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Loading ...Federal court vacates sentence of gay man’s killer
08.06.2008 1:21pm EDT
(Cincinnati, Ohio) A federal appeals court has overturned the sentence of a man who has spent the past 23 years on death row for the killing of gay man
Robert Van Hook never denied strangling, stabbing and mutilating the body of David Self in Self’s Cincinnati apartment in 1985. The two had met in a local gay bar earlier on the day of the killing.At the time Van Hook claimed temporary insanity.
A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week threw out the death sentence Van Hook received, saying that he had received ineffective legal counsel in the sentencing phase of the trial.
“We think it is the correct decision under the circumstances, and we think there is even more evidence than they discussed that will support their decision,” attorney Keith Yeazel who represented Van Hook in his appeal told The Associated Press.
The prosecution has 180 days to conduct a new penalty phase. If not Van Hook’s death sentence will become void.
A spokesperson for the Ohio attorney general’s office said a decision is likely in about two weeks.
Last year, the full 6th Circuit overturned a ruling by the same three judge panel that vacated Van Hook’s conviction. In its decision on the sentencing the panel looked at portions of the sentencing phase that it did not address the the earlier decision.
Obviously the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agrees with the United States Military in valuing murderers and rapists far more highly than a lowly gay man. There irrational hatred of all things gay must be exposed.
When will we take justice into our own hands? It is obvious the government has no desire to protect us in the constitutional equation, even though they continue to drain us of our taxes and shuffle the proceeds to ‘Faith Based Programs’
Toy plastic handcuffs? Which 365Gay staff member supplied those for the photo?
The Court threw out ONLY the sentence, not the conviction. The Court threw out the sentence because the man recieved ineffective counsel, not because they cleared him or his victim was of less value to the Court. This is the second time there have been problems in the sentencing of this murderer.
A fair trial and sentencing would mean that this murderer would be convicted, and stay sentenced. And insanity in Ohio is NOT grounds for release.
SW:
You are right! It is a must that the Legal System be self-correcting, even if our knee-jerk reactions are to the contrary. Without this ability to correct inept legal counsel, etc…our system stands the chance of becoming tyrannical, which is FAR WORSE than a sentance being commuted.
So, I will, for the time being, recind my previous post – but keep it on account for another time when we truly need to be vigilant.