Release of Ga. Teen Sex Tape Draws Fire

In this undated file handout photo provided by his family, Genarlow Wilson is shown in a portrait at the age of 17. Wilson, now 21, is serving a 10-year mandatory sentence for aggravated child molestation stemming from a 2003 New Year's Eve Party where he was captured on videotape receiving oral sex from a 15-year-old girl. (AP Photo/Wilson Family Photo, FILE) (AP)

"It kind of makes your skin crawl," Johnson said. "Watching it changed my mind."

Karen Baynes, a former juvenile court judge who oversees the child and family policy initiative at the University of Georgia's Carl Vinson Institute of Government, said the distribution could "re-victimize" the girls depicted in the tape all over again.

"It concerns me greatly, both for the precedent it sets and for the girls involved," Baynes said.

Although the law may permit McDade to release the tape, it is still a crime in some cases to possess it, said Karen Worthington, interim director of Emory University's Barton Child Law and Policy Clinic at Emory Law School.

"I think the law is clear that it is a violation of the Georgia statute," Worthington said.

Georgia law makes it a crime to possess or distribute child pornography unless there is a legitimate medical, scientific or educational purpose.

Whether news reporters or average citizens fall under that protective shield is unclear, Worthington said.

Georgia's top court is set to hear an appeal in the Wilson case July 20. A Monroe County judge last month called Wilson's sentence "a grave miscarriage of justice" and ordered him released. Baker appealed, arguing the decision could free some 1,300 child molesters in Georgia prisons.

The Georgia Supreme Court rejected an earlier appeal from Wilson, saying that although the law Wilson was convicted under had been changed, it could not be applied retroactively.