Brandon McInerney finally plead guilty to second degree murder for the shooting death of openly gay classmate Lawrence King. McInerney has received a 21-year prison sentence, which means he’ll be free to kill more effeminate gays by the time he’s 38!
McInerney’s first trial was declared a mistrial when jurors couldn’t decide whether he committed first-degree murder or manslaughter. The jury also couldn’t decide whether McInerney committed a hate crime by targeting King for his homosexuality—prosecutors planned to drop the hate-crime charge in the second trial.
The only upside to McInerney copping a plea deal now is that there won’t be a second trial, sparing us all the anguish of hearing again how King basically deserved being murdered for wearing women’s clothing and hitting on McInerney.
Best case prison scenario: McInerney gets his GRE, starts caring for injured birds he finds in the courtyard and becomes an ornithological veterinarian dealing primarily with parakeets.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Worst case: He gets joins the White Power Auxiliary of Cellblock D and comes out of prison more angry and embittered than ever.
Either way, Lawrence King isn’t coming back.
MattGMD
At least he will be safe from the 5’2″ 110 pound gay boys with eye shadow flirting with him.
David Ehrenstein
Best Case Scenario: After leaving prison Brandon does a Dan White and TAKES THE GAS PIPE!
Mav
“At least he will be safe from the 5’2? 110 pound gay boys with eye shadow flirting with him.”
^ Yeah, except now he’ll have 250 pound straight boys with toothbrush shivs and orange jumpsuits flirting with him.
Hyhybt
That’s not at all “the only upside.” The chance of an outright acquittal, or else another mistrial where they decide not to bother having a third attempt, are too great to ignore.
JayKay
A disgusting and egregious miscarriage of justice.
Picture this: A 14 year-old black, trans, lesbian from a family with a history of abuse is being sexually harassed by a young, heterosexual, white boy at school. The harassment is getting worse, the school knows all about it, but they’re doing absolutely nothing to stop it. So one day this girl brings a gun to school and puts a bullet in the back of the boy’s head.
Would that be charged as a hate crime? No. Would she be charged as an adult? Of course not. Would she get 21 years? Holy fuck no, not even close…21 days would be a stretch. Hell, most of the leftists howling and shrieking for BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD in McInerney’s case would want to give that girl a medal and her own holiday.
the other Greg
@Hyhybt: He “finally plead guilty” so there’s no second trial.
Andrew
You can tell Brandon comes from a poor, dysfunctional family from the wrong side of the tracks. In America, if Brandon had wealthy parents there is no way this emotionally troubled 14 year old would have been tried as an adult and sentenced to 21 years in jail. Most children who commit crimes in America aren’t even named in the newspaper.
marco
@David Ehrenstein:
Do you realize how monstrous you sound? Two young lives are ruined. One is dead. The other’s life is wasted.
McInerney committed a horrific act as a child. That doesn’t mean that he can’t be rehabilitated. He’s gone into the system as a 15 year old child and will leave as a 38 year old man with no life choices ahead of him.
Are you the same person you were as a 15 year old? Why would you wish death on him?
Hyhybt
@the other Greg: Exactly the point I was making. Another trial would leave a large possibility of a murderer going free. That this has been avoided by his pleading guilty is far more important than just avoiding the defense presenting its nonsense again.
@JayKay: Not AT ALL the same. You’re accepting lies as truth, specifically the defense’s reversal of who was harassing whom.
Cinesnatch
It’s always easy to guess who wrote the article when I click on a salacious headline at Queerty.
ReW
Brandon – Hope you get fisted by Butch and Remus while getting shanked by Brutus.
The crustybastard
It’s a GED, not a GRE.
But the important thing is that McInerney actually ADMITTED he committed the murder.
Finally.
Erik
@JayKay: You know what? Lets play devil’s advocate and say you’re right. What difference does it make? In our society, you don’t get to shoot people who make unwanted advances towards you. If you aren’t interested, you call them an ugly @!%& and tell them to get lost. If they don’t lay a hand on you, you can’t lay a hand on them. You don’t get to gun them down, in cold blood, and murder them.
End of story.
While 21 years is not enough for premeditated murder, McInerney will spend his entire youth in prison. That is a high price to pay.
christopher di spirito
I always wonder what precisely makes a person so full of hate and animus toward people they perceive as “other” or “different”? Brandon McInerney’s mother told the media he wasn’t taught homophobia at home. It’s all so tragic and incomparable. These kids were just beginning their lives. Now one is dead and the other one might as well be.
Charles
@JayKay: Picture your fictitious tale? Were you there personally in the classroom when this happened? Did you witness in person all that led up to and including the taking of another life? Yea, picture your “Christian” generated fantasy! like Bryan Fischer and all the ilk like him. The “Christian” generated hatred toward gays like this is founded mostly in BS. It is this hatred that is generated in the Churches that comes from the pulpit that eventually makes its way down to people like the guy that murdered King. What? A smaller soft girl like kid (King) through mere talk <> a bigger and stronger kid kill him? A bigger kid –KNOWN– for his (in cage) fighting skills? Give me a fucking break.
Charles
Computer glitch corrected. “A smaller soft girl like kid (King) through mere talk MADE a bigger and stronger kid kill him?
