Light Sentence for Suspect in Gay Murder

Brad Bailey - The proof is that this crime included hate crime law, and failed! Obviously the defense attorney used the hate crime component against the prosectution to confuse the jury and deflect the crime committed towards undestanding the pain of the defendent to "hate" so! That's two examples on this website recent news reports already! As in Criminals 2, Hate Crime 0. You say more hate crime law, to the point of juries determining hate thought, will help. Where is your proof. How can you say including more emphasis on hate crime law would have convicted this fella, when the hate crime law that was put into the case confused the jury so much this fella skipped. You can't just keep spitting out BS that's not rooted in reality, with your only "proof" offered is you think so or it makes you feel warm and fuzzy!

Dearest PJR. Please come out of the closet. Your constant cruising of Gay web sites says all that needs to be said. You are a conflicted Gay boy that was probably abused as a child. We are welcoming and kind so join up!

Yes it is true: if the Matthew Shepard Bill had passed, this person would have been behind bars for the rest of his life. You've shown no proof that hate crimes legislation "dilutes criminal justice." Just the opposite: it crystallizes the exact intent of the perpetrator, and the degree to which he should be punished. The idea of intent in the perpetration of violent crimes has been used for years by the judicial system in determining punishment. That's why there are first, second and third degree classes of rape, assault and murder. This case shows that we can't get this legislation passed soon enough.

Brad Bailey said "Had the Matthew Shepard Bill been passed, this bastard would have been fried or spent the rest of his days in prison." This is not true. The hate crime bill just extends "hate crime" to more vague arenas, and waters down criminal justice even more. Defense attorney are going to have a field day with this hate crime crappola, twisting the jury away from the crime to wondering about the defendents capacity to hate, and should they feel this person's pain that made him hate so much. The very thing gays think they are getting via hate crime legislation, a huge sympathy and pity poor me warm fuzzy, is exactly what they are giving defendents and taking away from victims! Hate crime hates the crime so emphasizes "hate" over crime! It dilutes criminal justice! And How!

This shows just how draconian and homophobic the U.S. continues to be that a crime such as this can be committed in our Nations Capital and the criminal only has to serve a maximum of 4 months. Looks like we still haven't learned anything from when we allowed the 'Twinkie Defense' to justify killing S.F. Supervisor Harvey Milk and S.F. Mayor Musconi in the 80's. How pathetic.

Had the Matthew Shepard Bill been passed, this bastard would have been fried or spent the rest of his days in prison. This is why we need hate crimes legislation.

My gay friends are constantly groped by woman in both gay and straight bars; should they just start killing them off from now on? Robert Hannah is known now, he probably should be very careful walking the streets anywhere! God will be his judge now and wont be fooled by nonsensical legal jargon.

Once again the hate crime determination seems to get in the way of justice. How can anyone that kills another whether premediated or manslaughter, for whatever the reason, get only 180 days in jail?!! That's ridiculous! But the hate crime fiasco is diluting the crime of murder or manslaughter via juries worried about if it's only "hate", and allowing all kinds of absurd reverse hate "panic" defenses to be used to justify the "hate". Get touched in the wrong place, justify your "hate" part of the crime, and beating the "hate" also tends to beat the real crime gets diluted down to zero. But the real crime if just prosecuted as a real crime without the special "hate" BS, would see this guy in jail for decades! Gays are hurting their own cause with this silly "hate crime" warm fuzzy, as they've thrown a real wrench into straight up justice for all!! Seriously, who cares what sexuality or religion or such and such a person is, any crime itself has enough hate content to convict for anyone!

Poor guy. In my country, my president will award him a medal for killing gays/sinners.

Is there one single judge or D. A. in this entire country who has the intestinal fortitude (aka GUTS) to stand up and point out how totally ludicrous the "gay panic" defense actually is? As long as no one stands up to it, sleazy dirt bag defenders will use it to get their cients off and more murderers will get wrist slaps like this. Note to judges and D. A.s: GROW A SET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!