Elke Kennedy sent this piece around to friends today. After her son’s death, she founded Sean’s Last Wish (a Network member) to work for passage of hate crimes legislation in South Carolina. The editorial was published in Washington Blade.
Gay man’s killer should be the last homophobe to get away with murder.
By Jeff Marootian
SEAN WILLIAM KENNEDY would have turned 21 on April 8, but his life was taken from him last May when he was beaten to death while walking home from a bar in Greenville, S.C.
After an evening of fun with friends, you’re happy as you walk toward the comforts of home. A car speeds up beside you. An unfamiliar man jumps out. He calls you a faggot and punches you in the face knocking you out. As you fall, unconscious, your head cracks on the curb.
Stephen Moller, who issued that blow to Sean’s head, later left this voicemail for a friend of Sean’s: “You tell your faggot friend that when he wakes up he owes me $500 for my broken hand.”
As punishment, Moller will likely serve less than a year in jail for an act of violence motivated by hate and fear. Less than a year for ending the promising life of a mother’s son, brother to loving siblings and a friend to many.
In Sean’s case, the prosecutors claim they cannot prove “malicious intent” — that Moller intended to kill Kennedy.
So, they have formally charged him with involuntary manslaughter. While this carries a maximum sentence of five years, Moller will likely be set free with little to no time actually served.
A JURY SHOULD have the option to decide if this is a hate crime and prosecutors should have the option to ask for such a verdict. Sadly, hate crimes laws do not exist in South Carolina and the federal statute for hate crimes does not include sexual orientation and gender identity. The major force of hate crimes laws lies in the generally included “penalty enhancement” clause that empowers the court to increase the penalty for someone convicted of such a crime. Sean’s killer should spend more than one year in jail.
Having spent five years working as a civilian in a law enforcement agency, I have heard most of the arguments from all sides of the hate crimes issue.
There has been a great deal of meaningful debate about their effectiveness and concern over their justification. Proving that hatred is a motivation can be both costly and untenable, but this cost pales in comparison to the cost of letting offenders slip through a faulty system.
SINCE SEAN KENNEDY’S death, there have been several other high profile incidents that involved killing motivated by hate and fear. No single law will end the cycle of ignorance that leads people to this type of violence.
Our energies must be focused on changing the root causes of this kind of violence, and the criminal justice system must be united and unwavering in handling these types of crimes. Sean is sadly not the last LGBT youth to be killed because of who he was, nor was he the first.
We should work to honor Sean’s last wish that his killer must be among the last to be prosecuted under a sieve-like system that lets Moller slip through.
For more information about the passage of hate crimes laws, visit www.seanslastwish.com.