The defense of Georgia sex offender law has placed the state’s attorney general in the awkward position of arguing to the state Supreme Court that the law cannot be applied retroactively while arguing in a separate case in federal court that the law’s retroactive provisions are legal.
The Georgia Legislature’s 2006 amendments to the state sex offender law have drawn Attorney General Thurbert Baker into litigation to defend the law on two legal fronts. In one case, Baker is seeking to uphold a 10-year sentence imposed on Genarlow Wilson for having unforced oral sex, when he was 17 years old, with a 15-year-old girl. Baker entered the Wilson fray in June after a judge in Monroe County granted Wilson’s civil habeas petition.
