A judge is expected to rule this week in the case of Genarlow Wilson, the jailed Georgia man. Many legal experts and concerned citizens alike consider the case an outrageous injustice. If you agree, sign the Free Genarlow Wilson petition

A group of Douglasville, Georgia teens rented two hotel rooms for a New Year’s Eve party on December 31, 2003. The party attendees consisted of teenage boys and girls, including Genarlow Wilson, an honor student boasting a 3.2GPA and a standout football player being courted by Ivy League schools.

The morning after the party, a seventeen year old female complained to her mother that she thought she had been raped. The police were contacted and went to the Days Inn Hotel to search the party scene.

According to the legal document posted on wilsonappeal.com, the police found a video camera and a tape of several of the teens having sex with the 17 year old and receiving oral sex from a 15 year old at the party scene. After viewing the tape, the police arrested six young men, including Wilson, for rape of the 17 year old and aggravated child molestation of the 15 year old

The Douglasville Six, as they were dubbed, initially found strength in each other. Their parents hired attorneys, and all of the accused held strong and maintained their innocence. As pressure mounted however, the will to stand trial gave way for some when they signed agreements in order to reduce their sentences. With their admissions came the eternal tag of child molester, as they will forever be on the list of sexual predators.

Genarlow, being the only teen with no prior run-ins with the law, held fast to his innocence. Wright Thompson reported on ESPN’s website that “there was no ill will, no malice, no intent to commit a crime. After all, Michelle [the 15 year old] had arrived at the party tipsy; she’d been drinking Hennessy cognac that afternoon even before the party began. She voluntarily continued to drink and smoke with them.”

Thompson writes that “she had packed a bag, obviously with the intention of spending the night. She had also reportedly flirted relentlessly with the guys, including her old high school track buddy Genarlow. And more importantly, even Michelle’s own girlfriend, Natasha*, who’d also been at the party, told investigators that she had never heard Michelle say “no” to the guys”.

Genarlow Wilson was indicted by a Douglas County Grand Jury on August 20, 2004, and charged with rape and aggravated child molestation. After a five day jury trial, the jury acquitted him of the rape charge but convicted him of aggravated child molestation. The trial court sentenced Wilson on April 18, 2005 to eleven years with the mandatory minimum of ten years in prison without parole followed by one year on probation.

Wilson was a high school senior and age 17 at the time of his alleged criminal offense. He received a ten year prison sentence because at age 17 he engaged in a voluntary act of oral sex with the 15 year old female classmate. Again, no violence or assault was asserted or raised in any of the police reports or at trial as to the 15 year old. Wilson’s conviction for aggravated child molestation was based solely on the fact that the female was 15, which is below Georgia’s legal age of consent. However, the sex act in lay terms was “consensual” – that is, agreed to by both teens.

Due to the requirements of the statute, Genarlow Wilson received the sentence of ten years to be served in prison without parole and the requirement that he has to register as a sexual offender for the rest of his life. If Wilson had had intercourse with this same girl, he would be out of prison now because he could only receive a sentence of 12 months and would not have to register as a sexual offender.

We’re not talking about a young man engaged in illegal drug trafficking or armed robbery. This was a popular high school teenager who engaged in activities not so different than kids all across America. Activities not so different than the “hippy” generation that our country is so proud of today but gawked at in the 1960’s and early 1970’s.

This is not an endorsement for the use of marijuana (which the boys were said to be smoking) or underage drinking. There should always be consequences for poor decisions and breeches of the law, yet, this punishment is beyond excessive. Genarlow is losing valuable time while lawmakers fail to use reason and logic to see that liberty stands tall for this young man.

The leaders we rely on in this democracy have not done what is in the best interest of the Wilson family nor have they provided justice to the family of the young women. Because he has resisted what some critics call cohersion to plea guilty, income potential, post secondary education opportunities and critical social interactions are all at risk for Genarlow. At the ripe age of 21, Genarlow Wilson still sits in a jail cell like a hardened criminal clinging on to the hope of freedom and of course, his innocence.

Resources
Wright Thompson’s “Outrageous Injustice”
Wikipedia: Genarlow Wilson
WilsonAppeal.com
BlackAmericaWeb

State legislators voted Wednesday to award $5 million to compensate an innocent man who spent 18 years in prison.

The House and Senate unanimously approved the settlement with James Calvin Tillman, 45, who was freed a year ago after DNA evidence exonerated him of a rape in Hartford.

“I felt like everyone cared, and everyone understood,” Tillman said.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell publicly apologized to Tillman in February on behalf of the state. After the unanimous vote, legislators responded to their dismay over the legal system in this matter.

“I’ll never vote for the death penalty again,” Sen. Edith Prague, D-Columbia, told Tillman after the 33-0 vote in the Senate. “This did it for me.”

Sen. Ed Gomes, D-Bridgeport, called Tillman the most gracious man he had ever met.

“If this had happened to me, I would hate the world for the rest of my life,” Gomes said.

Tillman, the first prisoner to be freed through the efforts of the Connecticut Innocence Project, was said to have handled the compensation process graciously.

Rep. Kenneth Green, D-Hartford, a sponsor of the bill, said the $5 million, which will not be subject to state taxes, was calculated after a review of wrongful imprisonment cases across the nation.

According to Mark Pazniokas and Colin Poitras of The Harftord Courant, the settlement will resolve all claims from Tillman, who also had claimed he was the victim of medical malpractice while incarcerated.

