Thurbert Baker

Thurbert E. Baker is the Attorney General of the state of Georgia, United States, serving since 1997, when he was appointed by then-Governor Zell Miller. Baker has been elected to his position three times as a Democrat, most recently winning the 2006 general election against Republican Perry McGuire, a former State Senator and corporate counsel for Chick-fil-A, 57.2% to 42.8%. Baker carried 122 of Georgia's 159 counties, and he received more votes and a higher percentage than any other Georgia Democrat running statewide in 2006.

Baker served as the President of the National Association of Attorneys General from 2006 to 2007. As Attorney General, Baker has focused on initiatives to fight crime and fraud, including stronger laws against sexual predators who use the Internet to target children, a new law against financial identity theft, and stronger laws against residential mortgage fraud. He has also advocated for the abolition of parole for persons convicted of violent crimes, which the Georgia General Assembly has not enacted.

In 2003, Baker and Governor Sonny Perdue clashed in court, with both claiming the right to control the state's legal affairs. The controversy arose when Perdue ordered Baker to drop an appeal of a case involving a legal challenge to a legislative redistricting map drawn by a Democratic legislative majority and signed into law by Perdue's Democratic predecessor, Roy Barnes. When Baker refused to drop the appeal, Perdue sued him. The Supreme Court of Georgia ultimately sided with Baker, ruling 5-2 that the Attorney General, as an elected constitutional officer, is independent of the Governor and has the power to control the state government's legal affairs.

Baker previously served in the Georgia House of Representatives (1989 to 1997), and from 1993 until his appointment as Attorney General, he was the Miller Administration's House Floor Leader. During his legislative tenure, Baker sponsored several pieces of significant legislation, including the HOPE Scholarship and the "Two Strikes and You're Out" law that puts the worst repeat violent felons in prison for life without parole.

Education

*J.D., Emory University School of Law, 1979
*Bachelor of Arts, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1975

Personal

Baker was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina in 1952. He grew up in Rocky Mount with Mike Easley, the current Governor and former Attorney General of North Carolina, and Roy Cooper, who is the current Attorney General of North Carolina. While attending the University of North Carolina, Baker was on the fencing team, and won the 1975 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) individual sabre championship. In 2002, the ACC recognized Baker as one of the best fencers in its history, naming him to its fiftieth anniversary fencing team.

Baker is married, and he and his wife Catherine have two daughters. Baker resides in Stone Mountain, and he is a practicing Baptist.

Baker is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

Genarlow Wilson Case

Baker was a central figure in the legal proceedings surrounding Genarlow Wilson. On June 11, 2007, Baker filed an appeal seeking to resolve "clearly erroneous legal issues" with the ruling of Monroe County, Georgia Superior Court Judge Thomas H. Wilson that Genarlow Wilson's punishment be declared cruel and unusual, and hence unconstitutional, and that he be released from custody and not be listed on a state sex offender list.

In 2005, Wilson was convicted of aggravated child molestation after a jury trial in Douglas County, Georgia. He and his co-defendants videotaped themselves engaging in sexual acts with two intoxicated girls, one of whom was 17 years old and the other 15 years old. Wilson was charged with rape due to the intoxicated state of the girls, but was found not guilty. Because the age of consent in Georgia is 16, and 17 year olds can be charged as adults, he was convicted of aggravated child molestation for having oral sex with the 15 year old. Georgia law sets the punishment for aggravated child molestation at a minimum of 10 years of imprisonment with no opportunity for parole or pardon.

During the 2007 session of the Georgia General Assembly, Georgia law was changed in a manner that would have made Wilson' conduct a misdemeanor because he was only two years older than the victim. The General Assembly specifically declined to make the law retroactive, and Republican State Senator [http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2007_08/senate/johnsonbio.php Eric Johnson] of Savannah, the President Pro Tempore of the Georgia Senate, strongly opposed it and believes Wilson's conduct as seen on the videotape merits the conviction.

Baker has cited concern about the precedent set by the Monroe County, Georgia Superior Court ruling as a reason for appealing it to the Georgia Supreme Court. He stated on June 14, 2007 that he was concerned that the ruling, if it stands, could lead to the release of other convicts currently serving sentences in Georgia prisons.

External links

* [http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/06/11/teen.sex.case/ CNN Story about the Genarlow Wilson Case]
* [http://law.ga.gov/00/article/0,2086,87670814_87670929_87990821,00.html Official site]