Judge Orders Release in Teen Sex Case

Jun 12, 01:31 AM

Current Headlines: A Georgia judge ruled Monday that a young man sentenced to 10 years in prison for having sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17 should be freed.

The judge in Monroe County also said Genarlow Wilson should not be required to register as a sex offender, CNN reported. Prosecutors immediately filed a notice of appeal.

Wilson was convicted and sentenced before the Legislature changed the law to make consensual sex between teenage partners a misdemeanor punishable by no more than a year's incarceration. The law was not retroactive.

B.J. Bernstein, Wilson's attorney, argued the sentence is cruel and unusual punishment.

This has been a really long 28 months, she said after the decision, fighting tears. It's a very long fight. And right now we have an order of release. And I beg the attorney general of the state of Georgia: please, enough. Do not file an appeal, please.