The ongoing drama surrounding Lawrence King’s February murder took another twist yesterday.
California Judge postponed the arraignment of 14-year old Brandon McInerney, who’s accused of shooting fifteen year old King, who had a crush on the boy. The arraignment was meant to take place yesterday, but will now occur on June 12.
In the meantime, journalist Karen Ocamb had a chat with District Attorney Maeve Fox, who discussed the limited possibility of a plea bargain, why McInerney represents a very adult threat and, yes, took on the defense team’s claim that the school is to blame for King’s murder…
In an extensive phone interview with The Advocate after the hearing, Fox said she hasn’t “seen anything that would make me raise an eyebrow about how the school handled” the situation.
…
ox said it is “way too early” to discuss whether she might offer a plea bargain, giving McInerney the opportunity to accept a deal that may be less than maximum time in prison.“We don’t generally plea bargain in this county,” said Fox, who specializes in homicides. “Ninety percent of the cases go to trial. But we are open to listening to anything that will convince us of what the right thing to do is – so that is certainly a possibility in the future. It’s way to early to speculate.”
You know what that means: many more months of finger-pointing, angry editorials and general hysteria over what’s undoubtedly going to be a spectacular judicial show.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Tom
The only thing that will be “spectacular” about this case is will be the complete blackout of news coverage that it will receive and the likely watered-down punishment the killer will receive.
I am still outraged that gay rights groups issued a statement calling for the killer to be tried as a juvenile. But I guess it should not be surprising since it was probably easier for them to identify with the killer than the mixed-race kid.
beefy
i don’t know about the mixed race thing, but i think it’s easier for them to identify with the killer because he is straight.
Alec
Tom:
At 14 he’s four years shy of being able to have sex legally and you want to impose the maximum sentence on this kid? To what end?
He’s a teenage boy. Teenage boys do really, really stupid things (I was one, and I remember it pretty well).
Everyone who works in the criminal justice system is accustomed to human tragedy. While Ms. Fox has her position, think long and hard about what locking this boy up for life would accomplish. No one in the community appears to want to send him away for life. I think that should be a pretty compelling reason to charge him as a juvenile.
This is a horrible, tragic case, but knee jerk arguments for vindictive “justice” are not what’s called for in this kind of situation.
Rob Moore
Alec, I couldn’t agree more. Trying the boy as an adult is compounding the tragedy with another tragedy.
I resent people telling me that I cannot identify with Lawrence King because he was mixed race. Quite honestly, I didn’t know until today nor does it matter. He was a child and his killer even younger. I am not just a gay man. I am a father. I do not see just a murder victim and a murderer, I see two boys who could be my sons.
Tom
Saying that “teenage boys do really stupid things” is not only shocking in light of the gravity of the crime but is also dismissive of Lawrence’s life that was intentionally taken away.
A stupid thing is when teenagers play with loaded guns. A stupider thing is when adults allow access to guns by teenagers.
But this murder was not a stupid teenage act by any stretch. This little monster was in the high school Marine Corps program so he was training to be a killer. He went home and got his gun and then shot Lawrence in the head twice (repeat twice) while the kid sat at his desk. He knew exactly what he was doing. There are some crimes that are so heinous they deserve to be considered as adult crimes when committed by minors. This, in my view, is such a case.
As for the race of the victim, unfortunately we live in a society where the lives of those in the minority are not held in equal value. I seriously doubt we would have heard a peep from the gay rights groups if the murderer was a 14 year old gangbanger from East L.A. Thats because the media and society have already conditioned our minds to believe THOSE people are animals and we should have no sympathy for them. I resent people who do not recognize nor admit this fact.
Bill Perdue
Tom’s comments are well thought out and grounded in the need to defend ourselves, especially our young, from the violence incited by religious and political bigots. Those in our communities who want clemency or who dismiss this murder as a prank by a disturbed teenager are doing the rest of us a grave disservice. Violent thugs are emboldened equally by cult and political bigots who incite hatred and by those who advocate leniency for the thugs who kill us.
In the GLBT communities they’re usually the same people who couldn’t be bothered to utter a word of protest when the Democrats tossed the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes bill in the garbage last December. The Democrats did that AFTER it had passed both houses of Congress and they did it for one reason only – because they were terrified the Republicans would use it and ENDA as ‘wedge issues’ in November.
The murder of Lawrence King and the other hate murders committed so far in this election cycle are the direct and immediate result of backstabbing by the Democratic (sic) Party.
We’ll learn more when the trial and testimony begin but it’s clear that McInerney’s a vicious thug who committed remorseless, premeditated murder. He deserves the maximum penalty, as do all those guilty of hate crimes and genocide. I looked it up and Tom is right; according to the Ventura County Star McInerney “joined the Young Marines — the Marine Corps’ equivalent of a JROTC program — several years ago and became a leader in the group…” If he doesn’t go to jail he’ll end up in Iraq where US armed and trained jihadist death squads hunt down and kill GLBT youth for sport.
Mr C
AMEN Bill Perdue, and Tom,
I have no sympathy for this kid. At 14 yes he had enough BALL to shoot a kid. Which is strange because it’s normally Black and Latino kids who makes the evening news and is normally known for this.
And believe it or not this still wasn’t big news here on the East coast. The cable news ran it first and it died down. Not because of the baby boy being Bi-Racial. But because he was Gay.
And that is SAD. That goes to show us where society see LGBT. We really have not advanced as everyone wants to say we have. There is still a lot to be done. But that young murderer needs to be tried and sentenced because he was fully aware of what he was doing and needs to be responsible for his actions.
Jazz
I just want to know if the kid that shot the queer is black. If he was black I see what the big fuss is about. I personally wouldnt have killed the fagg but he would have a got a good but whoopin.If someone can help me out and tell me if the killer was black.If u r black my heart goes out to u if ur not then who cares.
SwilsglalNili
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Get Real!
Had Larry respected others none of this would’ve ever happened. Brandon’s rights to an education and self respect were being violated by a perverted cross dresser who saw fit to prostitute himself to minors on a school campus. That’s disgusting!
We send our children to school to receive an education and certainly not to be harassed by a cross dressing weirdo who clearly misunderstood the school for the gay Mardi Gras! If this ever happened to my son I’d shoot the bastard myself!