Mark Cuban on Genarlow Wilson
The case of Genarlow Wilson hasn’t gotten coverage here before (maybe it has and I’m forgetting, but search yielded no answers) but I came across an interesting blog post by Mark Cuban that spurred me into action.
Cuban is nothing if not loquacious but this case rated all of his ire but none of his verbosity. Here’s a choice quote:
Personally, there is no chance I do business in the state of Georgia beyond the committment the Mavs have to play the Hawks until Genarlow is out of jail.
From a purely economic standpoint, not having a billionaire do business in your state hurts. I don’t know how much money he would have normally brought to Georgia, but still.
On the other side, the man is a media mogul both traditionally through his old Broadcast.com and HDNet and also on the internet through his blog. The national and international attention he could bring this case are huge.
And I’ll admit that I don’t know all the facts but it seems odd not to offer amnesty or a reduced sentence to Genarlow Wilson. Why continue to punish him under the old laws?
I’ll leave the commenters to debate the case, the laws and it’s merits, but Mark Cuban is making sure we haven’t heard the last of this case.
Atlanta Magazine actually did a big piece on that last year sometime (don’t remember what month) and the writer was on CNN talking about it.
ESPN.com also had a feature on this. The law was changed, but there was no retroactive clause in the new law.
The old law was ridiculous in that it punished oral sex much more harshly (felony) than plain old intercourse (misdemeanor). I think many people agree that this kid is being unfairly punished.
Here’s a link to the article Emily referenced: http://www.atlantamagazine.com/article.php?id=158