Posted on 09/14/2005 8:00:35 AM PDT by SmithL
The jury that convicted two men of second-degree murder in the killing of Newark transgender teenager Gwen Araujo flatly rejected defense arguments that it was a case of manslaughter, a San Francisco lawyer who served on the panel said Tuesday.
An average person would not have resorted to murder upon discovering that Araujo, 17, was biologically male, Max Stern, 38, of Piedmont, said in an interview with The Chronicle.
"The community standard is not and cannot be that killing is something a reasonable person would have done that night," Stern said.
Stern, a civil litigator, said the eight-man, four-woman jury concluded that Jose Merel and Michael Magidson, both 25, had murdered Araujo in October 2002, rejecting defense arguments that at most they were guilty of manslaughter committed in the heat of passion caused by Araujo's sexual deception. Both men had sex with Araujo before the night she was killed.
"This was not a manslaughter, because it is not reasonable to accept this behavior in response to the circumstances here," Stern said. "This is not confronting the molester of your children or someone who raped your spouse. These events devolved into a brutal beating and homicide."
The jury ultimately rejected hate crime enhancements against Merel and Magidson because some panelists believed that the defendants killed Araujo not necessarily because of her gender orientation but simply to "cover up a situation that had gotten out of control," Stern said.
Even if the defendants believed they had been sexually deceived, that would be "no basis, no justification for beating and murder," Stern said. "That's the heart of the verdict."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
How long they had been sucking face before the "revelation" might provide some insight into the emotional response of the killer...
I think it is a matter of PC "respect" to refer to him as a "her" because that is what he wants.
It reminds me of Monty Python's "Life of Brian", where Eric Idle's character wants to be henceforth called "Loretta" and says he wants to have a baby...John Cleese's character says "For God's sake, you don't even have a womb...where are you going to put the fetus? In a box?"
Crazy.
Apparently Gwen was not overly picky and had previously performed oral sex for the killers. I don't think any of them could have been said to have a relationship.
Of course the murderers were not overly picky either, as they were accepting oral sex from a person without knowing anything beyond that he appeared female.
In my opinion the murderous response when they found out he was male does not come from any sense of personal betrayal by someone they loved, but from hurt pride and fear that their macho personas would be marred if word got out that they'd accepted a blow job from a boy.
Gwen was definitely messed up and was wrong in deceiving them, but the cold-blooded killing that followed is completely injustifiable. If I had been on the first jury I would have convicted.
Hmm. Don't misunderstand me. I am not sticking up for the killers, I am not saying they had a relationship beyond what any guy who sucks face with a woman he just met in a bar. They should pay.
Heck, if these guys were out hunting for oral sex, how picky could they have been? Granted, if you have been around the world a few times (or even once to Provincetown) you readily understand packaging is packaging.
I would say that the tarnishing of their macho personas was probably the ENTIRE reason they killed the guy. I'm not saying it was right. But hey...you sleep with dogs, you get fleas.
I'm sorry that Araujo was killed. Just another statistic to show that the "gay" lifestyle isn't all that gay. If he had the good fortune to survive maybe they could have gotten the former President in as an expert witness to testify as to whether Araujo's "service" was gender appropriate or badly botched enough to justify an assault.
There is a side issue here that deals with definitions.
"Transgendered": Surgically changed or not? Maybe this just means "girl in a guy's body" (or vice-versa) that hasn't taken the next step.
"Transsexual": I understand this to mean the victim of a sex-change operation
"Transvestite": cross-dresser
It's difficult to keep up with this stuff.
Don't forget TransAm. That's someone named Dan that was a Sam.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.