Under Reported News: Genarlow Wilson considers his future

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Genarlow Wilson, the Georgia man who served more than two years in prison for a consensual sex act, has received several offers to pay for his college costs, including one from businessmen who helped raise $1 million in an unsuccessful attempt to get him released on bond in June.

Wilson, who was given a 10-year sentence for receiving oral sex from a 15-year-old girl when he was 17, was released Friday after the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that the sentence violated the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

"I want to help people. I know how it feels to be without," says Wilson, who was a homecoming king and athlete with a 3.2 grade-point average at Douglas County High School in Douglasville, Ga. His conviction stemmed from a New Year's Eve party in 2003.

Wilson, 21, says prison forced him to mature. "I want to be a mentor," he says, to help young people "learn from their mistakes and help them make wiser decisions."

He hopes to enroll in college in January and study sociology. "This situation, what I had to endure, has a lot to do with sociology," he says.
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His attorney, B.J. Bernstein, says Wilson has had several offers of aid. One came from Whitney Tilson, a New York investment manager who, with 10 friends, pledged $1 million to a bond fund in June in an attempt to get Wilson out of prison. A judge ruled him ineligible for bond while his appeal was pending.

Tilson, who has never met or spoken with Wilson, says he and two of those friends have agreed to help pay for Wilson's college costs, and he expects others to join them.

"We're committed to doing whatever's necessary to help Genarlow get back on his feet and establish himself so he can lead a happy and productive life," says Tilson, managing partner of T2 Partners Management and Tilson Mutual Funds.

Tilson says he hopes to connect with Wilson "when he's caught up on his sleep."

For the time being, Wilson says, "I'm taking one day at a time."

Of his first weekend out of prison, he says he enjoyed "being able to sleep in my own bed and eat all the food I want to eat."

Genarlow Wilson Story as told by ESPN Part One