Henry
As vicious, evil, and nonsensical as McInerney’s crime was, I can’t help but think that justice was not entirely served with his sentence. After all, he killed a gay kid when he was 14, not when he was 32. He was just a child when it happened, not an adult who teaches at a university.
Gary
@JayKay: republicans, the tea party, and the KKK all believe in revenge killings and taking justice into their own hands, why shouldn’t progressives?
Mr. Enemabag Jones
@JayKay:
Hell, most of the leftists howling and shrieking for BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD in McInerney’s case would want to give that girl a medal and her own holiday.
Yes we would, JayKay. And if you don’t like it, go fuck yourself.
JayKay
@Gary:
So a 14 year-old deserves to rot and die, but any time a black cop killer is executed the leftists line up outside the prison to sob and wail about it. Interesting mindset they have.
JayKay
@Mr. Enemabag Jones:
So you admit that liberals are inherently anti-white and anti-male. About damn time.
Red Meat
@JayKay: Did you just say it was ok to kill someone as a teen because of abuse at home and only get 21 days in prison? Yes, you did.
Mr. Enemabag Jones
@JayKay:
So you admit that liberals are inherently anti-white and anti-male.
Totes. In fact, I’m so anti-white, and anti-male, that I hate myself, and have filed a human rights complaint against me.
Ryan Stultz
There’s no magic number of years in prison (or death penalty) that will bring Lawrence King. But a 21 year sentence means that McInerney will never have a real chance to be rehabilitated. I know and agree what he did was horrible, but is locking him up for 21 years going to make another kid think twice about killing? No, it’s not. We’ve increased our incarceration rates to the highest in the world, and it hasn’t had any effect on crime rates.
This was a 14 year old kid. You might as well put him to death if you’re going to give up on any chance of rehabilitating him. Those of you saying he should have gotten a longer sentence, would you support the death penalty for a kid? If so, shame on you.
cwm
I’m not entirely without sympathy for someone only 14 years old who receives what some might consider a harsh sentence.
However, it seems as if most of the folks urging leniency for McInerney are those who’d ordinarily call for more teens to be tried as adults, and more murderers to be given the death penalty (or life without parole).
So…what’s the difference here? Do I have to spell it out?
The victim was queer. Thus worth less than other human beings.
America has a long tradition. If you kill one of them, all you have to do is say, “I couldn’t help myself; he came on to me, and it filled me with uncontrollable disgust and rage.” You’ll walk. Or get a slap on the wrist.
And yes, the old ways are changing. If the murder is sufficiently brutal and notorious, you might get convicted of second-degree murder and spend significant time in prison.
Just don’t call it a harsh sentence. Because a large proportion of convicted murderers will never see a blue sky again.
What’s particularly galling is when people talk as if Larry King provoked his killer.
Already, King was being assaulted–brutally and repeatedly (probably on a daily basis)–by McInerney and others.
He was nearly powerless, and fought back in the only way he could. Which was to attempt to humiliate his attackers.
For that, he deserved to die?
Retrosexual
@JayKay: Black, brown, red, yellow, or white, everyone likes a cop killer. All of God’s children like cop killers. The only people who don’t are cops, and they’re a little biased.
Retrosexual
Of course, this isn’t to say that cop killing is a good thing. I hope no one would be foolish enough to think that’s what I meant. It only means that a lot of people like cop killers, and if you don’t think so, you really don’t know much about human nature.
Cinesnatch
@Mr. Enemabag Jones: And if you don’t like it, go fuck yourself.
Always a class act, that Enemabag Jones.
Phil
@Gary: Because we’re not them.
Dave
Best case scenario: Brandon McInerney is sodomized with a dull box-cutter after which his ass is washed out with a pressure washer and Dr?no, his nipples burned off with a blow torch, and his testicles ripped off and stuffed down his throat. His hands and feet are bound, and he is thrown into a vat of semen to drown. Then his corpse is fed to a cockroach colony.
21 years is a goddamned travesty.
Kate LBT
@Dave: best case scenario is actually that he realizes HOW wrong what he’s done is.
All the revenge porn in the world won’t bring Leticia King back from the dead.
David Ehrenstein
@marco: I’m exactly the same person I was as a 15 year-old. Out and proud.
I’ll be 65 in February.
John
@marco:
it’s not about rehabilitation, the american criminal system is about Justice
Kate LBT
@John: If it’s not about rehabilitation, then it’s about revenge, and revenge isn’t “justice.”
ke
@Kate LBT: says who, ma’am?
Queer Supremacist
Best case scenario: Brandon McInernazi vs. a lynch mob of drag queens with torches. Drag Queens 1, Brandon 0.
Second best case scenario: Brandon McInernazi faces lethal injection for the premeditated murder of Lawrence King.
Not anywhere near best case scenario: A 21-year sentence. Unless, of course, he dies in prison. Hope springs eternal.
@JayKay: I’m not a leftist. I’m to the right of you on several issues. And I would consider this theoretical woman my patron saint. The day some gay kid finally does snap after getting pushed a bit too far, I’m not only going to celebrate, I’ll contribute to his legal defense fund if he doesn’t off himself like the two Columbine kids. And he would be justified in his actions.
murphy0071
In 21 years he should have the biggest cauliflowers in the world.