Another Collossal Injustice that Makes Me Glad I Dropped Pre-Law in College

[DouglasMcc]

Okay, I love living in North Carolina. But after reading this story on ESPN, I am ashamed to live in the South. I know not everyone here is into sports. But an injustice like this needs to be pointed out and discussed:

https://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=wilson


I get that the kid was a little wild and confident. But if doing a little weed and accepting consensual sex is all it takes to turn a teenager into a felon ... well, half the teenagers in our country would be in jail. And, it just feels a racist to me ... I don't care what conclusions ESPN made about prosecutor ego. ANY TIME a black male gets 10 years for consensual sex with a girl only 3 years younger than him... while a white female who truly sexually abused one of her students get 90 friggin' days ... I can't accept his skin didn't play a role in it. I remember that South Park episode this year where the female teacher got out of charges for sexually assaulting one of her students by claiming alcoholism. I laughed, but deep down, I thought, "Come on... it can't be that bad." Well, apparently it is.

But what really disgusted me was the prosecutor's attitude:

In Barker's eyes, Wilson should have taken the same plea agreement as the others. Maintaining innocence in the face of the crushing wheels of justice is the ultimate act of vanity, he believes.

"I understand what he's saying," Barker says. "I think he's making a bad decision in the long run. Being branded a sex offender is not good; but at the same time, if it made the difference between spending 10 years as opposed to two? Is it worth sitting in prison for eight more years, and you're still gonna be a sex offender when you get out?" "

We teach our children to be strong, to tell the truth, and above all else, be true to themselves. And this human piece of excrement mocks him for standing up for his innocence? Then mocks him again by saying he "should have taken his medicine" and ""We can set aside his sentence," Barker says. "Legally, it's still possible for us to set aside his sentence and give him a new sentence to a lesser charge. But it's up to us. He has no control over it." So, our grand legal system has been reduced to the moral equivalent of Kneel before Zodd? This guy makes Mike Nifong look like an altar boy.

 

[King Darkness]

What a crock of s**t!!!!! This is a prime example of whats wrong with our legal system

 

[Vader AL]

i think this is a case where the jury should have done what was right and ignore a stupid a$$ law, then there's no problem.

 

[pixletwin]

I doubt the ruling will hold in the long run. Still goes to show what a double standard the law holds people to.

 

[King Darkness]

Be the bigger man

Everyone knows that Dannie is only 4 feet tall, so hes never the bigger man

 

[Bannister]

I dont think this has had or will have or needs to have or should have or can have anything to do with the Kurgans as a whole.

But I do love a good internet pissing match, so by all means continue

Oh and to get back on topic, that story is seriously messed up. What the hell is wrong with people? Yeah the kid may have used poor judgement putting himself in that situation, but he shouldn't lose 10 years of his life over it. Plus if I read the article correctly he didn't do anything. The girl did everything.

 

[El Roranous]

I agree, the whole situation is terrible. Not to belittle the story but this should be a lesson for all to learn- never record yourself doing something stupid!

 

[pixletwin]

Oh and to get back on topic, that story is seriously messed up. What the hell is wrong with people? Yeah the kid may have used poor judgement putting himself in that situation, but he shouldn't lose 10 years of his life over it. Plus if I read the article correctly he didn't do anything. The girl did everything.

Yup Sadly I don't think this is anything new but is just another example of the status quo. I knew a guy who went to jail for blowing up a poice car and throwing maltov ****tails at banks and he only did about 9 months in jail (He was 16 at the time but was even tried as an adult). At the same time one of my brothers budies (who was black) sold some marajuana and got 2 - 5 years.

Its a messed up world we live in kids.

 

[DannieDarKo]

Very interesting article. The situation is definetly a rock and a hard place.

Douglas I have no beef with you but its great to see someone get all rioted up.

Divine order may now be established.

 

[King Darkness]

Yup Sadly I don't think this is anything new but is just another example of the status quo. I knew a guy who went to jail for blowing up a poice car and throwing maltov ****tails at banks and he only did about 9 months in jail (He was 16 at the time but was even tried as an adult). At the same time one of my brothers budies (who was black) sold some marajuana and got 2 - 5 years.

Its a messed up world we live in kids.

Aint that the truth. A friend of mine got killed a few years ago. The guy who did went to my friends house, provoked him, started a fight with him and eventually stabbed him and killed him. Seems like an open and shut case of murder, right?

