Larry King, Terry Jones, and Gay Panic
Michael Ejercito
compound in Mazar-i-Sharif,
Afghanistan, and how so many people blamed Terry Jones for causing the
attack by burning a Quran in Florida ten days before. Links to these
comments are here.
Right now, a criminal defense lawyer in a Ventura County,
California courtroom s relying on that mentality to set his client
free.
http://www.the33tv.com/news/la-me-0721-gay-panic-20110721,0,5367781.story
Brandon McInerney, a teenager from Oxnard, California, is accused
of murdering 14-year-old Larry King by shooting him in the head in a
junior high computer lab. His defense lawyer, Scott Wippert, plans to
argue that his client was provoked by King's repeated sexual
advances.
The biggest problem, at least in theory, is evidence that McIerney
had told a friend he would bring a gun to school the next day, on the
day before King's death. And sure enough,. evidence implies he did.
This is not a case of a boy reacting violently to another boy's sexual
advances, but premeditated murder.
But the same can precisely be said and written about the murders in
Mazar-i-Sharif. It was a premeditated assault, not a spontaneous
reaction.
To those who claim that the Mazar-i-Sharif murders were in reaction
to the burning of the Quran, I ask how that, in principle, is
distinguishable from the idea that Larry King's murder was in reaction
to his own purpoted sexual advances against Brandon McInerney? After
all, if burning a Quran can "incite" murders ten days in the future
and thousands of miles away, then sexual advances can surely "incite"
a murder the next day just a few yards away.
There is no distinction. McInerney's freedom relies on the same
"logic" that condemned Terry Jones for Mazar-i-Sharif- and his lawyers
know it.
John Doe
> To those who claim that the Mazar-i-Sharif murders were in
> reaction
> to the burning of the Quran, I ask how that, in principle, is
> distinguishable from the idea that Larry King's murder was in
> reaction to his own purpoted sexual advances against Brandon
> McInerney? After all, if burning a Quran can "incite" murders
> ten days in the future and thousands of miles away, then sexual
> advances can surely "incite" a murder the next day just a few
> yards away.
>
> There is no distinction. McInerney's freedom relies on the
> same
> "logic" that condemned Terry Jones for Mazar-i-Sharif- and his
> lawyers know it.
So-called "fighting words" require (something like) an imminent
threat of physical harm. If that preacher was convicted for
anything, that would be wrong. There is no such thing as fighting
words over the Internet or over the ocean.
Michael Ejercito
Similarly, there are no "fighting words" that result in fighting
(or shooting) the day after, as is alleged with Brandon t Brandon
McInerney.
His lawyers want to obfuscate that fact.
Michael