“I can understand why Wilson wouldn’t want to take a plea if he feels he has other options which involve his original conviction being overturned or vacated.”

No, he has no options to have his conviction overturned or vacated. All we are yacking about is the length of punishment. Motions for New Trial has already been handled and shot down. He is convicted.

“If he feels he didn’t commit the crime for which he is charged, then he’s well within his rights not to take the plea.”

I understand your point…but need to point out he isn’t charged. He has already been convicted. But if you are talking about the “charge” being the offense for which he would have to plead, then I 100% understand and agree.

Listen, people (and I’d appreciate thoughts from other attorneys, too): If he takes this deal, the amount of jail time is going to be known before anyone walks into court. If anyone here thinks the DA, AG, B.J. “And The Bear” Bernstein and Wilson aren’t going to have everything locked down and the Judge in chambers informing them what he intends to do, then you are hitting the bong really hard (no, Nicki, I’m not really saying you use marijuana).

Remember, who is the Judge that would handle the NEW plea? Why…IT’S THE ORIGINAL SENTENCING JUDGE! And what has this Judge already made clear? THAT HE WANTS WILSON OUT OF JAIL NOW! And what else will this Judge most likely do? KEEP PROBATION TO A MINIMUM!

This deal is the best that the DA and AG can make under the LAW and Berstein/Wilson/Their Supporters are foolish to continue to wait.

Yes, but the jury only decided whether he was guilty or not guilty. It was the judge, not the jury, who imposed Wilson’s sentence. And because of a minimum-sentencing law passed by the legislature (and which was subsequently amended by the legislature to avoid exactly this kind of situation), the judge was forced to sentence Wilson to 10 years in prison. The jury had no say in the matter, and the judge had no room for discretion.

And that’s the problem here. The legislature took away the judge’s opportunity to exercise his discretion, and as a result, an unjust punishment was imposed. It’s the ‘zero-tolerance’ effect, only with a decade in prison as the consequence.

Also, I have seen the word “racist” thrown around in regards to his sentence. You know, what would really strike me as racist would be for white people to accept this as normal behavior in the black community. I don’t think it is. I also don’t think that, if he were white, anyone would be calling for a special session to change the law as it applies to him.

Didn’t he get a jury trial? It seems to me that living in a society where the court of public opinion matters more than a court of law is just the sort of “tyranny of the majority” type of thing we’ve all been taught to be so scared of.

This seems to me to be the interpretation most consistent with the available information. The CNN article I linked to refers to 15 years, albeit from Bernstein. Also, that interpretation is consistent with that sentence, because Wilson’s sentence was a 10-year mandatory minimum prison sentence, with 1 additional year of probation. A sentence of 11-serve-10, with the ten being mandatory.

The problem is that the statements from Baker appear to use the word “sentence” to refer both to Wilson’s term of incarceration as well as his entire prison+probation punishment.

“The plea deal, if accepted by Genarlow Wilson’s lawyers, could also result in Genarlow Wilson receiving a sentence substantially shorter than the 10 year mandatory minimum sentence for which he was originally sentenced…”

Everyone’s been throwing around that 15 year figure but where does that come from? Doesn’t this contradict that?

The word POSSIBLY really makes me believe that he would have to serve more time.

Read the press release again. It says Genarlow “would not have a criminal record nor would be subject to registering on the sex offender registry once his sentence has been completed.” (Emphasis added.)

Under the terms of the sentence, as I understand them, Wilson would probably be paroled now, but he would have to serve another 13 years on probation. It’s a 15-year sentence, after all. During which time he would still be on the sexual offender registry. Only around 2020, when Wilson is about 34 years old, would his name be removed from the registry, and his record expunged.

So he does not “avoid registration,” because he would have to spend the next 13 years as a registered sex offender. And there’s no certainty that his record would be “fairly quickly” expunged.

Why have you posted so many times on this subject today? It appears that “refighting” is a description better applied to you than to us readerly types who are merely responding to your topics.