Law and Order
Appropriate justice in anti-gay hate crimes remains an elusive prospect. Lesser charges and reduced sentences for hate crime perpetrators point to a legal system that refuses to recognize the full humanity of the victims. Because the victims are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, the murders are regarded as less offensive in the eyes of courts, judges, and juries in many communities.
Take for example the May 2007 murder of Sean Kennedy, age 20, in Greenville County, South Carolina. Despite the brutal nature of Kennedy’s murder, the man who shouted anti-gay epithets and used his fists to beat his victim to the ground was able to avoid a lengthy jail sentence. Stephen Moller, the man arrested and brought to trial in the Kennedy murder case, had the charges reduced from murder to involuntary manslaughter.
In addition to having the charge downgraded to manslaughter, Moller’s original sentence of five years in prison was first reduced to three years, and then shortened by seven months for time already served. In the end, Moller’s entire prison sentence will most likely come to about a year and a half.
According to a June 2008 article in the Box Turtle Bulletin, the South Carolina Equity Court of Appeals has said that torturing animals can result in a sentence of five years. In the hate crime murder case of Sean Kennedy, the justice system has made the life of a dog more valuable than a human being’s.
Or consider the case of Aleksandr Shevchenko, the man charged with a hate crime after fatally beating Satendar Singh at Lake Natoma, California, in 2007. When a jury deadlocked in Shevchenko’s trial, the court instead convicted Singh’s killer for disturbing the peace and simple assault. The court sentenced Shevchenko to 150 days in jail. An August 2, 2008, article published by the Sacramento Bee reported the Sacramento District Attorney’s Office will not retry Shevchenko on the hate crime charge. Because of the verdict, the value of Satendar Singh’s life has been reduced to approximately five months in jail.
Miscarriages of justice, like in the cases of Sean Kennedy and Satendar Singh, occur in communities across America.
Read a related article at the website for WYFF channel 4 News in South Carolina.
4 Comments »
Leave a comment
About
If you are a first-time visitor to the Unfinished Lives Project website, we invite you to read A Welcome Message introducing you to our project. We are truly grateful for your visit.
The Unfinished Lives Project website is a place of public discourse which remembers and honors LGBTQ hate crime victims, while also revealing the reality of unseen violence perpetrated against people whose only “offense” is their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender presentation. LGBTQ people in the United States are suffering a slow-rolling decimation of terror and murder all across the country. Every locale and demographic of society are affected: First Nations, Anglo, Black, Latino and Latina, South and Southeast Asian, Transgender, Bisexuals, Gay men, Lesbians, disabled, young, and mature. Homophobia has a long, crooked arm, and it is reaching out to snatch the life away from women and men whose tragic stories are under-reported to begin with, and whose memories are swiftly forgotten.
The horror of these killings transcends the shock and bereavement of loved ones and friends. These are not typical homicides; they are not killings for money or drugs, incidents of domestic strife, or crimes of passion. The vicious nature of hate crimes against LGBTQ persons is extremely brutal, grotesquely violent, and egregiously hateful.
Each murder serves the LGBTQ population as a sobering warning about the actual level of danger in our communities. The message these killings send is that freedom and open life for LGBTQ people is a cruel dream. Every time we remember one of these victims, however, the intentions of their killers are frustrated. To remember these women and men is to begin the process of changing the culture that killed them.
Our Project Director
Dr. Stephen V. Sprinkle (Keith Tew photo).
Stephen V. Sprinkle is Director of Field Education and Supervised Ministry, and Professor of Practical Theology at Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, Texas, a post he has held since 1994. An ordained Baptist minister, he is the first open and out Gay scholar in the history of the Divinity School, and the first open and out LGBTQ person to be tenured there. Read More…
Recent Social Justice Advocacy Activity By Dr. Sprinkle
Summer 2009 – Dr. Sprinkle responded to the Fort Worth Police Department and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Raid on the Rainbow Lounge, Fort Worth’s newest gay bar, on June 28, 2009, the exact 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion. Dr. Sprinkle was invited to speak at three protest events sponsored by Queer LiberAction of Dallas. Here, he is keynoting the Rainbow Lounge Protest at the Tarrant County Courthouse on July 12, 2009. Read More…
Contact Us
Communicate with the Unfinished Lives project team:
info@unfinishedlivesblog.com
Schedule a Presentation
Dr. Sprinkle will gladly present his acclaimed presentation to your organization. To arrange an Unfinished Lives presentation for your organization or group, please contact us.