Well since my friend was twice the size of him, and was beating the **** out of him they pled it down and gave him 5 years unsupervised probation! For killing someone!

 

[The ill Jedi]

I read the story, this situation sucks A$$! I really hope that his lawyer and all the attention this story is getting may in some small way sway some opinions towards righting such a gross injustice. My prayers are with Genarlow Wilson in hopes that he may someday soon regain his life.

 

[DouglasMcc]

I wasn't kidding about dropping Pre-Law in college. I declared my major and took the intro classes. But I just couldn't take the stupidity of our legal system. Now, don't get me wrong. Ours is great compared to many other countries. But for me, the "lesser of 2 evils" just isn't good enough. I remember how the whole "McDonald's coffee was hot and burned me" lawsuit popped up at the time and we studied it for an assignment. The fact that a jury would reward a person for being clumsy was just beyond my young naive mind at the time. Then we studied a case that really occurred at one of the local Hospitals. An adult man overdosed on drugs (PCP if memory serves me) then severed his penis because "it was possessed by the devil." He took the penis to the hospital with him, but refused to let them re-attach it. He became openly paranoid and threatened to run or, worse, hurt someone if they did anything other than treat the wound/stop the bleeding. In the interest of saving his life, they did just that. Well, as you can imagine, when he came to his senses a day or 2 later, he regretted the decision However, by then, the tissues and blood vessels had deteriorated too much. Long story short, he sued claiming it was their fault since he was "incapacitated" and a jury awarded him a large cash settlement. Crap like that killed my interest in the law.

Now, this case, when combined with the Duke lacrosse case prosecutor cluster##ck that is occurring in my home state ... it all just reinforces those feelings. Look at it this way. I am a Tar Heel graduate, and as such, I hate Duke with a passion. If Satan pulled one of those South Park stunts and rose to the Earth with a group of the worse murders in the history of mankind to play the Duke team in a basketball game (think the old Harlem Globetrotters cartoon, just directed by David Fincher ), I would still have a hard time pulling for Duke. Well, even I feel like the Duke players are getting railroaded in that case. And if you can't convince me that Duke is bad ... well, you are in REAL trouble.

The above case just goes to show us how far from true democracy our country really is. Sure, it may be the best there is ... but sometimes that's not enough. How can every single party involved in this go on record as saying its wrong ... then refuse to do anything about it? "Passing the buck" is going to rob an innocent young man of his prime years ... and something tells me 10 years in prison is going to change.. to corrupt his outlook on life. How could any society ... even in the good ol' South allow that to happen. The worse offense in life is to see an injustice and do nothing to stop it.

 

[Giant Chicken]

That story really bummed me out! I feel terrible for the guy.

 

[DannieDarKo]

It may be bias. Maybe he did rape her....the news on tv, newspaper, and yes even the internet are not always right. We will never know what really happened unless we were there to witness it.


You don't like my opinion......BITE ME!!

 

[PosterBoyKelly]

Seems like bull crap, BUT I don't trust ESPN, or any other media source, to give me the unbiased facts, so I'll have to reserve judgment completely. I'll say this, A- I don't think his charges were racially motivated, B- It just seems like a bunch of stupid law makers and judges "making an example." But I really can't say what I think because I'm sure that there are elements missing from the story due to the 1 sidedness of the media monster we so faithfully trust.

A quick thing I heard about this case, even the judge didn't agree with the sentence, but I think it's illegal to change the law in the middle of a case like this and so it had to go on and they had to follow the law. Again, not that I agree with that, but I've seen other examples of things like this happening, NOT IN THE SOUTH and to people of other races. So I still am very doubtful this had anything to do with his race.

 

[DouglasMcc]

It may be bias. Maybe he did rape her....the news on tv, newspaper, and yes even the internet are not always right. We will never know what really happened unless we were there to witness it.


You don't like my opinion......BITE ME!!

Not trying to argue your opinion, as you have every right to it. However, I have read 3 different articles now that all state that the accuser finally admitted she lied about the rape. The rape charge wasn't even the girl involved in the oral sex, it was another 17 year old girl who decided to take turns with the different guys and paniced when she work up in the morning. She testified that she lied about the rape charges out of fear. The rape charge was dropped before the trail even began. Wilson is in jail for receiving oral sex (and nothing more) from a female who both iniated and then admitted to initiating the sexual act. Yes, she was 15, but he was only 17 so I don't see how he is a "child molestor". Heck, in my opinion, he was as much a child as she was. Both ABC, CBS, and ESPN have reported on this case and came to similar conclusions so I personally doubt liberal bias. And, if it was false or slander, why haven't the prosecutors and other state lawyers filed lawsuits of their own?

