'Gay Panic' Defense Invoked to Justify Murder Again

[marmar]

from AlterNet's PEEK:



'Gay Panic' Defense Invoked to Justify Murder Again

Posted by Pam Spaulding, Pandagon at 6:00 AM on April 10, 2008.

Baptist says his beliefs were compromised by come-on; forgot 'Thou Shalt not Kill'



Here we go again, this time in Michigan. From the Grand Rapids Press:

Scarborough admits in taped police interview that he hit Victor Manious with a bat, stuffed him in a car trunk after sexual advances.

More taped police interviews with accused murderer Steve Scarborough were played today for the jury charged with deciding whether the 21-year-old is responsible for the murder of Victor Manious in July.

In the interview between Grand Rapids Detective Kristen Rogers and Scarborough done from a Texas county lock-up, the accused claims that he was sitting in the Kalamazoo Avenue SE apartment of his friend Justin Robinson when Manious entered the apartment.

He said Manious set his keys on a kitchen counter, crossed over to the living room where Scarborough sat on a couch and asked if Robinson was home while at the same time the 62-year-old removed his clothes. Scarborough was interviewed for several hours, which were taped after he fled to the Houston area on Aug. 3 with a plane ticket he allegedly bought using Manious' credit card.

Scarborough said Manious, stripped down to his underwear, put his arm around him, tried to kiss Scarborough and grabbed at him. Scarborough said he was freaked out by the advances of the man, hit him with a bat and dragged his body down a flight of stairs. He said he put the man in the trunk of his own Toyota and left the victim to die in the car parked on Ottawa Avenue NW.

What is also clear is that if Scarborough was in such a panic, he got over it pretty quickly after stuffing Manious's body in the trunk, since he went on a four-day binge, using the dead man's cell phone and credit cards for shopping sprees, gas and air fare to Texas. He was arrested in the Lone Star State.

There are lots of news articles about this case, and Scarborough's account seems to change in them. In another article, Scarborough claimed in court that Manious didn't just make a pass at him, but that he was sexually assaulted and his Baptist beliefs, no lie, were violated and thus justifies the bat attack.

Scarborough testified that Manious asked for Robinson, then the 62-year-old Egypt native hit the younger man in the head and knocked him out. Scarborough said he woke up to find Manious in his underwear, on top of him, sexually assaulting him by oral sex.

Scarborough testified that he was so unnerved by the assault, which violated his beliefs as a Southern Baptist, that he grabbed a nearby bat and hit Manious in the head.

There was also testimony at the trial by a Peruvian immigrant, Carlos Barbaran, who said that two days before the Manious slaying, Scarborough and two of his friends assaulted and robbed Barbaran, shouting "give me your money, bitch," and took $300 in cash from his wallet, his green card, and his credit cards.

Did that violate Scarborough's Baptist faith? Just asking. The gay panic excuse of defense attorney Paul Denenfeld was in full effect, and also claims that Scarborough's friend Justin Robinson convinced Scarborough to hide the body and evidence.

The family of Victor Manious groaned as they listened to an attorney claim the 62-year-old church leader was living a secret gay life and was "on the prowl" when he met the man accused of beating him with a baseball bat and leaving him to die in the trunk of a car.

... Denenfeld described Scarborough as a simple young man from Tennessee, possessing an aversion to homosexuality instilled in him by a conservative Southern Baptist upbringing.

"(Scarborough) is not Albert Einstein," Denenfeld said. "He is more of a follower than a leader."

... "With Justin's urging, Steven made a lot of bad and dumb decisions," Denenfeld said. "Justin is a liar and pathological manipulator who is up to his eyeballs in this crime, but who police have chosen as a primary witness in this trial."

Assistant Kent County Prosecutor Helen Brinkman said bluntly that "This was no self-defense. This was a robbery and a kidnapping," and that Manious would have survived the bat attack had he received medical attention instead of being locked in the trunk of the car while Scarborough gone on his road trip/spree. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/81947/#more

[DU9598]

1. Theory

So, as a gay man, if a woman puts the moves on me then I can be shocked into killing her - or it could be self-defense to stop her from trying to make me straight?

[hulklogan]

3. And straight women who are subjected to unwanted advances

can bash the man's head in and stuff his body in a trunk before going on a massive shopping spree!

Imagine the precedent this will set if it works.

[Elspeth]

4. If I am a Christian woman and a married man makes a pass at me and won't stop...

Can I kill him because adultery is against my religion and makes me PANIC?

[Winterblues]

7. With new carry/castle laws a woman can shoot a man if she feels threatened

So why can't a man shoot another man if he feels threatened? What is the difference between killing with a bat or a gun, the person is still dead?

[xchrom]

2. the victim is dead.

kinda hard to get his version of events.

[gratuitous]

5. What is so depressing about this

Is that it suggests itself as a legitimate defense at all. And as suggested in an earlier post, we have just Mr. Scarborough's word for this alleged gay pass. I have friends in Kalamazoo, and I know this nonsense wouldn't fly with them. Hopefully a jury won't be hood-winked either.

[Blue_Tires]

6. i get the feeling there will be a 'not guilty' verdict coming

or more realistically; a 12-month slap on the wrist