Dr. Sprinkle has given his Unfinished Lives presentation to these and other community groups and organizations. Read More…
-
Where are our readers?
Publisher: Steve Sprinkle (Project Director)
Steve Sprinkle
Unfinished Lives: Remembering LGBT Hate Crime VictimsBrite Divinity School/Texas Christian UniversityFort Worth TXprofessor, minister, author, blogger, LGBTQ advocate
Follow Unfinished Lives on Facebook
Box Turtle Bulletin- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
- HRC Back Story
- Know About The Gender Identity Movement
- Why Is There A Need For Human Rights?
- Kinds Of Human Rights
- Human Rights Purposes And Violations
- Human Rights For Every Human Incident
- 8 Reasons Human Rights Are Important
- Everything About Human Rights
- Human Rights Issues Education & Law
- We Need To Stand Up For Our Rights And Those Of Others
- Coca-Cola Receives Perfect Score On Human Rights
- The Advocate: Daily News
- The queerest education in America: How LGBTQ+ kids thrive at this Indiana school
- 05/12/24
- Eurovision crowns first nonbinary winner after politically charged song contest
- NY court strikes down Nassau County order banning transgender athletes from competing on girls’ sports teams
- Appeals court sides with Catholic school that fired gay teacher for plans to marry his partner
- A mom's Mother's Day tribute to learn and grow alongside her transgender child
- Happy Mother's Day to more than 60 of our favorite LGBTQ+ moms
- Over 20 Republican-led states are challenging Biden admin's LGBTQ-inclusive Title IX rule
- Cyndi Lauper hailed as a pioneering activist for queer people in a new documentary
- California competition bars transgender and intersex surfer, then reverses course
- Dallas Voice: Instant Tea
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
Unfinished Lives 
I was horrified reading this page… Taking a human life with these insults and racial slurs, and also anti gay slurs.
And the criminal that was a member of a gang of brutality gets only 150 days in a county jail ??
How absurd !! This invites more murders and more Hate Crimes.
I linked this page of “Unfinished Lives” from my site of “Raciality and Brutality”.
I have lists of Murdered People in Hate Crimes, including Women, some sexually enslaved, tortured, humilliated, beaten and kicked.
A very long list of Ecuadorean ( and Latinos ) beaten and kicked to death in New York City :
Manuel Aucaquizhpi 1994
Rene Perez 2007
Marcelo Lucero 2008
Jose Sucuzhanay 2008
( I have more victims in my lists )
Add Luis Ramirez kicked to death in Shenandoah Pennsylvania in July 2008
Only crime : “being Latinos”.
Even White People like Senator Tom Duane have been savagely attacked and beaten for being Gay. By gangs of cowards. I have him on my pages speaking to Latinos and condemning these crimes.
I have a very long list of victims, and even Girls that have been beaten, kicked or enslaved for weeks for Sexual Pleasure, Sadism,Torture and Humilliation.
Here :
Raciality.com
Vicente Duque
[…] the outcome: Aleksandr Shevchenko, the man charged with a hate crime after fatally beating Satendar Singh at […]
Pingback by London The » Alvin McEwen: Scott Lively demonstrates how to throw gasoline on an anti-gay brush fire | March 14, 2010 |
[…] friends went to the hospital to be with him in his final days, and he died on July 5th. And the outcome: Aleksandr Shevchenko, the man charged with a hate crime after fatally beating Satendar Singh at […]
Pingback by London The » Alvin McEwen: Scott Lively demonstrates how to throw gasoline on an anti-gay brush fire | March 14, 2010 |
[…] the outcome: Aleksandr Shevchenko, the man charged with a hate crime after fatally beating Satendar Singh at […]
Pingback by Alvin McEwen: Scott Lively demonstrates how to throw gasoline on an anti-gay brush fire | Best Breaking News | March 14, 2010 |