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Loading ...Death Penalty Sought In Gay Man’s Murder
08.01.2008 11:00am EDT
(Oklahoma City, Okla.) A man described as a skinhead and white supremacist who is accused of killing a gay man in a hate crime may face the death penalty.
Steven Domer, 62, was abducted last Oct. 26. His car was found the following day and Domer’s body was discovered in a ravine.
Friends said that Domer sometimes picked up other men for sex. Witnesses said that Domer was seen talking to two men the night he disappeared.
Investigators then began probing whether anyone known to be gay lived in the area where Domer’s body was found.
That led them to Darrell Lynn Madden, 37. Madden at the time was facing a murder charge in connection with the slaying of his friend Bradley Qualls. Qualls was murdered about 10 days after Domer disappeared.
Last week, Madden accepted a plead deal in the Qualls slaying. He will serve a life sentence plus 30 years.
Police say that both Madden and Qualls were involved in the Domer murder. They allege that both Madden and Qualls were connected to the United Aryan Brotherhood, a violent white supremacist group. But investigators also claim that Madden is bisexual.
According to an affidavit filed by the prosecutor in the Domer case, the killing was part of an initiation for Qualls.
Both Qualls and Madden fit descriptions of the two men who Domer was seen talking to shortly before he disappeared.
The court documents show that Madden’s roommate told police he overheard Madden and another man talking about someone who “wouldn’t even fight back”.
A woman Madden had sometimes dated said she heard him and Qualls talk about killing a man, the affidavit stated.
Madden has been charged with murder in Domer’s slaying, on top of the murder charge he has in the Qualls case.
Although police have said the Domer murder was motivated by a hatred of gays, the prosecutor said he cannot charge Madden with a hate crime because sexuality is not covered under Oklahoma law.
Aye, this story hits close to home! I was bashed by white supremacist/skin heads nearly 3 weeks before the end of college during my 3rd. year in Creston, IA. Sadly, the police WOULDN’T help me, nor attempt to keep me safe; they simply told me that my life was in danger while I was living in town, and that it would be best for my safety if I left town. I should have suspected that Creston had skinheads when I noticed a pick-up truck driving around town with the confederate flag flying from the back of it! For a long time, afterwards, I suffered from PTSD [Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder], flinching at the drop of a hat and ven having nightmares, etc.
All I remember was the sounds of shoes running up behind me; and, when I turned, I gopt a fist in my face. I did not run, however, as I walked one block to my apt. fending off and deflecting his blows; but, I didn’t run, as I figured it’d only enrage him and make it worse (like any animalistic mentality to pounce on the “weak”). Sadly, no one came to my defence, when I was in the heart of town! So, after severalk minutes, to go search for help, I saught out a friend I saw on a street in town. But, on the way back (and I consider myself lucky to be alive, perhaps, because of this) I noticed a man wearing a cowboy hat emerge from the shadows between two homse across the street–this all occured at night, around 9 or so–and he stopped when my nextdoor neighbor emerged to take his dog potty; he then walked backwards, back into the darkness. I locked my doors that night, and never experienced anymore trouble. Though, I went to stay with friends in Des Moines while I completed school that year, for my own safety.
I as a gay man in 3 other minority groups and millions of others as well are absolutely sick-and-tired of killers or people who go out killing minorities [or even encourage hate crimes, which “some” - but NOT all churches do], on the “perceived” or “actual bases” that they are in a minority group (race, religion, color, disability, gender, sexual orientation, etc). Lock-up all pieces of scum like; murders, child molesters (paedophiles), arsonists, terrorists (including George Bush) and put them in a very unconfutable and awfully cold, dark, exceedingly small and incredibly smelly cell for the rest of his life for a “minimum of life” and I hope he gets raped in a cell. I am “very opposed to all forms of the death penalty”, it actually encourages more deaths and “completely justifies governments to murder or blackmail people, give good reasons for the Iraq War or any other wars” for example. It just makes me sick and ill, that a man kills others “only on the victims basis of being in a minority group”.
Well, we have to give Oklahoma props for vigorously pursuing justice in this case even if the death penalty is obscenely primitive. It wouldn’t have been surprising if they had declared the killers state heroes. Broadcasting Madden’s “bisexuality” (let’s face it; he’s most likely gay) over the entire Internet is probably experienced by him as severe punishment, which is both a sad commentary on homophobia and a delightful comeuppance given the nature of his crime. Not likely he’ll rest easy in prison.
I’AM SO SAD TO HEAR THIS,I HAS A LATINO MAN WORKING AT MAYFAIR HOTEL HAS A CHEF HEAR TOO MANY SAD STORIES!
A psychological profile on these two would be interesting. Lets do a follow up story, and get to the root of the problem. These abstract articles are too common on the internet. It would be beneficial, for those of us who like to read, and delve deeper into the details.
I was brought up (and continue to support the belief) that if you take a life you forfeit your own life. In my book, the exception to this personal rule is if you are defending your country, family, or your own life. From what I know of this case, Madden must forfeit his life, to balance the scales of justice.
It costs tax payers upwards of $50K a year to house murderers. Kill’em and be done with them. The money is needed elsewhere.
Oh goodie! Another opportunity for me, as a non-American, to be snide and condescending about your fascinating country. You’re just making it too easy for us, you really are. Okay, here goes:
“The death penalty? My goodness, you mean to say you people still have that? Gracious! And you have extra-judicial torture too? How frightfully quaint! Oh how endearing! It’s like it’s still 1815 south of the Mason-Dixon Line! Oh I could just kiss your little country, I really could!”
I suppose Rep. Sally Kern doesn’t see any connect between her hate SPEECH and a gay hate CRIME of MURDER. She should. Language has consequences. Language like the hate-filled screeds of Savage, Limbaugh, Dobson, Sheldon, Wildmon and yes, Sally Kern, inspires weak, bigoted people of low intelligence to ACT on the feeling inflamed by those words. Watching “Nazis in America” was very instructive. Most if not all of the present wave of anti-gay and anti-African-American hate speech and hate crimes stems from the Eugenics Movement in the 1930s and the German-American Bund in the 1940s. They failed with women, blacks, and Jews; now they’re going after GLBT persons.
Father Raymond Clark
Superior (retired)
Community of the Resurrection
San Diego CA
Let him rot in jail, instead.
I oppose the death penalty! Let him rot in jail, instead.
At least they are seeking some form of a penalty equal to the crime. Look at what happened with Sighn in Sacramento today. Sighn killer got less then a year in county jail for his hate crime.
Kill him. “Humans” like that,immoral and uncivilized, are the lowest form of life.
I am personally opposed to the death penalty on the basis that it is not immoral but uncivilized. Okalahoma has no provision for hate crimes against Gays because it is run by the Baptist Religion.