It rests on the floor of his empty closet, near the deflated football and basketball. It's filled with things he needed in his old life. Mostly, it's overflowing with recruiting letters, from schools big and small. A "Good luck on the SAT" wish from the coaches at Columbia. From another Ivy League college, Brown, a note from the football coach: "You have been recommended to me as one of the top scholar-athletes in your area."
There's a questionnaire from the Citadel. A brochure from Elon. An envelope from Sewanee. College after college, all wanting the undersized but overachieving Genarlow Wilson to consider their football programs. One open letter, dated three months before everything in this box became a reminder of a life derailed, invites him to take a campus visit. It begins:
Dear Genarlow,
Here you stand, on the threshold of four of the most influential, challenging, and rewarding years of your life.
Being Inmate No. 1187055
Genarlow Wilson is standing on a threshold all right, at the end of the last hall of Burruss Correctional Training Center, an hour and a half south of Atlanta. He's just a few feet from the mechanical door that closes with a goosebump-raising whurr and clang. Three and a half years after he received that letter, he's wearing a blue jacket with big, white block letters. They read: STATE PRISONER.
This is a very interesting article on ESPN. You can read it and find what it is about.
There are a few things I find disturbing:
1. This is one of the sickest stories I have ever read. How this kid is in jail, and there are REAL convicted child molesters on the street almost makes me cry.
2. How, with everyone saying what a joke this law is, is the state of Georgia still letting this go on? You mean to tell me they can't let him out of prison?
3. What idiot jury would convict him of this crime?
There is a lot more but I don't want to get too worked up yet. I hope this kid can get out soon. He certainly doesn't deserve to be in there.
josh