Texas, the law-and-order state, has some of the harshest criminal codes anywhere. But if you’re only 17, and you kill someone and then spend two decades in jail obtaining college degrees, you will apparently be released. Or maybe it’s only if you kill a queer?
On July 4, 1991, Jon Buice and nine other male teens drove from a northern Houston suburb to the heavily gay area of Montrose to, as one of the teens put it, “beat up some queers.” Buice and pals beat and stabbed 27-year-old gay man, Paul Broussard, to death. Broussard had been at the gay bar Heaven. Buice later turned himself in after being encouraged by his father to do so.
In 2007 he was denied parole but now, after serving 20 of the 45 year sentence, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has voted for his release noting “Mr. Buice has completed several college degrees and numerous other vocational type courses during his incarceration…Mr. Buice was only 17 years of age at the time of the Instant Offense. Additionally, Mr. Buice will have the following Special Conditions upon release: Maximum level of Supervision; Substance Abuse Treatment; Electronic Monitoring; and No contact with Victim.”
The last of which seems rather difficult, since the victim is dead.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Last month, Broussard’s mother, pleaded with the parole board stating that Buice should at least spend a total of 27 years in jail, as that was the age of her son when Buice murdered him on the 4th of July.
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christopher di spirito
The Lone Star state has a long and celebrated history of letting high school football darlings off the hook when they bash or kill gay men.
I could never fathom why so many gays live in Dallas.
You couldn’t get me to move to Texas if you paid me.
tjr101
Hmm…it must be nice being a straight, white male criminal in Texas!
TheRealMannequinAdam
Sick. I guess innocent gay lives aren’t worth shit in Texas.
randy
How about as a condition of parole you go in to therapy to deal with your homophobia? And then you have to work with gay kids to learn how hard it is to be gay in the society that he represents? OR community service whereby he goes to Texas churches and talks about how killing gays really isn’t the Christian thing to do?
Something to at least know that hating on gays isn’t a good thing.
Kamuriie
20 years is a pretty long sentence, even for murder. As of ’92, average time served for homicide was just under 6 years, according to the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics. (http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/PSATSFV.PDF)
Things have gotten a little bit stricter since then, but not vastly, and it differs based on state, and moreso when controlled for the severity of crime. But, in general, people rarely serve the long sentences they get, and people get out of jail much faster than you’d expect for all but the most heinous murders.
Ganondorf
@Kamuriie:
And forever’s a pretty long time to be dead.
This fucker should have got the death penalty. He cannot possibly make amends; and honestly, if you were to follow the reasoning of one luminary, a life no matter how miserable compares to death. But it’s Texas, where the law deems some lives more valuable than others.
nashvegasdj
all i have to say is , “WHAT THE FUCK????”
Steve
Cool, so if I get my Ph.D. and then kill someone for no reason I don’t have to serve my entire prison sentence? Good to know.
greenmusic23f
@Steve: No, no, you must do the crime FIRST. THEN educate yourself. A new variation on, “shoot first, ask questions later”.
natriley
Count me on the side of the Parole Board. Jon Buice served more than international norms suggest. He has clearly tried to fit himself for life on the outside. The ideas that Queers gain by forcing people to stay in prison for interminable periods strikes me as right wing nonsense.
the crustybastard
Swami Crustynanda predicts that upon Buice’s release he will complain loudly about the terrible persecutions he has suffered at the hands of the sinister Lavender Mafia, whereupon he will be hired by a homo-hating Christian group to give youth groups speeches about how, as a Christian, he’s the real victim because he only wanted to teach those faggots a lesson about little baby Jesus.
Christ, it’s not even a challenge to predict the derp these assholes inevitably herp.
Mr. Enemabag Jones
Additionally, Mr. Buice will have the following Special Conditions upon release:…and No contact with Victim.
Very easy to do, when your victim is dead.
But that’t ok, Buice got hisself some good book learning on the taxpayer’s dime.
alan Balehead
has he evolved his beliefs???…
Bill Kirk
@Steve: Hello you have to be uneducated and get you PH’d there. I new kind of redemession.
