Hate Crimes: August 2005 Archives

Calling the slaying of 17-year-old Gwen Araujo a “classic case of crime of passion” -- manslaughter rather than murder -- attorney J. Tony Serra offered the events the night of the killing were unimaginable to the defendants.

“It was like a bolt of lightning that struck and singed their minds,” Serra said Thursday during an exhaustive closing argument in which he used metaphor, allegory and references to 19th-century literature to frame the high-profile case.

Serra’s client, 25-year-old Jason Cazares (pictured) of Newark, and two of Cazares’ childhood friends, Michael Magidson and Jose Merel, also both 25, are accused of beating and strangling Gwen at Merel’s Newark home.

The motive? The men became enraged after discovering Gwen, whom they called “Lida,” had male genitalia. That discovery ruined the clubhouse environment at the Merel house, where, Serra said, rites of masculinity -- including rampant drinking, drug use and sex -- were the norm.

The Merel house was “the most meaningful thing in their lives,” Serra told jurors, and the belief that they had been deceived into homosexual sex was the trigger for the killing.

While saying his client, Cazares, should be acquitted, Serra also insisted that at the very worst the three on trial should receive no greater punishment than a voluntary manslaughter conviction. It’s the sentence that Jaron Nabors, a fourth man involved and the state’s star witness, received for agreeing to testify against the three others. Defense attorneys have said Nabors is the killer. (source)

Other sources
Lamiero delivers closing argument
Retrial of 3 Men Nears End

“That discovery ruined the clubhouse environment at the Merel house, where, Serra said, rites of masculinity -- including rampant drinking, drug use and sex -- were the norm.” ... making the Merel house was “the most meaningful thing in their lives.”

How 1950’s.

So here we are all over again claiming a sort of gay panic defense because the sex-crazed boys who wanted to get off on drugs booze and sex found out that the one they wanted the sex with had a penis. So of course, they had to kill him. Makes sense. Show everyone what a man you are and kill the pervert.

Then, their attorneys will claim that they had no choice in the killing because it was a “crime of passion” and that the boys were so freaked out by the site of a penis on their hope-to-be sex mate that they lost all sense of reality and that these otherwise good boys (aside from the heavy drinking, drugs, and sex) just couldn’t help themselves.

When Matthew Shepard was murdered, it galvanized many people to finally start addressing hate crimes. We still have a long way to go, but it’s getting more difficult than ever to make the gay panic defense stick. Why? Because we are more visible now. More of us have come out of the closet to claim our lives and our destinys. With that, the comfort level of people has gone up.

Now, transgendered people have the same battle to face. Most of society still does not understand this and what they face. They are still viewed by the vast majority as freaks.

It’s time that we talked about their lives and what they face. I’ve seen that first hand, although I’m unable to talk about it because it is work related. I can tell you that the amount of courage it takes to deal with the harassment and hatred, let alone the isolation that many transgenered people face, is quite unbelievable.

A prosecutor asked jurors Wednesday to imagine the last, frightening moments of life for a transgender teenager who was allegedly murdered by three male companions after they learned she was biologically male.

Gwen Araujo, 17, was born a boy but grew up to believe her true identity was female. Prosecutors say she was beaten and strangled after the defendants discovered the pretty, flirtatious teen was actually a young man.

“Think about wrapping that rope around the neck of a living, breathing human being and squeezing it tighter and tighter and tighter,” prosecutor Chris Lamiero in closing arguments. “What do you think was going through the killer’s mind? ‘Got to keep holding it, got to keep holding it.’” (source)

An Orlando area gay couple whose home was torched last month in what police say was a hate crime have now become the victims of robbery.

Paul Day and Christopher Robertson returned to the burned out shell of their home on the weekend to retrieve some of their belongings only to find that someone had ransacked what was left of their mobile home.

The few items of any value that were in the ruined home the young couple shared were taken.

"I don't know if it was the same people or someone being opportunistic," Day told The Sentinel newspaper. "But they took their sweet time and went through everything." (source)

Past writing
10-13-2005 - Hate Crime and Arson Found to be a Hoax
07-29-2005 - You have to Love Florida

Photos

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According to underground Iranian activists, a third gay man has been executed in Iran this month, and two more are on death row for the crime of homosexual intercourse.

On July 19, the hanging of two gay teenagers sparked international outrage. Allegedly the third execution occurred on August 16 in the city of Arak. Several European countries and the United Nations have publicly condemned Iran’s harsh punishment of gays, and some have halted extraditions of gay Iranians. The two men sentenced on death row are said to be awaiting execution on August 27.

Iranian gay rights group Homan claims the government has executed at least 4000 gays since 1979. (credit)