May 20, 2005
Jesus And the Gay Bashers
by Lorraine Berry
Jesus did not get the attackers of Micah Painter off the hook.
If Judge Ramsdell was moved by the repeated invocations of God's name, it didn't show. He batted away Olmstead's argument that an exceptionally light sentence was warranted because Samusenko was remorseful ("The defendant's insight is too little too late"). He torpedoed Olmstead's claim that Samusenko was a victim of his own intoxication that night, noting Samusenko's two prior convictions for being a minor in possession ("The defendant had been forewarned that his involvement with alcohol tended to result in criminal dif?culties"). And Judge Ramsdell seemed particularly dismissive of Olmstead's argument that Painter had brought the assault on himself. When Samusenko approached the victim holding a broken vodka bottle and demanded to know whether he was gay, Painter replied "yes." Samusenko then stabbed Painter in the face and back. "Did [Painter] initiate the contact?" Judge Ramsdell asked. He then answered, for Olmstead's bene?t: "No."
Thank you, Judge Ramsdell.
Posted by in Body, Christian Fundamentalism, Civil Rights, Crime, Culture War, Extremists, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, Law, Sidelinks, Violence
Permalink |
Comments (0)
| TrackBack (0) | Technorati Cosmos
Trackbacks
Trackback for this post:http://www.culturekitchen.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/2963
The following blogs make reference to this post :