Bill Kirk
btw. I live in Canada where we have no death penalty and at 17 you are still considered a Juvinle. Yeah my spelling is terrible. What I am saying is that this individual spent a long time of his early adult years in prison. Where he took it upon himself to ‘get educated’. You all remember the very stupid things you did at 17 and most likely OMG. I really do not know the nasty details of this but, do not want to get on the bandwagon because he killed a gay brother. Hate/Anger is everywhere. Love and Forgiveness is a choice.
alfie
He’s only 17 when he did it.. 17.. i’m sure we all did stupid things when we’re that age.. i’m sorry that the victim died, but 20 years in prison is already a good punishment..
Cam
Why is he getting “Substance Abuse Treatment” as a condition of his parole? So apparently having a raging drug addiction doesn’t interfere with time off for “Good Behavior”?
Erich
For something that he did when he was 17, an age when we all do incredibly stupid shi* without thinking of the consequences, 20 years is a really long time. Yes, he killed a human being, but the US has the highest percentage of its population locked up in prison out of any country in the world, and lets not pretend we’re trying to rehabilitate anyone. We put people in jail for revenge. It’s not even like his prison sentence is over. He’ll never be able to get a decent job regardless of the degrees he obtained while incarcerated. I just feel really sorry for him, and hope that his time in jail hasn’t made him a career criminal.
nashvegasdj
ok, people we can whine and feel sorry for this asshole all we want, but the fact remains that he ad 20 years to pend in jail. the man he KILLED did not!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
why the FUCK would we gloss over that. the fucking sentence was 45 years, not 45 years unless you say sorry and get a degree. if he was man enough to do the crime at 17, he was man enough to accept the punishment and fucking take ALL of it.
it’s ok, though. see GOD plays by different rules than man does and you do not FUCK with his people!!! justice will prevail and he will get his. i am absolutely appalled at the numbers of you who are so quick to let him out! maybe if he had killed YOUR boyfriend or fwb you would be a bit more upset and outraged. like normal, however if it dont affect us, we wanna turn a blind eye.
nashvegasdj
@Erich: dude grow up!!! that dead man will NEVER see anything again. we are not talking about a joyride in a stolen car. he fuckin lost his life and yall are FOR letting the asshole who killed him out of prison because he got a degree???? you must be a homophobe yourself
Erich
@nashvegasdj – Not a homophobe, I’m proud of who I am. I just don’t believe in Magic Sky Fairy’s Eye for an Eye b.s. He was 17; Not even old enough to vote. He’s spent more years of his life locked up like an animal than he’s been alive. Yes, he took a human life and that is horrific beyond words but my main issue is that he wasn’t old enough to make a cognizant decision that didn’t involve hormones and environment. I could care less that he’s earned a couple of degrees on the taxpayer’s dime, they’re not going to help him at all. Just because he’s not rotting in some cell doesn’t mean that his personal hell is over. Anyone with access to google is going to be judging him for the rest of his life.
TxHeat
gay-rights activist Ray Hill,who runs a prison radio show originally helped police catch Broussard’s killers, argued for Buice’s release. Hill has befriended Buice and claims he’s remorseful for the attack, which Hill now says wasn’t a hate crime. I’m from this area and many folks think Ray Hill has gotten favors to work for his release.Ray Hill
nashvegasdj
@Erich: i get it….so if you are old enough to vote THEN you should serve out your sentence. thank you for clearing that up for me. as fo rthe “magic sky fairy” he said dont fucking kill!!!! DUDE DECIDED TO KILL SOMEONE for no other reason than he was gay. HOW IS THAT EVER EXCUSABLE????? there are people serving life sentences right now because they had a joint in their car and you think it is cool for him to be OUT?????
WHATEVER, MAN!!!!
nashvegasdj
@Erich: maybe he will kill you next, get his masters or a doctorate and get rich doing guest spots on dr. phil
Erich
@nashvegasdj: Dude, the word Juvenile exists for a reason. It means that someone of that age does not have the cognitive skills of an adult.
Let me try this from another angle. As commenter Kamuriie pointed out, the average time spent in prison for homicide is around 6 years, 20 years in prison is a pretty significant amount of time. It’s not like they booked and tried him and said, “Oh you killed a homo, thanks guy, we’ll let you out early.” We in the gay community have endured more than our fair share of violence over the years, and the point I’m trying to drill into your head is that this guy isn’t getting a walk even thought he killed a gay guy regardless of what the title of this article implies. He has spent more of his life in prison than out of it for something he did as a juvenile.
