Sean Kennedy’s Murderer Up For Early Parole

[JackBeck]

Jim Burroway
January 5th, 2009



Last June, we asked what a young gay man’s life was worth. A judge in South Carolina concluded that it was worth about http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2008/06/11/2189">a year and a half. That’s the sentence that Stephen Moller received for the death of Sean Kennedy. Sean, 20, was attacked outside a Greenville County, S.C. bar on May 16, 2007. Witnesses said that Moller shouted anti-gay epithets at Kennedy before attacking him. Sean died of his injuries.

Moller was originally charged with murder, but the grand jury reduced the charge to involuntary manslaughter. Moller pleaded guilty to those reduced charges and was sentenced to five years, reduced to three, minus seven months for time served. Moller’s attorney said that when all is said and done, Moller will probably serve about a year and a half. With credit for time served, he was due to be released in September 2009.

Well, now it’s possible that Moller could be out of prison http://seanslastwish.wordpress.com/2008/12/23/action-alert-from-seans-last-wish/">as early as February. A web site set up in Sean Kennedy’s memory, Sean’s Last Wish, is asking for your help:

The parole board is currently conducting an investigation to decide whether to allow him to have a parole hearing, so it is critical that they hear from you that Stephen Andrew Moller violently murdered Sean Kennedy and should serve the remainder of his sentence!

Please consider writing a letter to the parole board and ask them to deny Stephen Moller parole and serve out his sentence. In your letter, please remind the board of the violent and unprovoked nature of Moller’s offense and the pain and suffering it has caused in the lives of Sean Kennedy’s family and friends. If you have the time, please write a personal letter by hand or by computer, as those will be the most effective, and if you knew Sean or his family personally, please include that information.

Also, please let Elke know if you send a letter and if possible, send her a copy of the letter, so she can have copies to take with her to the parole hearing.

Be sure to include Moller’s full name and ID number:
Stephen Andrew Moller - SCDC ID # 00328891.

Send your letters to:
Department of Probation Pardon and Parole Services
2221 Devine Street, Suite 600, PO Box 50666
Columbia SC 29250

Please forward to your contacts, friends and family.
Thank you for all of your support!

http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2009/01/05/7796

Pam's House Blend, PageOneQ and Queerty are just a few of the blogs and news sites that are trying to get this action item out there.

Here's a summary of what Muller did to Kennedy:

On May 16, 2007, at about 3:45am, Sean was leaving a local bar in Greenville when a car pulled up beside him, a young man got out of the car, came around the car approached my son and then called him a fagot and then punched him so hard that it broke his face bones, he fell back and hit his head on the asphalt. This resulted in his brain to be separated from his brain stem and ricochet in his head. Sean never had a chance. Sean's killer got back into the car and left my son dying there. A little later he left a message on one of the girl's phone, who knew Sean saying: "You tell your fagot friend that when he wakes up he owes me $500 for my broken hand".

http://www.seanslastwish.org/new_whathappened.html

[provis99]

1. South Carolina, what a surprise

If he'd been a gay black guy, the murderer wouldn't even have been convicted.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. And if the murderer was black,

wouldn't that have put the jury into a twist?

Pricks.

[JackBeck]

5. Point well taken.

Reminds me of how dismissive Shrub was of James Byrd while Governor of Texas.

[exboyfil]

8. Three individuals were involved in James Byrd's death

Two of them got the death penalty, and the third got life in prison with little chance that he will ever get out of prison (the state tried for the death penalty in trial). How to heck would special hate crime legislation make a difference in this case?

In this particular case the facts are not entirely presented. It appears that a verbal altercation preceeded the blow as both individuals had been drinking. Kennedy may or may not have burned Moller's face with a cigarette prior to the punch. Whether the altercation was fueled by Moller's antipathy towards gays or his jealousy at the moment (since he was interested in women which Kennedy was talking to at the time) is in question. Moller did utter anti-gay sentiments both during the incident and afterwards.

Three years is too short a time for killing someone (irrespective of the reasons), but in fairness the entire story needs to be presented. S. Carolina appears to have a gap in their laws between involuntary manslaughter and murder. This particular case fits into that gap. In many ways it is no different than any other drunken alteraction outside a bar. If Moller's animus had been entirely fueled by heterosexual jealousy, would three years have been appropriate (in my opinion, no). Even with the statements given by Moller, a hate crimes conviction in this case may have been difficult (since it appears the physical portion of the altercation may have started with the cigarette burning).

Punching someone is different than using a knife or gun. Can anyone say that Moller intended to kill Kennedy?