 

[pixletwin]

...Heck, in my opinion, he was as much a child as she was. Both ABC, CBS, and ESPN have reported on this case and came to similar conclusions so I personally doubt liberal bias. And, if it was false or slander, why haven't the prosecutors and other state lawyers filed lawsuits of their own?

Bingo. I would be quite surprised if the sentence was revoked by a higher court (that can happen can't it?). I hope he has a good defense team. If they make enough noise, I am sure he won't serve nearly so much of his sentence.

 

[DouglasMcc]

Seems like bull crap, BUT I don't trust ESPN, or any other media source, to give me the unbiased facts, so I'll have to reserve judgment completely. I'll say this, A- I don't think his charges were racially motivated, B- It just seems like a bunch of stupid law makers and judges "making an example." But I really can't say what I think because I'm sure that there are elements missing from the story due to the 1 sidedness of the media monster we so faithfully trust.

A quick thing I heard about this case, even the judge didn't agree with the sentence, but I think it's illegal to change the law in the middle of a case like this and so it had to go on and they had to follow the law. Again, not that I agree with that, but I've seen other examples of things like this happening, NOT IN THE SOUTH and to people of other races. So I still am very doubtful this had anything to do with his race.

I am sorry but there is some kind of bias/prejudice at work here. Okay, maybe its not race related. My gut feelings tend to point that way, but I am willing to hypothesize that it wasn't. However, that still doesn't explain how a middle aged white woman could have actual intercourse with one of her high school students, and get a 3 month sentence. Then at the same time, a young black male gets 10 years for oral sex from a girl in his age bracket. If its not racism, then its sexism or classism or some form of prejudice. Because there is not other reason to explain the hypocricy of that giant gap in sentence.

My main problem seems to be everyone involved is using the same excuse: "Well, I knew it was wrong, but what could I do... its the law. I was just doing my job." That sounds eerily familiar to what the German guards at Auschwitz said in their defense. Now, before I get flammed, I realize Aushwitz was 100% worse than this case. I am not trying to trivialize it or its horrors. However, its the best example of a group of people going along with evil because "it's just my job." The same thing is true in the small scale of this case. The jury's perspective is understandable, even if I don't agree. They were told, If A leads to B, you have to convict no matter how much you disagree with the path. They felt compelled to do that. Personally, I would have been that one person who said, "no, this isn't right. I won't agree to this." But the attitude of the prosecutors and state legislature is atrocious. The statement about sticking up for your innocence in front of the crushing wheel of justice being vanity was pure vile. It was an affront to everything our founding fathers intended with the Constitution. These lawmen could have shown moral fortitude and gone by the spirit of the law, not the word. But they chose the easy way out. And now a young man must pay for their laziness with the prime years of his life.

 

[PosterBoyKelly]

. However, that still doesn't explain how a middle aged white woman could have actual intercourse with one of her high school students, and get a 3 month sentence. Then at the same time, a young black male gets 10 years for oral sex from a girl in his age bracket.
.

Was that case with the same judge? State? County? City? Anything? If so I'll give it a "maybe" but I think those are totally different cases/situations.

Anyway, I just don't think there is anything racially motivating this. Why? It's the south? I know I get on a kick about defending the south and stereotypes, but half my family is from the south, and in my experiance, I've met more racists and seen more predjudiced things in "tolerant" cities I've been to/lived in like Chicago, New York and LA than anywhere.

BUT I can't tell for sure without knowing everything. I can't get all my info from the media. So I can't say. I'm just saying don't trust the "facts" a reporter gives you, they're most likely filling an agenda for themselves. I'm not saying any one here is totally trusting the facts from the article though, maybe you have some better source I can see.

I still think it's BS, I'm not saying this was cool at all either.

Again though, it's just my opinion, I'm certainly not saying you, or anyone here, is wrong. I just would actually like to know more outside what the ESPN article says.

 

[Bannister]

It may be bias. Maybe he did rape her....the news on tv, newspaper, and yes even the internet are not always right. We will never know what really happened unless we were there to witness it.


You don't like my opinion......BITE ME!!

Didn't they have everything on tape?