One of the usual arguments from right-wing organizations is that gay rights advocates want special rights – which always turns my stomach. I don’t want special rights, I want the same equal rights as everyone else. A juvenile killed a man, spent 14 more years in prison than your average murderer, and is finally being released to a lifetime sentence of shame and poverty. Our community intensely dislikes the fact that he’s in jail for killing one of us, but the fact remains that 1. He was a juvenile at the time, and 2. He’s served a lot more time for that murder than your average killer. He’s not getting a walk by any stretch.
There’s no scandal here, just a sad story of one life taken and another ruined by hate.
nashvegasdj
@Erich: i would hope that as adults, we could agree to disagree. there is no need to DRILL anything into my head. frankly, i think if you kill someone REGARDLESS of your age, YOU should die as well. there are people that blow up buildings. does that mean i should go do it too???? our justice system is FUCKED UP. if we stuck to our laws and sentences, maybe they would deter even the young and incapable of thinking (again bullshit) from committing such crimes. the problem is that there is ALWAYS an excuse when we fuck up. no one is EVER responsible. there is always a mitigating factor that excuses us from having to suffer consequences. the sentence was not 20 years, you get a free education, we let you out and you suffer shame for the rest of your life. it was 45 years. i understand that YOU feel he ha had enough, but when has the dead guy had enough? when does he get out of death??? when does he get his publically funded education??? when does he get to rebuild his life???
HE DOESN’T!!!!!
but at least dude is remorseful and has learned his lesson, right????
you can call me right wing or anything else you like, but if you take a life, you should give yours up. i’m done. peace and blessings, man
Erich
@nashvegasdj: As for the people doing significant time in prison for recreational drugs, I think it’s pretty easy to say that the War On Drugs is quite simply stupid. If you think about for one second, it makes way more sense to regulate and tax marijuana than to send (blacks and latinos dis-proportionally) to jail for that. This is coming from a guy that doesn’t do drugs at all.
Erich
@nashvegasdj: Fair enough dude. We agree to disagree and that is one of the best things about the society we live in. I feel like he’s served enough time to balance the scales of justice and you don’t. We’ll let it go at that. I come from a strong religious background – which I have obviously rejected – but I respect your opinion.
nashvegasdj
@Erich: 🙂
Erich
@nashvegasdj: Obviously we both feel strongly about gay rights/human rights and the issues surrounding them, I’d be surprised if we didn’t agree 95% of the time. Talk to you later buddy.
nashvegasdj
@Erich: you are probably right..haha. peace and blessings to you, my friend!! have a great night
Queer Supremacist
I’m surprised these shitkickers didn’t pardon his cracker breeder goy ass. In a civilized society (i.e. one run exclusively by gays), he would have been executed the day of his sentencing. Bash a fag, lose your life! There is no punishment too severe for a hate crime. None whatsoever.
It’s bad enough that breeder cunt who murdered her kid got off.
Jim
If he had done this crime in California, the legal system would have likely let him out much, much sooner, especially since he was a minor at the time, and it was a first offense. So, by the logic of this article, California is more homophobic than Texas. Let’s not immediately jump to the worst conclusion.
Kamuriie
@Ganondorf: You’re implying that Texas pardoned him after “so little time” because he killed “just a faggot.” No one should excuse what the killer did, but he spent longer in jail (20 years) than the entire life he’d lived up until the crime (17 years old).
Again, not excusing what the killer did, but psychological research continues to suggest that the mind isn’t done developing until your 20’s, including decision-making and risk-taking centers. As punishment for his crime, he lost, by far, the best years of his life, any chance at making a good career and working towards retirement, his prime for finding a mate, and is forever branded an ex-con, and only a quick Google search would show he’s a convicted murderer.
Implying that he “got off light” because he killed “just a faggot, in Texas” is totally groundless. He served a longer-than-average sentence for a crime he committed–as a minor.
