Brandon McInerney shot Larry King in the back of the head in front of numerous witnesses yet jurors in California deadlocked 7 to 5 in favor of voluntary manslaughter, so a mistrial was declared. It's a sad commentary on how little the lives of LGBT citizens matter in the United States. If the jury could not convict McInerney for murder, manslaughter ought to have been a no brainer. At least unless one holds the Christianist mind set that the only good faggot is a dead faggot. Tony Perkins, Bryan Fischer, Maggie Gallagher and similar anti-gay hate merchants must be smiling on this outcome.It's frightening to know how little one's life means in this country if your are LGBT. It literally sickens me. The Los Angeles Times has coverage on this travesty and here are highlights:
The trial of a middle school student who shot and killed a gay classmate during a morning computer lab ended in a mistrial Thursday when jurors said that after 17 hours of deliberations they could not agree whether to convict Brandon McInerney.
The parents of victim Larry King, Greg and Dawn King, stormed from the courtroom with other relatives, even as the judge was still addressing the jurors.
McInerney was 14 when he walked into a morning computer lab at E.O. Green Junior High, pulled a .22-caliber handgun from his backpack, put the gun to Larry King's head and pulled the trigger twice. King was 15.
But jurors universally rejected the prosecution's contention that the shooting was a hate crime carried out by a youth filled with white supremacist beliefs and a hatred for homosexuals, Wippertsaid.
During the trial, McInerney's attorneys presented what prosecutors called a "gay panic" defense, arguing that the teenager was driven to violence by King's repeated sexual taunts. They also called to the stand teachers who testified that campus administrators turned a blind eye to the tensions King was creating on campus with his flamboyant dress and behavior.
After the mistrial was declared and jurors left the room, McInerney turned and smiled at his family. When he spotted his former girlfriend, Samantha Cline, sitting in a back row, he threw her a kiss. And then he was taken away by sheriff's deputies.
Excuse me while I go vomit!
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