Mistrial in the Slaying of Gay Teen, Larry King
Mistrial madness makes a mockery of the United States justice system? There has been astonishment around the globe this week when a U.S. judge declared a mistrial in the trial of the murderer of gay teen school boy, Larry King.
Larry,15-years old, was shot not once, but twice, in the head, while he sat in class. Despite a whole room full of witnesses, and despite fellow student Brandon McInerney not denying that he fired the gun twice into the back of Larry’s head, the jury said that could not agree whether or not to convict Brandon McInerney and Brandon Larry.
It’s been revealed that the jurors were deadlocked 7 to 5 in favour of voluntary manslaughter in the emotional and highly charged two month long trial, closely watched around the world. The defense attorney Scott Wippert tried to solicit sympathy for his client, saying McInerney was ‘disappointed’ at the mistrial because his fate was left hanging.
According to local media reports, McInerney sat rather stiffly in silence at the defense table as the Ventura County Judge, Charles Campbel,l declared it a mistrial. Kendra McInerney, his mother, sobbed into her hands. King’s parents, Greg and Dawn King, stormed from the courtroom with other relatives, while the judge was still addressing the jurors at the time, such was their disgust and dismay with the judge’s decision.
The case has been widely viewed around the world as a test case regarding the relatively new hate crime laws in some states of America. However earlier in the trial, jurors had universally rejected the prosecution's contention that the shooting was a hate crime carried out by a youth filled with white supremacist beliefs and a hatred for homosexuals. This is despite racist literature found at McInerney’s home and witness confirming they had heard him use anti-gay slurs and language toward King on a number of times.
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