The wisdom of the death penalty is an entirely different matter, but I’ll just say this: the Supreme Court ruled in Roper v. Simmons (2005) that people who commit crimes under the age of 18 cannot be executed–it is a crime against humanity to execute children.
darrell dyer
@alfie: when I was 17 I had no desire to beat up or kill anyone.
ToyotaBedZRock
He was 17, a minor…
Second WTF is wrong with a country that can never forgive and advocates and eye for an eye.
Mike in Asheville
@Steve: No — you kill first, then get your degree, PhD or other, then you get released after 20 years.
Mike in Asheville
@Ganondorf: Certainly hypocrisy abounds around this story.
NONETHELESS, rightly, the SCOTUS has ruled, children CANNOT be subject to the death penalty, even when they are convicted as adults. The murderer was 17 at the time of the crime, a child, not subject to the death penalty.
Jaroslaw
Perhaps he spent more time in jail than “international norms” but I doubt it. Do international norms include China, Iraq, Iran and Russia? Alternately, the ONLY reason some of these places let people out is because they can’t afford to keep them in prison or provide the health care (many have or acquire diseases while in prison…)
And international norms, unfortunately, don’t really correlate when you have the kind of culture & values (or lack thereof)generally in the USA esp. in a place like Texas.
Yes, I’m sorry if he had crappy parents or bad genes, but everyone is always so concerned about the perpetrators and not the victims.
There is something to be said for him being only 17 but that would be the ONLY mitigating factor in my book. Imagine IF YOU YOURSELF had been raped or repeatedly burglarized. You NEVER ever feel completely safe again. You may even have health problems because you drink too much or have mental issues. Yes, I’m advocating for much longer sentences. Some things, like murder – a person should probably never get out.
Jim Hlavac
And this sort of thing is what happens when you give people like Marcus Bachmann, Tony Perkins, Maggie Gallagher and the rest of them and their followers an inch of breathing room — and as far as I’m concerned the parole board’s members who voted for this are part and parcel of the whole shebang — they are indoctrinating entire swaths of the population that a “culture war” against gays is fine — and that to get rid of us any one way or the other is just peachy –and this is just a piece of the big puzzle — it does not stand alone. It’s the totality of the assault upon us that matters, not these individual things that are seen as separate events. Start connecting the dots — for this encourages the next attack upon us — and they use the “gays are abominations” defense, the “twinkie defense” the “homosexual panic” defense and on and on, that well, it’s just a “queer” killed, so it’s not that important. Remember, it’s a war declared against us. And I’m not paranoid, for all these people and the gay killers have declared it and wage it. And it’s our 2nd Amendment Right to self-defense we should invoke.
Ogre Magi
What a travesty, he should have been executed
Hyhybt
20 years is enough. Yes, being locked up is better (or so I’m told) than being dead… but keeping him in jail doesn’t undo anything. I don’t think *anyone* should be locked up more than 20 years per offense… UNLESS they pose a danger to others. There’s just no point to it.
Ganondorf
@Mike in Asheville:
Rightly? How do you figure?
schlukitz
@Jaroslaw:
It is interesting to note, Jaroslaw, that the bleeding hearts that show more concern for the perp than the victim have, more than likely, never been the victim of a gay hate crime or had a member of their family murdered.
Had they, they would probably be singing a different tune.
Patsy Stoned
On the upside, the psychopathic murdering sack of shit is too fucking OLD to go on “joyrides” to bash and murder gays now.
But I hope all of you making excuses and saying “oh poor thing wasn’t old enough to know what he was doing and served SOOOOOO much time just for taking some fags life” remember that attitude the next time some 17 year old gay-basher pulls a knife on YOU or someone you might care about.
Somehow at 17 I understood it was wrong to gleefully take another life. Even, as evidenced by the “justice” system and some apologists on this board, one as little-treasured as a gay one.
Oh, and I hope all you “oooooh forgive the poor misguided child” advocates go take up the cause of the other murderous shitbag who killed Lawrence King. After all, he was only 14 and can’t be held accountable for his actions. Have fun cheering on gay-bashers and murderers – especially when they are holding the knife on your fucking throats.
Sebastian
@Patsy Stoned…….I concur!
17 is a child….give me a break!
JC
One less fag in the world, he should get a medal.