Genarlow Wilson Updates

In a good news/even-more-stupid news situation, Atlanta TV station WGCL brings us two updates in the Genarlow Wilson case.

First, yesterday the state Supreme Court reversed an earlier decision and has decided to expedite two appeals by Genarlow Wilson.

ATLANTA -- Genarlow Wilson will get a hearing before Georgia's top court earlier than expected.

The state Supreme Court gave no reason Monday for the decision to move the case ahead of the docket.The high court said it will hear two appeals next week from Wilson, who's serving a 10-year prison sentence for having oral sex with a fellow teenager.

The court reversed its earlier decision not to expedite the case. The justices initially had been scheduled to hear Wilson's appeal in October.

This is very good news, and I would hope that in some small way we here at UDreamOfJanie and Sex in the Public Square may have contributed to the public outcry over this travesty which caused the Georgia Supreme Court to pull its various heads out of its collective butt.

Second, WGCL is reporting that US District Attorney David Nahmias has declared the video tape of Genarlow Wilson receiving his blow job is child pornography.

ATLANTA -- A U.S. district attorney issued a statement on Wednesday declaring the Genarlow Wilson videotapes as child pornography.

This statement came just days after a CBS46 investigation raised questions about the distribution of the tape."The videotape at issue constitutes child pornography under federal law and should not be knowingly distributed, received, or possessed outside of law enforcement and judicial proceedings," said U.S. District Attorney David Nahmias in a statement released Wednesday.

Wilson was sentenced to 10 years in prison for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17.The videotape is of the party where the sex act took place and was used as a primary piece of evidence Wilson's trial.The statement also advised that anyone in possession of the tape outside of law enforcement should return it to police or destroy it immediately.

While this may have legal merit, I have to wonder if the real object of such a statement is to lay the groundwork for bringing further charges either against Wilson or whichever teenager actually shot the video.

This governmental hysteria over the sex lives of teenagers begs the question of whether the officials in charge should assess their own motivations and whether their obsession runs afoul of the very laws they are so fervently "enforcing".

For further reading, check out Elizabeth’s posts at Sex In The Public Square on WordPress or here at Sex in the Public Square.org

(Cross Posted at UDreamOfJanie)

UPDATE: It looks like if charges are brought for child pornography, the district attorney's office would be the first in line to be prosecuted for distribution. Talk about the irony.

The Douglas County District Attorney's office said they have handed out numerous copies of a home video taken the night Genarlow Wilson and other teens engaged in sex acts that would later land Wilson and five other boys in jail.

The district attorney's office said they are complying with the state's freedom of information act by handing out the video to people who submitted open records requests. But former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Brickman said the distribution is "unlawful" because it is video tape "of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct."

Other critics like state representative Mary Margaret Oliver said distributing the tape violates privacy and child pornography laws. "It’s not fair to the victim," Oliver said. She believes privacy laws trump the public's right to information in this case.