops are all violent thugs that make the criminals
look like teddy bears in comparison. Or am I thinking of Louisiana?

Genarlow Wilson was 17 when he was sentenced to 10 years in
prison for getting a consensual humjob from a 15-year-old at a
New Year's Eve party. Why this was EVER a felony in Georgia
is a mystery, but they changed the law to make it a misdemeanor
just two years into this kid's sentence. But the state attorney
general won't let the kid out. A judge ordered the kid released
but the attorney general wants to appeal the decision. He wants to
get the kid to agree to plea guilty to a lesser charge in order to be
released. The kid is fighting it and for good reason. If you are not
guilty, you should not have to say that you are to get released from
the joint, especially when a judge, several of the jurors who convicted
you, President Jimmy Carter and most of the country say you should
be set free and should have been charged with a misdemeanor -- at
most -- in the first place.

Let's be honest, if this kid deserves to be in prison, then so do most
of the people reading this. I did this exact same thing when I was
a 17-year-old. Hell, when you're 17, that's what 15-year-olds are
for. And when you're 15, that's the way you think of 13 and 14-year-olds.
And I hate to tell you what the 11 and 12-year-olds are getting up
to today because it would make you puke.

This is a good case to galvanize the American public though. Wilson
and the Attorney General Baker are both black. This isn't about race,
this is about power, poverty, politics, class and good, old-fashioned
American injustice.