UPDATE: JUDGE ORDERS MCINERNEY TO STAND TRIAL FOR THE MURDER OF LAWRENCE KING, STATING THAT THE MURDER WAS CLEARLY PRE-MEDITATED. CLICK HERE FOR THE STORY.
Lawrence King, at the age of 15, was shot and killed by a classmate on February 12, 2008. His pre-trial began Monday, July 20th, 2009. Tactics were vivid on the first day. Vivid, and tragically repetitive.
Defense attorney Scott Wippert seems to be taking the path to a gay panic defense for his client, Brandon McInerney. (There is also such a thing as a "trans panic" defense, which has been used in defending someone when the victim was transgender) When questioning one of the police officers involved, Wippert asked if the officer was aware that King had been making sexual advances toward McInerney, which "provoked" him. He added that King "taunted" McInerney with his "effeminate" ways.
In 2009, the year that would have been Harvey Milk’s 79th birthday, 31 years after he was murdered by a man who got off easy because his lawyers argued he was stressed, complicated by the fact that he had too much sugar in his system, the infamous "twinkie defense", it’s demeaning to see crazy tactics still being used in courts of law.
And I can see it working in this case. Remember, the boys were just that, boys, and as such, can often find excuses as flimsy as this in courts of law. Their minds aren’t fully developed yet, they don’t have the judgment that adults are supposed to have. Add to this the fact that King was dressing in girls’ clothing, something Americans can’t seem to deal with to this day, and you can see how this might go. If Americans are still so repulsed by the idea of flirtation by someone of the same sex that they’re willing to use it as an excuse for cold blooded murder, you can also see how far we, as a movement, have yet to go.
Something’s really wrong with Americans. The fact that so many other countries are evolving into humans, rather than subjects, should urge us to some epiphany to the error of our ways. It should be an emergency, what’s happening to Americans whose biology falls somewhere outside pure heterosexuality. Despite evidence, despite truth, despite the promise of protection from the constitution and the courts, we’ve become the only minority in this country who are not allowed equal rights. And with gay bashings on the rise and lawyers willing to do anything to keep murderers free, who knows how much more hell we have to go through.
Maybe, just maybe, all this hope that we’ve put into the American people is fruitless. Maybe, just maybe, we aren’t smart enough or strong enough to shoulder simple things like human sexuality, or truth. I’ve learned a tragic fact in recent years. Maybe, just maybe, Americans, in a slight majority, are too stupid to move forward.
Read more about the Lawrence King trial by clicking HERE
