Who Belongs in Prison?

One of these guys is in prison. The other has a high-paying government job in law enforcement. One guy has consensual sex with a 15-year old minor when he was just 17 years old himself. The other guy gets a hold of the tape of this consensual sex and releases over 30 copies to the media.

The first guy is named Genarlow Wilson and he's still sitting in a Georgia prison serving a 10-year term for 'aggravated child molestation'.

A judge voided the sentence in June 2007, but Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker has appealed and Wilson sits in prison while the appeal plays out.

The second guy is David McDade, a tough-on-crime prosecutor in Douglas County, Georgia who remains unapologetic for his role in this case. This week he released a video tape made with a hand-held video camera at the New Year's Eve party by another party-goer.

According to the AP story: "McDade said his office gave copies of the tape to some 35 parties that requested it, including The Associated Press, which received the tape late last month after making an open records request. Seven state lawmakers, several members of the public and numerous members of the media also received the tape....Georgia law makes it a crime to possess or distribute child pornography unless there is a legitimate medical, scientific or educational purpose."

McDade claims he had "no choice" but to release the tape. Well, yes, he could have refused to release the tape and forced the requesters to seek a court order. But, nope, he releases the tape, the girl, now 18, is victimized again (and yes, she was a victim, but putting this guy in prison for 10 years is insane). I'm not looking, but do you doubt that with 35 tapes out there, one of them is going to end up on the Internet?

Here's a story from Atlanta Magazine and another one from ESPN.

Finally, here's a web site supporting Wilson's appeal.

http://www.wilsonappeal.com/index.php

Wilson has now been in prison for 28 months, 26 days and counting.