Following up on yesterday’s post about the Georgia Supreme Court considering proportionality in a sex offender case, there were some hopeful signs in the courtroom yesterday.
Significantly, the court was asked to consider its ruling that freed Genarlow Wilson last year:
The request was unusual in that it was made by both the prosecutor who wants the life sentence upheld as well as the public defender who contends the sentence is cruel and unusual punishment.
At issue is a mandatory life sentence imposed in December on Cedric Bradshaw in Bulloch County for failing to register as a sex offender for the second time…
[Public defender Robert L.] Persse asked the justices to look to their decision in the Genarlow Wilson case. In October, the justices ruled Wilson’s 10-year prison sentence was unconstitutional. Wilson was given the sentence in Douglas County for having oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17.
If the state Supreme Court follows the same reasoning it used in overturning that sentence, it should throw out Bradshaw’s life sentence as well, Persse said…
But Assistant District Attorney W. Scott Brannen told the justices that the Wilson decision was handed down after the Legislature changed the law. Lawmakers lessened the sentence for such a crime from a 10-year prison sentence to no more than one year in custody.
Brannen argued that in this case the legislative intent was to increase prison time for a second offense. In 2006, the prosecutor noted, lawmakers increased the sentence for failing to register for the second time from three years in prison to life.
The Legislature’s action reflected the will of the community and should be given great deference, Brannen said…
But Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears asked whether legislative intent should always carry the day. “What if the Legislature had said of this crime, ‘We give the death penalty’?” she asked…
Justice Carol Hunstein also expressed concern the law makes no distinctions between “fixated pedophiles and teenagers” convicted of sex offenses. The court is expected to issue its decision in the coming months.