Why Mandatory Minimum Sentences are EVIL

ESPN the Magazine, not normally known for its coverage of things legal brings us this outrageous story of a high school honor student and sports star now doing 10 years on a conviction for “aggravated child molestation.” Seems the young man was stupid enough to receive oral sex at a party from a girl, who everyone agrees initiated the encounter, who was just 2 years younger thna he was, but still a year under the age of consent. Under Georgia law, if the boy and girl had had intercourse, he’d have been charged with a misdemeanor. For some odd, stupid reason, the act of oral sex qualified him for the child mloestation charge (evidently the state legislature re-wrote the law, but refused to apply it retroactively). For some reason of politics or pure spite, the prosecutors chose to charge and prosecute an offense that they knew did not fit the facts. So much for justice. Let Genarlow Wilson pay the price for some pathetic prosecutor’s political ambitions.