Anthony Fortunato will go to prison for his role in Michael Sandy’s 2006 death.
Fortunato and his friends lured Sandy to a Brooklyn highway and attacked him. Fearing for his life, Sandy ran into traffic, where a thoughtless – and unidentified – vehicle hit the 29-year old. He died a few days later.
The jury apparently had a tough time deciding what to do with Fortunato, who came out during the trial. Eric Zaccar, the 46-year old jury foreman, said, I’m never going to feel good about this. Not one person on that jury believed that it was a hate crime.” Zaccar and his peers convicted Fortunato of manslaughter as a hate crime.
The twelve men and women evidently struggled with Fortunato’s verdict, particularly the hateful aspect: “…No one felt he had any hatred or animosity toward homosexuals… No one thought he was a bad kid.”
Fortunato will be sentenced next month.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Mr. B
“Not one person on that jury believed that it was a hate crime.â€
So…they figure Fortunato just loved the faggot to death?
How many more “I’m gay” defenses are we going to see from sexually questioning young men whose self-hatred volleys other queer guys under moving cars?
Dawster
if not one person believed it was a hate crime, that means that the prosecution didn’t do a good enough job. i don’t know where the line is drawn on “gay on gay” crime… if a butch bear beats up a nelly queen, does that constitute as a hate crime?
can it be PROVEN in a court of law?
“no one thought he was a bad kid”. really? great… he’s just a victim of circumstance, then?
EdWoody
If nobody on the jury thought it was a hate crime, then why did they convict him of a hate crime? Wasn’t there a non-hate crime they could have convicted him of?
SeaFlood
At the time he committed the murder, he was not gay. Maybe he was struggling with it which is why he committed this *stupid* crime, but I still see it as a hate crime.
My mindset right now links to Hollyoaks (I know, I know). Watching it reminded me of how I was before I became a gay person — a pre-gay? In my small town in SC, in 1989-93, if there was someone perceived to be gay the way I was perceived to be gay, we knew we could not be seen together, had to maintain a cover of not liking each other in order to survive. However, there was a line. We did not allow our internalized homophobia to bait each other into situations where we could be hurt or worse, killed.
It WAS a hate crime. Hatred against who he is, too. Maybe this sentence will teach him something about the perils of self-hate. Hopefully, he really IS gay instead of it being a ploy.
If a butch beats up a nelly (which is not usually how it goes… irl, nellies whoop the asses of butches who tend to underestimate them without realizing fem gay guys have been fighting all of their lives)it is a hate crime. Why? Internalized patriarchy — not that we have laws against that kinda thing. But it does becomes more about gender and socialized masculinity, no?