Lawrence King's killer to be tried as adult

Brandon McInerney, the 14-year-old killer of openly-gay 15-year-old Lawrence King will be tried as an adult. The question of whether McInerney should be treated as an adult has divided the LGBT cmmunity, with the largest LGBT organizations sending a joint letter to the prosecutor arguing that the teenager should be tried as a juvenile. However, thanks to 2000's Proposition 21 (which MadProfessah opposed) juveniles as young as 14 can be tried as an adult in certain cases.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Maeve Fox, who is prosecuting the case, argued that McInerney’s age should not play a factor in him being charged as an adult in the murder of Lawrence King. In a statement to The Advocate, Fox said that McInerney’s ability to “premeditate and deliberate this kind of crime and pull it off in front of their entire class I think is cause for serious alarm… he should spend a good long time behind bars.”

“When you were 14, when you were 10, when you were 8, did you know it was wrong to kill someone?” Fox asked. “The answer inevitably is yes.” Because 14 and 15-year-olds cannot receive a life sentence without the possibility of parole in California, The Advocate notes, McInerney could still be released on parole in the future even if sentence to life in prison.

I must admit that I now agree with Fox that I do think that McInerney should be tried as an adult, with a parole hearing at 18 years old. He went home, found a gun, took it to an elementary school and in a class front of other students, shot Lawrence King (who apparently had started calling himself "Leticia") twice in the back of the head, and then walked out of the computer lab.

The facts described are not really contested. They appear in the controversial Newsweek cover story ("Young, Gay and Murdered in Junior High") from last week. The article, written by Ramin Setoodeh, presents a much more nuanced version of the interactions between Brandon and Lawrence before the shooting, but also appears to assign some of the blame on the fact that Lawrence wss openly gay at such an early age. It is that latter aspect which has led to controversy and which I find totally unacceptable. However, the article does also include useful information, such as "One study found that the average age when kids self-identify as gay has tumbled to 13.4; their parents usually find out a year later."

It is this aspect which terrifies the heterosexual supremacists and professional homophobes who attempt to deny equal rights to LGBT individuals: they know that their time and grasp on power is eroding with every passing day and as more kids come out.