A bloody crime which took place more than five years ago in Winnipeg, Canada, is finally going to trial this week: Stuart Mark, 36, was killed in January 2007 but for six months police were unable to turn up any substantial evidence pointing to a suspect.
Until Mark’s ex-boyfriend Michael Lynne Pearce confessed.
Pearce claimed he went into a rage—hitting Mark in the head with a golf club and stabbing him in the stomach—after Mark admitted he was HIV+. He had kept his status secret during their relationship.
Pearce is currently charged with manslaughter, his lawyers claiming the fatal altercation broke out as the result of Mark’s disclosure and was not premeditated.
How about we take this to the next level?
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While we understand Pearce’s shock at learning about Mark’s sero-status, we hope the defense doesn’t get away with some variation on the gay-panic defense.
Image via Winnipeg Sun
Kamuriie
How would you react if your partner suddenly revealed he was HIV+ and you’d been sleeping with him (and had been in a committed relationship where you weren’t using protection)?
I can’t say I’d blame him for reacting violently. Not that violence is the ideal reaction, but who can say how they’d react in that instant you found out? It’s understandable.
Polyboy
This isn’t “gay panic.” I’ve known people who’ve died of HIV related complications in this age of retro-virals. It is still a very serious, life altering disease. It is not even close to gay-panic.
Disgusted American
well I would think you’d BOTH be tested and have PROOF of it..when starting out your relationship…you should ALWAYS assume the other person is POZ, until you’ve SEEN the medical report with your own eyes…..No excuse for murderin’ someone….
Nick
I don’t know what happened between them in bed, but if I were in a committed relationship where I thought that HIV wouldn’t be an issue and had unprotected sex with him, I think I would have killed the guy too.
Curtis
@Polyboy:
Oh god just stop.
This guy is a psycho. enough said.
Tracy
Seeing the medical report isn’t good enough if there are extra-curricular activies of which you are unaware!
Rowan
@Curtis I disagree. I mean, it should say something that he came forward when it was looking like he wasn’t going to be found out. Six months and no suspects? Sounds like he realizes that he overreacted and did a horrible thing. That doesn’t sound like a “psycho” to me. That sounds like a human who made a drastic mistake.
Our culture demonizes seropositives. It’s not an excuse for what he did, but he REALIZES that or he wouldn’t have come forward. He deserves what he gets, but I sympathize with him because he knows he deserves it, and I wish things hadn’t happened the way they did.
Nick
Just because our culture demonizes seropositives as a whole doesn’t mean it’s wrong to demonize some seropositives. The HIV+ person who tells me in a pre-sexual phase of a relationship is an honest individual who is worth putting energy into. An HIV+ person who tells me any time after that is an attempted murderer.
Curtis
@Rowan:
It is VERY common for murderers to feel remorse, as well as turn themselves in.
I agree with part of your statement, that he is a “human who made a drastic mistake”. Im just saying he’s a human who made a drastic mistake, with severe mental health issues. If he didn’t “REALIZE” what he did, I wouldn’t even consider him human.
Non-psychotic people are able to control their emotions; so that when we feel like we want to “kill our boyfriends”, we don’t actually follow through with it..
Therefore, he lacks something that is within most of us that keep us from committing such atrocities, even when under extreme anxiety.
michael
uuuuh, both should have been responsible and tested before becoming committed to each other and using protection. PROTECT YOURSELF people!
redball
@Tracy: Yeah so was he knowingly poz before they dated or he seroconverted after they got together? ‘Tis the question.
kololol
When you think that the HIV TESTING is finally a SCAM and AIDS is not caused by HIV…
You just realize how far we can go in the wrong… not talking about Hiv Conspiracy…
But just how a wrong hypothesis can lead into a disaster…
HIV IS NOT THE CAUSE OF AIDS…. HIV TESTING IS A SCAM….
STOP HIV TESTING.
Curtis
@kololol:
Do you you realize that HIV can be easily identified simply by testing the amount of white blood cells you have?
Same thing for AIDS.. Except the white blood cell count is even lower.
WillBfair
Well, at least someone is doing something about prevention.
holz
As any one should know HIV testing is a scam and it is dangerous for various reasons.
AIDS is a immune disease that has nothing to do with HIV…
It is more than urgent to STOP HIV TESTING and work out real solution to cure AIDS.
I feel so sorry for this poor guy killed by his criminal “boyfriend”.
I hope these criminel will end up with death penalty.