LAWFUEL – Law Newswire – A US judge in Georgia has overturned a ruling in which a 17-year-old man was imprisoned for 10 years for having consensual oral sex with a teenager, the BBC reports.
Genarlow Wilson, now 21, was jailed in 2005 for aggravated child molestation after he was videotaped engaging in the act with a 15-year-old girl.
The judge amended Mr Wilson’s felony sentence to 12 months for misdemeanour.
The ruling has not led to his release, however, as Georgia’s attorney-general has said he will be filing an appeal.
The case has provoked controversy in the US with high profile figures, such as former President Jimmy Carter, supporting the release of Mr Wilson.
In his ruling on Monday, Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson ordered Mr Wilson’s release and said he would not be required to register as a sex offender.
“If any case fits into the definitive limits of a miscarriage of justice, surely this case does,” he said.
“The fact that Genarlow Wilson has spent two years in prison for what is now classified as a misdemeanour, and without assistance from this court will spend eight more years in prison, is a grave miscarriage of justice.”
