ATLANTA, Oct. 26 — After more than two years in prison for having consensual oral sex with a fellow teenager, Genarlow Wilson shook the hand of a warden Friday at the Al Burruss Correctional Training Center in Forsyth, Ga., and smiled shyly as he walked into the arms of his waiting mother and young sister.
Mr. Wilson’s mother had skipped up to the prison door to wait for him.
“I ran around inside the house 20 times,†said Juanessa Bennett, his mother, describing her reaction to hearing that her son would be set free.
Mr. Wilson, who is now 21, was released just hours after the Georgia Supreme Court ended his 10-year prison sentence. The court said the sentence for the act, which was considered a felony at the time, violated the Constitution’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
In a 4-to-3 ruling, the court’s majority said the sentence was “grossly disproportionate†to the crime, which “did not rise to the level of culpability of adults who prey on children.â€
Mr. Wilson said he was in “total disbelief†when he first heard the news of the court’s ruling from another inmate who had heard it on the radio.
“It didn’t seem real,†Mr. Wilson said. “I stopped trying to figure the courts out.â€
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