Blind Eye: Don't Turn One ...

Helen

A few years ago an incredible woman came into my life.  Sister Helen Prejean, known to most people as "The Death Penalty Nun" played by Susan Sarandon in the movie "Dead Man Walking" had written another book, and she needed help.  In being embraced by this incredible woman in her mission to broaden the discourse on the death penalty in the U.S., I found a powerfully loving friend.  When I stepped out of the car at the Detroit Airport that first snowy day, I was overwhelmed by the feeling of already knowing this kindred soul.  She'd simply called me one day and asked me if I was sitting down, telling me she was just going to get on a plane and "come to Canada for tea".  Helen had just finished writing "The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions", and but months away from publication, we were working toward putting technology behind it that would make it easier to share her powerful message with more people to get them thinking and talking.  Helen's a wee bit of a thing in stature, but not in person.  She's constantly bouncing down the halls whistling Beatle's tunes and filling every space with laughter and light.  It's amazing that after 20 years of fighting such a daunting battle that she has any energy left at all, and yet everything about her is as buoyant and happily infectious as the joy of a child.

I used to lie awake at nights, haunted by the images of the people she spoke of in her book, and one woman in particular whose picture I'd just posed on Helen's website.  In the photo, she was clinging to Helen, something I'm sure many people did from their cells, and yet now she was dead.  I thought of Dobie Gillis Williams, wrongfully accused, with an I.Q. bordering on mental retardation, also dead now in spite of overwhelming evidence of his innocence, and the confession of the man who'd actually done the crime for which Dobie was put to death.  Face after face Helen has seen come and go, falling at one gross miscarriage of justice after another.  I never got over that book, and I hope I never will, because until we feel just that outraged, we simply don't act.

Genarlow Wilson

Our systems of justice are profoundly broken at times, and today reading David Hornik's blog reminded me of that.  I was drawn to a picture of a young man named Genarlow Wilson, hugging his little sister.  Genarlow is in the midst of serving a ten year sentence for aggravated child molestation.

Did you just do what I did?  Did you just flinch and think to yourself: "Good!  I hope the bastard gets what he deserves"?

And there's the rub.  What if I was to tell you that Genarlow Wilson, an honour student and football star, was convicted for receiving oral sex from a consenting 15 year old girl at a party when he himself was only 17?  That the girl admitted to this, and that it was consensual, and that her mother backed it up?  That the foreman of the jury wept as she read the verdict, because a horribly flawed system of justice demanded that this very act was deemed aggravated child molestation, and must be punished with a mandatory sentence?

Our sense of moral righteousness at times is rather inane, especially when it's been allowed to dictate legislation.  How is it possible that in 2007 a law can exist that sends a 17 year old boy to jail for this?  And how is it possible that we're letting it happen?

I don't know what to do about this, but I will.  I'll figure it out.  I know blogging about it, as David did, creates an awareness of the insanity of this situation, and sadly how uncommon it's -not-.  I also know that simply being angry about it isn't enough, and while a Canadian voice might not weigh heavily on U.S. legislation, it can beckon other voices to speak out to their senators, and to do what Helen Prejean has done for two decades now: speaking out and speaking up.  It's not enough to say "this is so wrong" and then simply to walk away.

Because the Georgia Supreme Court has simply walked away, when Genarlow is done serving his sentence, he will not be allowed to return back home to live with his mother and little sister because he is a convicted child molester.  If you have a blog of your own, consider sharing this story too.  Until the Georgia legislature steps in to amend this grossly flawed piece of justice, a young man like Genarlow can be robbed of every good thing in their life.

Don't stand for it.

Learn more about Genarlow here.