[Still Sensible]

20. Why the fuck haven't the feds followed up with

a civil rights prosocution. Oh that's right, this is the Bush administration.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. A tragedy, made worse by this disgusting thug getting out of jail...early!!

[Kceres]

4. And Dan White, the killer who gunned down Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone only served five years in

prison before being released. Five years for two lives. I'd forgotten that until I saw the movie and now I'm angry about it all over again.

edit: changed jail to prison

[closeupready]

13. When the end credits rolled in "Milk",

and there was a note that White killed himself two years after being released, I was relieved, because while I knew about the Twinkie Defense, I had forgotten the final footnote to the Harvey Milk story (i.e., White's suicide) and I hated the thought that he could be out running around, living a life while Harvey and Moscone were dead and buried. Maybe that makes me a bad person, but he killed two wonderful people! :mad: Knowing he killed himself also just seems karmic to me.

And for that matter, I was relieved when I learned back in, what was it, 1994?, that Jeffrey Dahmer had been killed. I don't know what such reactions say about me, but I would be lying if I said otherwise.

[aikoaiko]

6. That ain't right.

It just ain't right.

No justice. No peace.

[QC]

7. Our lives are worth nothing, and yet people wonder why we are angry.

Unbelievable. Well, no, actually. Barely even surprising.

[QC]

9. kick!

[DemoTex]

10. Thanks for posting this ..

I have numerous posts on DU about Sean's brutal murder in Greenville, SC, and on the results of the subsequent trial of Moller. Sean's murder occurred, ironically, at a bar across the road from the campus of ultra-fundy Bob Jones "University."

I will write a letter to the SC parole board today.

:kick:

[JackBeck]

11. I'm sorry I've missed those.

I remember when this happened, and was shocked to come across this recent development.

[originalpckelly]

12. This is why every GLBT should be carrying a gun.

Imagine how different this could have been if he had been armed.

[Dreamer Tatum]

14. Would definitelyswell the ranks of the GLBT community nt

[originalpckelly]

23. I'm certain of that too, and who would fuck with someone who's GLBT...

if in the back of their head they were worried about them having a gun? Deterrence.

[Starry Messenger]

15. How the hell did that get reduced to "involuntary manslaughter"!!

WTF!! Thank you for the link. I will be writing.

[JackBeck]

16. Check out Moller's 'apology':

"I wish that young people weren't allowed to be out late at night and the bars were not allowed to serve them alcohol. I think if that hadn't taken place, we wouldn't be here. We wouldn't be here today."

[Starry Messenger]

18. Sick.

Plenty of people drink without becoming human killing machines. No way is he remorseful. If he is let out there will be more Sean Kennedys. End of fucking story.

[bullwinkle428]

21. Holy shit...the ultimate "I'll blame everyone but myself for what happened"!

This fucking waste of skin obviously hasn't learned a thing! :grr: :grr: :grr:

[originalpckelly]

25. It's odd how other drunk guys managed not to fatally beat someone to death...

for being gay.

I wonder how he managed to send the text if he was that drunk?

[originalpckelly]

24. Well, he was such a flamer, he couldn't help himself...

he just had to beat him to fucking death.

:sarcasm:

[varkam]

31. That's what I'm wondering. What he did was pretty clearly intentional.

He may not have intended to kill him, but he certainly did intend to beat the hell out of him which would suffice for at least a voluntary manslaughter conviction. Methinks the grand jury cut him a lot of slack...for whatever reason...

[WeDidIt]

17. If I was Stephen Moller, I'd be watching over my shoulder for the rest of my life

If somebody were to kill Moller and I was on the jury, I guarantee I'd vote to acquit and never change that stance.

[WI_DEM]

19. Unbelieveable that this guy will get out so early and I'm sure feeling not a bit of remorse.

[skeewee08]

22. Stories like this make me angry, no matter how you feel about

ones sexual orientation. Murder is WRONG by anyone and it is a SIN(Noe-con) for those re-thugs who only allowed this man to serve 1 1/2 years is crazy. The South can be so hypocritical it's a sin to be gay but it's not a sin to commit murder. I guess they skipped that commandment.

I feel better now I just needed to rant a little:-)

[Liberal_in_LA]

26. Kick

[Maven]

27. You wanna bet if Kennedy were straight with a nice girlfriend or wife

Moller would've gotten more than a year and a fucking half?

:argh:

Oh, but there's no institutionalized homophobia.

[QC]

28. K&R

[merh]

29. kick for action

:kick:

[merh]

30. kick for some attention

Please take the time to write a letter.

:kick: