Errin Haines of the Associated Press has written a fine story about the rally held at Douglasville, GA yesterday to protest the treatment of Genarlow Wilson by the Georgia legal system.
Short version: Genarlow Wilson is serving a 10-year mandatory sentence for aggravated child molestation for receiving oral sex from a 15-year-old girl when he was 17. Regular sex would have drawn a lesser sentence, oral sex was deemed by Georgia law to be much more heinous. The law has since been changed by Georgia lawmakers, because of Genarlow Wilson’s case, but the state Supreme Court has ruled that Wilson cannot benefit from the change, because the new law cannot be applied retroactively.
On June 11, Monroe County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson ruled that Genarlow Wilson should be freed from prison and not be listed on Georgia’s sex offender registry. The judge called the 10-year mandatory sentence “a grave miscarriage of justice” that violated the constitution.
Attorney General Thurbert Baker immediately appealed that ruling, drawing criticism from civil rights activists.
The Georgia Supreme Court is set to hear the latest appeal in October.
Bernstein is also appealing Douglas County Superior Court Judge David Emerson‘s ruling that Wilson was ineligible for bond under Georgia law.
So there was a rally on Thursday. Al Sharpton made some sound-bite worthy statements. Errin Haines duly reported
“This boy is not only her son, he’s your son, he’s my son … We’re here today because what affects you affects all of us.”
and also
“If he had a different complexion and a different connection, we wouldn’t be here”.
For some reason, Errin Haines decided that this statement was less newsworthy than the others:
“If this young man’s name was Scooter Wilson, he wouldn’t be in jail … 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…”
Am I the only one thinking this was the money shot? And wondering why on earth Errin Haines would deliberately leave that out?
Sometimes you just can’t figure out why reporters make the decisions they do. Other times, you just wish you couldn’t.