Posted on 08/28/2003 2:35:44 AM PDT by kattracks
(CNSNews.com) - The murder of a former priest in a Massachusetts prison at the hands of a convicted murderer who was apparently motivated by hatred of homosexuals could qualify as a hate crime, groups that monitor hate crimes legislation said.
Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute and an opponent of hate crimes legislation, said the circumstances surrounding the murder of former priest and convicted child molester John Geoghan at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center outside Boston on Saturday speaks to the double standard in which hate crimes are applied to some cases and not others.
"My guess would be that the folks who tend to file hate crime charges don't want homosexuality associated with pedophilia and therefore wish this would just go away. But of course, Fr. Geoghan's problem was homosexuality with a pedophilic emphasis," Knight said.
Authorities said fellow inmate Joseph Druce strangled and beat Geoghan to death in his cell on Saturday. Druce, 37, who authorities said hates homosexuals and other minorities, is serving a life sentence for the 1988 murder of a homosexual man.
Geoghan, 68, became a central figure in the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal after he was accused of molesting nearly 150 boys over three decades beginning in the 1960s. He was convicted in 2002 of molesting a 10-year-old boy and sentenced to nine to 10 years in prison.
Prosecutors said Druce had been planning the murder for over a month and considered Geoghan a prestige killing. Druce allegedly had been sexually molested as a child, according to reports.
Nancy Zirkin, deputy director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a group that supports hate crimes legislation, said it was yet to be proven, however, whether Druce was motivated by hate of homosexuals.
"It was certainly an angry crime, and I can't assess the reasons easily. We would have to see it unfold, and we'd have to hear the motivations and...hear who this is. There's a lot of anger toward priests who have done these things," Zirkin said.
Mark Mead, public affairs director with the Log Cabin Republicans, a homosexual advocacy group within the GOP, said the killing appeared to be a hate crime.
"Clearly, [Druce] has a problem with...gay men," Mead said. "This guy obviously has a very sick, troubled mind. He's killed two people that we know of."
The Human Rights Campaign, a national homosexual advocacy group, supports hate crimes legislation. A spokesman for the HRC declined to comment on the Geoghan case, however, citing insufficient information.
Knight said the establishment media's treatment of the Geoghan case was reminiscent of circumstances surrounding the 1998 James Byrd dragging death, in which one of the murderers used in his defense the fact that he had been gang raped in prison by black inmates because he was white.
"Although nothing that came before justified his terrible murder of Mr. Byrd, one would have thought the press would have been curious enough to ask why he took such an extreme measure. They seem interested in motive only if it forwards a particular agenda.
"Once again, it shows that brutality against anyone should be punished severely, regardless of whether it's an alleged hate crime or not," Knight said.
The Druce case will be taken to a grand jury next month, when prosecutors will seek an indictment for murder. Because Druce is serving a life term and Massachusetts does not have a death penalty, it was not clear what further penalties could be levied against him.
Calls to the Worcester County District Attorney's office, which is investigating Geoghan's murder, were not returned.
Listen to audio for this story.
E-mail a news tip to Lawrence Morahan.
Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.
Massachusetts has slipped another notch into ethical hell.
And Geoghan's rapes of teen boys was a "Love Crime?"
Being defrocked, he was not allowed to perform his priestly duties. But a defrocked priest is still a priest. It doesn't remove the mark on him that was placed there by the sacrament, just as you can't undo a baptism.
Of course it is a hate crime he wasn't murdered because the guy liked him."Hate crimes" are the way liberals try to have their cake and eat it too vis a vis violent crime. They don't want to crack down on "normal" violent crime and alienate potential supporters, but this dodge gives them an excuse to go after un-PC crimes.
-Eric
Wouldn't be the first time God has used the evil to punish the evil.
"There should be no capital punishment. If you kill someone, you should be forgiven."
"What if you kill someone because you 'hate' them?"
"Fry the bastard."
The incoherency, hypocrisy, short-sightedness, ineptness and incompetence being exhibited is a legacy of a Socialist mentality and values paradigm.
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.