3 Yr. Sentence In Gay Man’s Death

[mitchtv]

http://www.365gay.com/news/3-yr-sentence-in-gay-mans-death/
Columbia, South Carolina) A 19 year old man has been sentenced to three years in prison in death of a gay man who was beaten outside a Greenville, South Carolina bar.

Send / ShareAdd Comment"It's the best that we could have hoped for, but it's not enough."
Prior to sentencing Stephen Andrew Moller pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the May 2007 death of 20-year-old Sean William Kennedy.

Kennedy had just left the bar and was walking to his car last May when a vehicle stopped along side him. A man got out, approached Kennedy, uttering anti-gay remarks and then hit Kennedy in the face.

The young man fell and struck his head on the pavement. He later died in hospital without regaining consciousness.

more>>>
Pretty much disqualifies SC as a member state in the US if you ask me

Sean Kennedy’s Murderer Up For Early Parole
http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2009/01/05/7796

Last June, we asked what a young gay man’s life was worth. A judge in South Carolina concluded that it was worth about a year and a half. That’s the sentence that Stephen Moller received for the death of Sean Kennedy. Sean, 20, was attacked outside a Greenville County, S.C. bar on May 16, 2007. Witnesses said that Moller shouted anti-gay epithets at Kennedy before attacking him. Sean died of his injuries.

Moller was originally charged with murder, but the grand jury reduced the charge to involuntary manslaughter. Moller pleaded guilty to those reduced charges and was sentenced to five years, reduced to three, minus seven months for time served. Moller’s attorney said that when all is said and done, Moller will probably serve about a year and a half. With credit for time served, he was due to be released in September 2009.

Well, now it’s possible that Moller could be out of prison as early as February. A web site set up in Sean Kennedy’s memory, Sean’s Last Wish, is asking for your help:

The parole board is currently conducting an investigation to decide whether to allow him to have a parole hearing, so it is critical that they hear from you that Stephen Andrew Moller violently murdered Sean Kennedy and should serve the remainder of his sentence!

Please consider writing a letter to the parole board and ask them to deny Stephen Moller parole and serve out his sentence. In your letter, please remind the board of the violent and unprovoked nature of Moller’s offense and the pain and suffering it has caused in the lives of Sean Kennedy’s family and friends. If you have the time, please write a personal letter by hand or by computer, as those will be the most effective, and if you knew Sean or his family personally, please include that information.

Also, please let Elke know if you send a letter and if possible, send her a copy of the letter, so she can have copies to take with her to the parole hearing.

Be sure to include Moller’s full name

[xchrom]

1. the best we could have hoped for --

:grr: :nuke: :grr:

[mitchtv]

5. 2 words

South Carolina

[ThomCat]

2. So he'll serve, what, 10 months? For Murder.

:grr:

[mitchtv]

4. Getting out in February

He's learned

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. wow.

[msongs]

6. gee he could kill 5 more and still serve less than 10 years in South Carolina nt

[mitchtv]

7. contact Parole Board:

Be sure to include Moller’s full name and ID number:
Stephen Andrew Moller - SCDC ID # 00328891.

Send your letters to:
Department of Probation Pardon and Parole Services
2221 Devine Street, Suite 600, PO Box 50666
Columbia SC 29250

Please forward to your contacts, friends and family.
Thank you for all of your support

[varkam]

8. Why isn't it being treated as a hate crime?

That would've tacked on a few more years.

[bluedawg12]

9. Does S. Carolina even have hate crime laws?

That was one of the arguments the rw used for opposing gay-hate crimes,, that we don't need 'em cause we already have crime laws on the books.

This is an example--it seems--of why Federal hate crime laws are needed, because the local atmosphere may be a hot bed of the same hate attitude as the perp, and local juries and courts will sympathize with the perp. :grr:

[readmoreoften]

10. My question is 'why isn't it being treated as a murder?' Anarchists at the RNC got longer sentences

for conspiring to block a road and putting up a website saying that the RNC needed to be protested 'by any means necessary.'

Hell. There's a guy who's been in prison since 1974 for having a joint in Georgetown, Texas.

[varkam]

11. Given the fact-pattern in the article, it would seem that there was no intent...

...or gross recklessness or intent to inflict grievous bodily harm and so it doesn't seem that there would be any way to charge murder or voluntary manslaughter (just based on the MPC - not on their state statutes). I would guess that's why the grand jury refused to indict for murder. IMO, the prosecution probably charged murder as a way to give them a bit more leverage when it came to plea bargaining. As the saying goes, you can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich, but I guess this particular DA bit off a bit more than he could chew. If the grand jury did indict, then we would probably be seeing a voluntary manslaughter conviction.

At any rate, it seems like you would be able to sentence a bit more than three years for involuntary manslaughter.

[MidwestTransplant]

12. What's an ounce of pot worth in SC I wonder

[TechBear_Seattle]

13. Thank goodness we already have all the rights we need

And gay issues are irrelevant in today's progressive social climate.

[The Doctor.]

14. I'd like to talk to him.

Has he any clue what he's done?

Remorse? Regret?

No?

Then he simply doesn't belong in society.

[barbtries]

15. how i feel for his family.

and i feel as if i know their pain too well. my daughter's killer got 4 years and served a little over 2. how i can recall the agony of learning they planned to allow bekah's killer to plead out of the murder charge. i wrote about it here:http://www.geocities.com/bbalesgeo/113001.html

one of the ways i have dealt with it was to conclude that nobody gets away with murder. if they don't pay here, they will pay on the other side. i would be eaten alive by bitterness otherwise.

when does hate end. this bad guy should be going away for decades.

[readmoreoften]

17. I'm really sorry for your loss. It's horrible.

[ThomCat]

18. I am very sorry that you lost a daughter.

:hug:

[closeupready]

21. I'm sorry that you lost Bekah like that.

:( But thank you for the link, and I am sending healing thoughts your way. :hug:

[TEmperorHasNoClothes]

23. I am so sorry

I hope you don't believe that you allowed this to happen. The person responsible is the murdering sociopath and the fucked up criminal justice system. I wish there was something I could say to make this easier for you.

[David Zephyr]

16. State of the Union. Being murdered, fired from your job are part of our "special rights"

Thanks for posting the link.

[Jamastiene]

19. It pains me to have to say this, but:

We REALLY SHOULD be thankful he got any time at all. In Greenville, South Carolina, I'm really surprised they tried the homophobic murdering bastard at all. I know that area. It's just like this area where I live right across the state line in NC. It's shit. It's full of shit people and shit nothing but more shit. It's pure shit here on the line between NC and SC. It's rural, full of over zealous religious nuts (ALL right wing Christianity, no other religion allowed here) and full of people who spend the vast majority of their time trying to prove they hate gay people more than the next homophobic bastard. It's like they have circle homophobe offs. Whoever loses gets called gay and gets brutalized for it just for sport. I shit you not. That's what it is like in this area.

I'm surprised the murdering bastard even got charged. Fuck SC and NC too, while I'm at it.

[donco6]

20. What? No, "He came on to me" defense?

They'd have let him go completely with that one.

[TEmperorHasNoClothes]

22. I don't even have the words to express my disgust for this