Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...Murderer of gay man not to be charged with hate crime
03.19.2009 4:23pm EDT
(New York City) A 19-year-old Brooklyn man has been convicted of murder in the stabbing of a gay man he claimed had flirted with him, but the jury was not allowed to consider whether the killing was a hate crime.
Omar Willock had been charged with murder as a hate crime in the September 2007 slaying of Roberto Duncanson.In his charge to the jury, Justice Neil Jon Firetog said the prosecution had failed to make a strong enough case for the hate crime to hold.
Still, on the sole count of murder it took four days for the jury to reach a decision. Willock faces up to 25 years to life behind bars when he is sentenced.
Duncanson, 20, was stabbed to death on a Crown Heights street.
The prosecution argued that as the two men passed one another on St Marks Ave. Willock began yelling homophobic epithets at Duncanson after he thought Duncanson had looked at him in a flirty way.
Willock is alleged to have followed Duncanson as he walked to his cousin’s home and waited for him to emerge. He then began following Duncanson again. An argument ensued and Willock is alleged to have pulled a knife and stabbed the man four times.
Duncanson died in the hospital.
Duncanson was out to coworkers but not to his family. His mother said that he was a loving son who “had the heart of a lion.”
Coworker Sara Perry described Duncanson as ” a very optimistic person, too. He always put a smile your face.”
“Willock began yelling homophobic epithets at Duncanson after he thought Duncanson had looked at him in a flirty way.”
It sounds like this murder wouldn’t have happened if not for Willock’s homophobia. I think that should be enough to establish a hate crime. This would be consistent with discrimination law. If New York’s hate crimes statute doesn’t provide this, then maybe the statute needs to be strengthened.
Did you really expect him to be charged with a hate crime? This is the United States. All the more reason they need a federal hate crime law protecting gender, all sexual orientations, perceived sexual orientations and real or perceived gender identity or expression.
Isn’t every crime a hate crime?
@ Menstruator
If you want to take that simplistic view, then NO! Every crime is not a hate crime. Would you call stealing, litering, or extortion a hate crime?
When somone is attacked specifically because of their race, religion, or orientation…that is a crime based soley on hate. Not a prior history, a disagreement, or a crime to benefit the criminal.
The judge is so off. By the murderers own admission its a hate crime.
This is just disgusting. This was a hate crime and the folks there know it. Unlike the South; New York has hate crime laws–why were these not enforced? This seems to be a pattern dating back at least to the days when Dan White murdered Harvey Milk and then murdered Moscone. What did he get? A measily 5 years or about for a double murder when most others would have recieved the death penalty or life. The rule seems to be murder any straight person and you will get life or the death penalty. Murder a gay person or even two and all you will get will be about 5 years and certainly not more than 15 of which you will only do 5 years.
This is as much a hate crime as the lynching of Emmet Till, a black boy in the late 1950s who admired a white woman in Mississippi. When the white bigots heard about this they came for Emmet, beat him to a pulp and then tried to drown him.
What! That is horrible! What do these people need to have something called a hate crime?
“looked at him in a flirty way”! Now we have homophobes interpreting looks. Wait ’til he gets locked up with the big bubba’s staring at his crotch all day long. Bet he doesn’t say a thing about that, huh? Willock is going to the penetration nation, prison! Justice will be ‘meated’-out, so to speak. He’ll think Duncanson was a choir boy after a year in prison. Hey! Mr. Willock, can you say booty call?