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Chief
Justice Leah Ward Sears wrote in the majority opinion
that the changes in the law "represent a seismic
shift in the legislature's view of the gravity of oral
sex between two willing teenage participants."
Sears
wrote that the severe punishment makes "no measurable
contribution to acceptable goals of punishment"
and that Wilson's crime did not rise to the "level
of adults who prey on children."
The
state Supreme Court had turned down Wilson's appeal
of his conviction and sentence, but the justices agreed
to hear the state's appeal of a Monroe County judge's
decision to reduce Wilson's sentence to 12 months and
free him. That judge had called the 10-year sentence
a "grave miscarriage of justice."
Dissenting
justices wrote that the state Legislature expressly
stated that the 2006 change in the law was not intended
to affect any crime prior to that date.
They
said Wilson's sentence could not be cruel and unusual
because the state Legislature decided that Wilson could
not benefit from subsequent laws reducing the severity
of the crime from a felony to a misdemeanor.
They
called the decision an "unprecedented disregard
for the General Assembly's constitutional authority."
A
spokeswoman for Wilson's lawyer said his legal team
received no advance notice of the decision.
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