Unfinished Lives

Remembering LGBT Hate Crime Victims

Man Who Stabbed His Gay Neighbor 61 Times Acquitted Using Gay Panic Defense

Joseph Biedermann

Joseph Biedermann

Chicago, IL – The Advocate reports on July 13 that Jospeh Biedermann, 30, who stabbed his gay neighbor 61 times with a replica dagger in 2008 has been acquitted using the infamous “gay panic defense.”   Police report that both men were drunk at the time.  Biedermann’s attorney, Sam Adam, Jr., successfully argued that his client was acting in “self-defense” when he killed Terence Michael Hauser, 38, for “unwanted sexual advances.”  Counselor Adam has also successfully defended Rhythm and Blues singer, R.Kelly in his 2008 child porn trial.  He is currently representing former Illinois Governor, Rod Blagojevich. Michael Rowe, writer for The Huffington Post, gives chilling details and a string of unanswered questions concerning the overkill Biedermann used to fend off his horny neighbor.  Rowe writes: “Other questions remain, including the question of how stabbing a man 61 times for making even anunwanted sexual advance to another man is considered an acceptable reaction, let alone a defense. Wrestling a weapon from an assailant’s hand and stabbing him with it once or twice–even fatally–might be an entirely credible one in that situation, assuming there was some evidence of the alleged assault.”  If this is not a classic example of anti-homosexual rage acted out until the alleged malefactor was not just killed by the blows, but cut to absolute shreds, it is hard to know what one would look like.  Biederman asked no help from any neighbors, and never called 911.  Instead, he went to his girlfriend’s place, waking her at 3 am, dripping with so much blood that she put bowls around the room for his discarded clothing so that the stain wouldn’t get all over her home.  Biedermann took a shower, dressed, and then went to the hospital, never calling police.  His girlfriend called to report that he had left someone butchered to death.  The significance of the Cook County jury’s decision is mind-blowing.  How is ‘gay panic’ ever an acceptable explanation for such massive overkill, much less a defense for it?  Who was the supposedly horny neighbor who so threatened Biedermann that he had to be cut to ribbons?  Rowe writes: “And what of the victim? The real victim, the one who died in a hailstorm of 61 knife slashes in the early morning hours of March 5th 2008? According to Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Gerber, he was ‘a lonely, little guy who lived by himself and wanted companionship.'” [Thanks and a tip o’ the hat to Steven Hanes for alerting the Unfinished Lives Project to the HuffPo article.]

July 16, 2009 - Posted by | gay men, gay panic defense, Heterosexism and homophobia, Illinois, Law and Order, stabbings | , , , , , ,

2 Comments

  1. He deserves to rot in jail.

    Comment by Ron Rendon | July 16, 2009

  2. […] Man Who Stabbed His Gay Neighbor 61 Times Acquitted Using Gay Panic Defense « Unfinished Lives. […]

    Pingback by How to Get Away with Murder: A Guide to the Gay Panic Defense | jaysays.com | | July 16, 2009


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