http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/...20100722.shtml
For those of you who don't know, two years ago Brandon McInerney brought a gun to school, then shot the openly gay Larry King twice in the back of the head during computer class. The defense has since attempted to convince the jury that McInerney was not responsible for the shooting, operating on the "gay panic defense", that McInerney was so intimidated by Larry King's flamboyance and how he used aggressive sexuality to counter McInerney's homophobic bullying, that he had no choice but to kill him.
And it's worked. Somewhat.
Quote:
Jurors told Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell they were unable to reach a unanimous decision on the degree of Brandon McInerney's guilt for killing 15-year-old Larry King. The nine-woman, three-man panel said they took a series of votes with the last one being seven in favor of voluntary manslaughter, while five others supported either first-degree or second-degree murder.
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So apparently it's difficult to decide that telling a classmate the day before the incident that he was going to bring a loaded gun to school and kill King, then bringing a loaded gun to school and killing King, is premeditated murder.
Quote:
Ventura County prosecutor Maeve Fox contended McInerney, then 14, embraced a white supremacist philosophy that sees homosexuality as an abomination. Police found Nazi-inspired drawings and artifacts at his house, and a white supremacist expert testified the hate-filled ideology was the reason for the killing.
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Oh, he sounds like he's such a charming and upstanding young man.
Quote:
Defense attorneys acknowledged McInerney was the shooter but explained that he had reached an emotional breaking point after King made repeated, unwanted sexual advances.
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...That were responses to McInerney's own bullying. It was stupid and immature, yes, but these kids were all around 15 years old, they all act stupid and immature.
However, since it seems "unwanted sexual advances" are now an excuse to kill, does that mean people can start using a "straight panic defense"?
Quote:
McInerney snapped when he heard moments before the shooting that King wanted to change his name to Latisha, the lawyers said.
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This kid is dangerous. He's a white supremacist that killed someone just because they were being all gay and stuff around him. At age 15. What's he going to be like when he gets older?
Quote:
The school administration has been accused of being more concerned about defending King's civil rights than recognizing that his behavior and what he wore -- high heels, makeup and feminine clothing -- made other students uncomfortable.
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Of course, this is the angle of the story Fox News is leaning on.
Fuck Fox News... fuck Pac-Man...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,404502,00.html
Quote:
The family of a gay teenager who was fatally shot in class blames the school district for allowing their son to wear makeup and feminine clothing to school — factors the family claims led to the death.
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Why is everyone so hell-bent on putting the blame on anyone/anything but the person who actually pulled the trigger?
And maybe those "uncomfortable" students need to grow up, accept there are outrageous people in the world, and get over it.
McInerney seems a lot more sympathetic once you consider his dad was an abusive fuckwaste...
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lano...ying-jury.html
Quote:
They also appeared to reach out for jury sympathy by calling several of McInerney’s relatives to the stand to testify to the abuse the young boy suffered at the hands of his drug-abuser father.
McInerney was a boy who couldn’t cry, because if he did his father would smack him in the face and tell him to take it like a man, his aunts testified.
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And that's really depressing and horrible and sad and all that, but it's still just a smokescreen. That's all this defense has, smokescreens that play off the jury's sympathy and homophobia.
Quote:
Other family members said the father seemed to delight in humiliating his son in public. The father died from a fall while his son was incarcerated.
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Well, at least he got to live to see the manly, man man man man man man man he helped his son become.