 |
 |
| Mourners gathered on the steps of the S.C. Capitol on July 1, 2007, for
a vigil marking the death of Sean Kennedy, who was killed by one punch
from a man who later bragged about ‘knocking out’ a ‘faggot.’ (Photo by
Gerry Melendez/The State/AP) |
|
|
| | |
| |
|
|
| | |
HOME > NEWS > LOCAL
By: RYAN LEE
COMMENTS |
| 
As Elke Kennedy continues to cry for her lost son, she feels the state of South Carolina laughing in her face. Sean Kennedy, a 20-year-old gay man, died in May 2007 after being brutally attacked in the streets of Greenville, S.C.
“Our judicial system is a joke, and it is trying to make you believe that it is there to assure justice,” Elke Kennedy said after her son’s killer, Stephen Moller, was sentenced last week to three years in prison.
Because a South Carolina grand jury indicted Moller on involuntary manslaughter charges instead of murder, the maximum sentence Moller faced was five years in jail. A murder sentence in South Carolina carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years.
“There was no justice for my son, Sean,” Elke Kennedy said. “The sentence that Stephen Moller received is a joke and a slap on the wrist.”
As part of a plea agreement on June 11, South Carolina Judge Ned Miller gave Moller a suspended sentence of three years in jail and three years of probation. Miller also gave Moller credit for seven months he has already served in prison following Kennedy’s death, making Moller eligible for parole as early as 2009.
“The easy thing to do would be to give him five years and move on,” Miller said, according to the Greenville News. Instead, Miller said he wanted to offer Moller, 18 at the time of the attack, a chance to be rehabilitated.
Mark Moyer, the Greenville assistant solicitor who prosecuted Moller, characterized the judge’s sentence as “pretty much the maximum” available for Moller.
“That was as strong a sentence as could be given under the circumstances,” said Moyer. “We acknowledge that the decision was reflective of South Carolina law.”
But when South Carolina law allows an admitted killer — who bragged about beating up a “fucking faggot” minutes after the attack — to walk free after just three years in prison, federal intervention is appropriate, said Cristina Finch, senior counsel for the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay political group.
“It’s a perfect example of why we need a federal hate crimes law” that includes sexual orientation and gender identity, Finch said.
“I think [South Carolina prosecutors] were just constrained by the legal tools they had to work with,” Finch said. “The circumstances of the case didn’t lend themselves to a hate crime charge, especially since there is no state hate crime law to even charge under.”
‘YOUR BOY IS KNOCKED OUT’
South Carolina is one of 18 states, including Georgia, which does not have a hate crimes law that specifically includes sexual orientation.
Elke Kennedy believes her son was not only targeted because of his sexual orientation, but that it was also a factor in how Sean’s death was investigated and prosecuted.
“I believe if Sean wasn’t gay, it would’ve been different,” Kennedy said. “In fact, I believe that Sean’s case has been mishandled from the beginning. … Sheriff’s deputies did not take it seriously.”
According to court records, Sean Kennedy was leaving a Greenville bar on May 16, 2007, when he ran into some female friends who were talking with Moller and other young men in a car. Kennedy allegedly distracted the young women from talking to Moller, who also alleged that Kennedy accidentally burned his face with a cigarette.
Moller exited the car and delivered a single blow to Kennedy’s face, knocking him to the ground and causing Kennedy’s brain to separate from his brain stem and ricochet inside his head.
After fleeing the crime scene by car, Moller placed a drunken call to one of the women who witnessed the attack.
“Hey, I was just wondering how your boyfriend’s feeling right about now [laughter],” Moller said, according to a transcript of the call that was read during Moller’s sentencing. “The fucking faggot … Yea boy, your boy is knocked out, man. The motherfucker. Tell him he owes me $500 for breaking my goddamn hand on his teeth, that fucking bitch.”
The Greenville Solicitor’s office looked into whether Moller attacked Sean because he was gay, “even though motive isn’t an element” in prosecuting a crime, Moyer said.
“We know he used some ugly language in a telephone call right after, and from that standpoint it might give some people reason to believe there was an underlying motive to what he did,” said Moyer, who added ...
|
