The Best Of The Drifts - More Genarlow Wilson and Eric Johnson

Published April 29, 2010 at 5:08 p.m.

Originally published October 28,2007

Shame

It would be easy to say ignorance abounds, but that would be laying the light switch on the peckerwoods when they deserve the full strop.

Shall we begin with Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson?

He, who when responding to a CNN inquiry regarding Genarlow Wilson's acquittal on a particular charge, responded "it was rape in my mind".

When legislation was presented to take fair, unanimous correction of a heinously unjust law back through the throes of time to include the very soul who inspired such urgency for reformation, how did Senator Johnson respond?

With a tut-tut, he queried, how could the legistature in good conscience rewrite law to undo the good faith process of the judiciary? Had not the judiciary spoken in the matter of Genarlow Wilson?

Senator Johnson repeatedly asked us, the good people of Georgia, to trust the judicial process, for it was that holy institution which had convicted Genarlow Wilson and who were we, the people and the representatives of the people, to second guess the will of the Wilson jury in their wisdom?

But apparently the will of the judicial system only matters when it is convenient.

Following yesterday's ruling by the Supreme Court of the State of Georgia that Wilson's sentence constituted "cruel and unusual punishment", Senator Johnson issued the following statement.

By a single vote, the Supreme Court has opened the door for the release of hundreds of sexual predators. But equally disturbing is the fact that this activist court is once again clearly defying legislative intent. This case has never really been about Genarlow Wilson. It has been about the rule of law. The General Assembly did change the law related to minors having oral sex, but it expressly declined to make this law retroactive to those sentenced under previous laws. By ignoring this part of the legislature's wishes, this court has deliberately chosen to disregard the General Assembly's Constitutional authority. This is troubling to me and it should be to all Georgians.

What should be troubling to all Georgians is the the second most powerful man in the Senate implored us to ignore the sentence of a jury because we should trust what is "rape in his mind", then told us we should not change the law because we should trust the decision of the jury but when mule finally comes home to kick now tells us we shouldn't trust "activist judges" who seek to rewrite the "good" law so heavily weighed by our trustworthy legislators.

It is so terribly hard to keep count on who we should trust.

But here is an easy score to mark. When the Genarlow Wilson decision came down, on that clear day of justice and rectitude, certain leaders in the Republican Party and their personal harpies in the media chose not quiet restraint but instead opted for fakery and obfuscation.


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