Comments on: Larry King Suspect To Be Tried as Adult

By: David

David — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:43:21 +0000

A 14 year old boy is not an adult and so it makes no sense to say that he has committed an adult crime. What is an adult murder? Is there such a thing as a juvenile murder? It makes me sad to note that in California’s justice system there isn’t room to treat this accused murderer like the juvenile he is. It makes me even more sad to observe the groundswell of support that exists for holding that view.
It seems to me that even in cases where children and minors commit henious crimes they must still be considered as something other than adults – simply because they are something other than adults.

By: John

John — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 06:20:37 +0000

“Brandon is not some crazed lunatic”, he is a calculating cold-blooded murder. Do adult crime – do adult time. After he is convicted of this premeditated murder premised on hate, I hope he does get life so he can die slowly in the way he fears the most – being gang raped on a daily basis. All you bleeding-heart liberals should be doing back handsprings because he used a gun and that compounds the murder and the hate with a handgun violation (Satan laughing with delight). Please note that you can kill people with baseball bats, crowbars, pushing them down stairs, etc. – so, why don’t we have anti-baseball bat, anti-crowbar, anti-stair, or anti-etc. laws.

Anyway, evil does not require intelligence or cognition of what it is doing; therefore, like a mad dog, McInerney needs to be put down. Did you all forget that he did open fire in a classroom full of potential additional victims? Oh, by the way, homosexual panic is not a valid defense – especially when you have spent days planning the crime.

By: SteveMD2

SteveMD2 — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 06:29:27 +0000

“In April, a coalition of 27 LGBT rights groups called on the district attorney not to prosecute McInerney as an adult.”

I don’t quite get it. Assuming conviction, This kid should be locked up for life, no possibility of parole for two reasons – punishment for a heinous crime, and a message to others that super-machismo and murder simply doesn’t fly in America.

What is missing is a way of punishing the people who encourage this type of hatred. Sometimes I think we live in a nation with it’s own Taliban, except THEIR use of their symbol is a disgrace to the very meaning of Jesus Life on Earth, namely a cross.

And from what I’ve read, the perpetrator was a rambo type personality. He reminds me of another of that mentality, who was so totally twisted that he blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma in 1995, the LATE Terry McVeigh.

One of the reasons I am so deeply involved in the gay civil rights movement is that I have learned these folks are great people who don’t hate people at all, and simply want to live peaceably and with equality and justice for all. They aren’t the macho freaks of which our society is loaded. Something is terribly wrong with America, and this killing is another example of it.

By: b

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:39:22 +0000

he wouldnt serve life. california state prisions are horrible. he would be out before 50 years. if he was tried as an adult. otherwise he would spend a few years in jail and then come out. and what..do it all over again?

he obvously thought about killing larry king. he brought a gun to school. at 14 thats a huge deal. he shot him in front of 20 other students. meaning he didnt care. he should be tried as an adult. he commited murder. he took someones life. and thats unexcusable.

the school shouldnt be blamed for anything, nor should the parents. i believe he is old enough to comphrend exactly whats going on. on top of the hate crime he should get charged with possesion of a firearm, having a firearm on campus and whatever else they. he commited a “grown up crime” he should without a doubt suffer.

this is a horrible horrible thing.

my heart goes out to larry kings family.

By: Teedy

Teedy — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 09:10:51 +0000

Here again is yet another blatant example of one of the most obvious hypocrisies in current law. It is not just California law but many other states as well. It may in fact prove more than just a sorry hypocrisy if ever explored to its full legal extent.

Simply, if an older male had proposition young 14 year old McInerney for sex that older man would be jailed as a sexual predator and labeled as such for the reminder of his life. He would be given a life sentence if you would.

That judgment and sentence is said to be justifiably based on the fact that McInerney’s brain is not yet sufficiently developed to determine for himself what is right and what is wrong when it comes to such intimate choices. He simply is not old enough to decide what is right and what is wrong.

However, and need I explain further, if he uses a gun, all bets are off.
How can it be both?
How can such a legal proceeding be allowed to stand?
If the one law is valid and allowed to stand how can the other also be valid?

There is little question, in my humble opinion, that hypocrisy is far too gentle a term to describe this.

By: Jon

Jon — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 02:40:43 +0000

It makes me sick that this country, and half of the readers on this site think that trying this child as an adult makes this whole thing better. This child deserves to be punished, yes, but the only reason he is being tried as an adult is so the state can say, “Look we dealt with the problem harshly, problem solved.” This attention time and money should be focused on the problems with society that caused this child to believe murder was the only solution. If you think locking this kid up for life will change anything you deserve to be locked up with him. It makes me sick that we are blaming this boy for this crime. If you are not doing anything to change society you are just as guilty as he is.

By: John

John — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:53:33 +0000

California isn’t South Carolina. And we can be all thankful for that. Under the Justice for Victims Act (Chapter 550 of 2006), also known as the “Gwen Araujo law,” using the gay panic defense is explicitly banned in California. If a defense attorney knowingly employs such a tactic, the judge can instruct the jury to ignore it. In extreme cases of misconduct, the judge can also declare a mistrial or sanction that lawyer for ethics violations. Of course, how this law is applied depends on the tolerance level of individual judges. But it looks like Douglas Dally is a very “no nonsense” judge. Thus far, his rulings have been very unfavorable for McInerney (refusing to dismiss the hate crimes charge and certifying the defendant as “fit” stand trial as an adult).

By: Jay

Jay — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:06:08 +0000

It is all well and good to feel compassion for a 14-year-old murderer, but what about the victim? Lawrence King is going to be made out as a predator who somehow victimized the poor defenseless murderer. We have seen this scenario too often. Just recently in South Carolina a murderer of a gay man was given 10 months in jail as a sentence. Is this appropriate?

I would not want this murderer to be sent to a juvenile facility for a couple of years and then move next to me.

By: sapphic beats

sapphic beats — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 20:30:38 +0000

While I fully agree that this young man should be punished for this awful crime, I too have some reservations about the continued fiddling with the law in regards to who is considered an adult and who is not.

The fact IS that a 14 yr old’s brain is not fully developed, the impulse control centers of the brain are still immature, and this child (like all children) is HIGHLY susceptible to outside influence because he cannot yet make more logical decisions.

We live in a society where we bemoan the acceleration of kids toward adulthood in matters like sex and teen pregnancy, and yet we assign the mantle of adulthood to those who make messed up decisions that result in tragedy. There is a disconnect here, and it needs to be addressed.

The tragedy here is that one life is over, and another one will be destroyed as well. This country imprisons and executes more children than any other country in the world. And we call ourselves civilized.

I think we can do better than this.

By: Bill Perdue, RainbowRED

Bill Perdue, RainbowRED — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 07:58:10 +0000

Excellent! The penalty should be life without the possibility of parole or death. No indeterminate sentencing!

The increase of these murders in this election year is escalating at a frightening pace. Much of the blame for that lies with Congressional Democrats and Republicans who decided that our rights and lives were expendable. The Democrats have controlled Congress for two years and most of the blame is theirs. The Republicans were delighted to support bigots from the other side of aisle for once.

The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes bill passed both houses and then they junked it because it’s an election year. Lawrence King is one of several GLBT young men and women stabbed, hacked, bludgeoned and shot to death since they dropped that bill. How many more will die before our lives are no longer a question of election year expediency?

These murders won’t stop until the cults and the political bigots are beaten and that won’t happen overnight, but in the meantime the thugs should be made to suffer.