James Tillman has been serving as vice president for ministry for the Hopewell Baptist Church since his release.

What the papers have failed to recognize in this case is that the Governor of Connecticut originally offered Tillman $500,000 in compensation for his wrongful incarceration…$500,000? That amounts to what would have been an annual salary of $27,777 over 18 years.

Now, I’m not sure what Mr. Tillman was doing prior to being falsely imprisoned but I would venture to say that $5,000,000 is a more reasonable compensation for having to give up so many years of one’s life.

The news of Tillman’s wrongful conviction begs the question, how many more men have lost their lives to a legal system that has been unjust to them? I’m sure the state Innocence Project has new life today as it continues its quest to use DNA and modern technology to exonerate accused men.

ABOUT JAMES CALVIN TILLMAN
[source: Wikipedia]

James Calvin Tillman is an African-American man who served 18 years in prison for a rape which he did not commit. Tillman, of East Hartford Connecticut, was convicted of kidnapping in the first degree, sexual assault in the first degree, robbery and assault in the third degree and larceny in the second degree in 1989.

The charges resulted from an attack on a white woman in Hartford, Connecticut that occurred on January 22, 1988. The victim entered her car in an outdoor parking lot at approximately 12:45 A.M. after leaving a bar. Her attacker opened the driver’s side door of her car and attempted to enter. When she resisted he punched her in the face repeatedly. The attacker then raped her and then ran off with her purse and jewelry.

Tillman appealed the conviction in the Supreme Court of Connecticut in 1991 (220 Conn. 487, 600 A.2d 738). The Supreme Court upheld the conviction finding that the jury array was not unconstitutionally assembled, alleged errors in jury instruction did not warrant a new trial and certain field notes were not improperly excluded from evidence[1].

Tillman argued that the jury selection was improper because court clerks had excused a number of potential jurors due to financial hardship. He claimed that the minority candidates were more likely to face this hardship and that this contributed to the fact that there were no African American males on his jury. The court noted that in a murder trial that drew from the same array there were three black persons chosen to serve.

Tillman also raised several issues regarding instructions to the jury. When considering the victims testimony he had requested that the jury be told that they “may consider…whether the witness was physically impaired or under stress when observing the perpetrator.” [2] The jury might have found the victim to have been impaired due to the facts that she had been drinking and that she had a large cut over her eye that required seven stitches and eventually closed the eye completely. The court instead instructed the jury that it could assess the victims “ability to observe facts correctly…degree of stress…and opportunity to observe the person.” [3] In addition he challenged the court’s decision not to limit his own contradictory statement to a police detective. The detective testified that he asked Tillman how he got some cuts and bruises on the major knuckles of his hands. The defendant originally said that he was not sure but later said that he did not get them from “punching no girl”[4]. The Detective had not told Tillman that the victim had been punched; however he had shown him a picture of the girl after her attack from which he could reasonably deduce that fact. Tillman was not allowed to raise this point on appeal.

The final argument in Tillman’s appeal was that the court had improperly excluded a notebook containing field notes from a police department social worker. The notes did not pass proper evidentiary requirements. Within the notes was a statement from the lead Detective on the case indicating that fingerprints not matching Tillman’s were found on the drivers side door of the vehicle where the perpetrator had entered. The finding was reported in court as being fingerprints on the passenger side door.

Tillman’s verdict was affirmed in 1991 and again in 1999 when he claimed ineffective assistance of counsel before the Appellate Court of Connecticut (54 Conn.App. 749, 738 A.2d 208).The main holding in that case was that counsel did not have to press every conceivable argument during a case but should focus on a few strong arguments[5].

In 2007 DNA testing was performed on semen found on the victim’s pantyhose. After serving 18 years of a 45 year sentence, James Calvin Tillman was exonerated for the crime that he did not commit. The testing proved that he was innocent. Tillman’s case was investigated by the Innocence Project which works to fee wrongfully convicted men through DNA evidence. The organization has helped almost 200 inmates prove their innocence. Over 60 percent of those exonerated have been black men convicted of raping white women[6].

James Tillman has been serving as vice president for ministry for the Hopewell Baptist Church since his release. The Governor of Connecticut offered him $ 500,000 in compensation for his wrongful incarceration. Several members of the state legislature have introduced a bill to provide Tillman with total compensation of $ 5,000,000 for the 18 years that he wrongfully spent in jail.[7].

On May 16, 2007 the Connecticut legislature unanimously voted to present Tillman with $5 million to assist him in living comfortably following his wrongful imprisonment. The legislature stated that they were touched by his attitude following his release.[8]

References
1. ^ State v. Tillman, 220 Conn. 487, 600 A.2d 738, at 489,490 (1991)
2. ^ id. at 500
3. ^ id.
4. ^ id at 503
5. ^ Tillman v. Commissioner of Correction,54 Conn. App. 749, 738 A.2d 208, at 758 (1999)
6. ^ Stan Simpson, Injustice Heaped on Black Men,Hartford Courant, April 7, 2007
7. ^ Colin Poitras, Judiciary Panel Cleans Its Legislative Plate: Modified Adoption Bill Voted Down,Hartford Courant, April 14, 2007
8. ^ Susan Haigh, Conn. to give exonerated man $5M, Associated Press, May 17, 2007.