Sharpton joins fight against prison sentence in sex case

ATLANTA — Longtime civil rights activist Al Sharpton headlined an energetic rally at the Douglas County courthouse Thursday in support of Genarlow Wilson, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence for engaging in oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17.

"Ten years in jail is not a correction," Sharpton, a onetime Democratic presidential candidate, told a crowd of elected officials, clergy and other supporters that county authorities estimated at more than 250. "It is wicked... It is immoral... And it is illegal."

John Bazemore/AP Photo (enlarge photo) Juannessa Bennett and her daughter Jaiya are comforted by the Rev. Al Sharpton during a rally Thursday, at the Douglas County Courthouse in Douglasville, Ga., to support her son Genarlow Wilson, who remains in prison for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17.

Wilson's mother, Juannessa Bennett, stood by Sharpton's side as he spoke at the entrance to the county courthouse, where Wilson stood trial.

"The case of Genarlow Wilson ... is a national issue," Sharpton said, "because if they can establish a precedent in Georgia, it will be a precedent that we will have to live with in California, New York, Oregon and everywhere."

"And as long as they can lock up her son," he added about Bennett, "they can lock up your son."

Douglas County District Attorney David McDade, whose office originally prosecuted Wilson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wilson's case arose from a drug- and alcohol-fueled New Year's Eve party at a Douglasville hotel in 2003. He was originally charged with raping a 17-year-old girl in one of the hotel rooms at the party, but was acquitted. He was ultimately found guilty of aggravated child molestation for receiving oral sex from the 15-year-old girl, a crime that carried a minimum 10-year-prison sentence at the time.

The 15-year-old's mother has said the sex between her daughter and Wilson was consensual. But the age of consent in Georgia is 16.

The Legislature changed the law last year to make similar acts a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail. However, lawmakers did not make the change retroactive.

A Douglas County Superior Court judge had scheduled a bond hearing for Wilson for today but then cancelled it last week, citing a law he says prohibits bond for people convicted of Wilson's crime. Wilson's attorney has appealed that judge's decision.

Sharpton also made an apparent reference to Attorney General Thurbert Baker, without mentioning him by name. Baker, who is African-American, is appealing a Monroe County judge's decision to reduce Wilson's conviction to misdemeanor and free him from prison. Baker says the judge overstepped his authority last month when he granted Wilson's appeal. The attorney general has said Wilson's punishment must stand to protect the law and keep hundreds of convicted child molesters behind bars.

"To those in office, particularly those who are in office because of us," Wilson said, before invoking the names of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders. "Don't walk over the bodies of martyrs and achieve a position of stature and forget how you got there and sit there in silence while your children are locked in jail with unjust sentences."

Baker issued a response through his spokesman.

"I have the utmost respect and appreciation for the sacrifices made by Dr. King and the other leaders of the civil rights movement who changed America for the better," Baker said. "Those leaders also believed in a system governed by laws because the alternative is a lawless society. I am doing no less than following the law that I have sworn to uphold."

Sharpton also drew comparisons between Wilson's case and that of former White House aide Scooter Libby. On Monday, President Bush commuted the 2 1/2-year prison sentence for Libby, who was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with a CIA leak investigation.

"If this young man's name was Scooter Wilson, he wouldn't be in jail," Sharpton said. "Since we don't have anybody in the Oval Office to deal with the excessive sentencing for him, he has got hundreds in the streets that will speak on his behalf because we understand Genarlow is not only her (Bennett's) son, he is my son, he is your son."

Jeremy Redmon writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. E-mail: jredmon AT ajc.com