Crazy sex laws

[jaydee]

I'm all for protecting young kids from sex predators but this is crazy .
I mean he was 17 and she was 15.

A man who was jailed for two years over an oral sex act committed when he was 17 has said he feels no "negative energy" towards the prosecution.

Genarlow Wilson, now 21, was last week freed from a prison in the southern US state of Georgia after serving a fifth of the original ten-year sentence for aggravated child molestation.

The conviction stemmed from an incident at a 2003 New Year's Eve party when the 17-year-old Wilson — an honours student and homecoming king — had oral sex with a 15-year-old girl.

State law required he serve a mandatory 10-year prison sentence for the crime and be added to the registry of sex offenders.

The law has since been amended to downgrade the offence to a misdemeanour, but it was not made retroactive, which meant Wilson would be forced to serve out the remainder of his sentence.

But the state Supreme Court recently reviewed the case and voted 4-3 for Wilson to be released, ruling the sentence constituted "cruel and unusual punishment".

Now Wilson has spoken of his ordeal and reaffirmed his decision not to strike a plea deal with prosecutors, which may have reduced his time in jail.

He said the prospect of being listed as a sex offender would have hung over him for the rest of his life.

"(The deal) might've been lesser time, but then again, I would have nowhere to go because I would have no home," Wilson told CNN.

"I wouldn't be able to stay with my mother because I have a little sister. When you're a sex offender you can't be around kids.

"Basically, I can't even have kids myself, you know, so what is the point of life?"

Wilson said he regarded the sentence as ridiculous, but spared his wrath from the prosecutors who were merely "doing their job and felt they were carrying out the law."

He said he now plans to pick up the pieces of his life by going to university and leading a more "conservative" life.

Wilson will apply to study sociology — "because I feel like I've been living my major".