Lawrence King's Killer Accepts 21-Year Plea Deal

Finally, there is some sense of justice restored to the world. Brandon McInerney, who shot to death his teenaged, openly-gay  classmate Lawrence King at point-blank range on February 12, 2008, has apparently agreed to accept a plea deal which will lead to him serving 21 years in prison. Previously, McInerney had been tried with first-degree murder (with a hate crime enhancement) but the judge was forced to declare a mistrial after multiple jurors declared that they empathized with McInerney's rough home life and disagreed with the decision to try him as an adult because he had committed the crime as a 14-year-old as well as the anti-gay hate crime aspect.

The prosecution had made the decision to re-try McInerney as an adult but had dropped the hate crime enhancement (exactly the wrong decision, I argued).

The Los Angeles Times reports:

The Oxnard teen who shot a gay classmate he believed was flirting with him has agreed to spend the next 21 years in prison, a plea deal that ends a case that drew national attention and ignited debate on how schools should deal with openly gay students.

Brandon McInerney, who was 14 when he pulled a gun out of his backpack and shot Larry King twice in the head in 2008, has already served nearly four years in jail and would be released by the time he is 38, under terms of the deal.

"Larry had a complicated life, but he did not deserve to be murdered," the youth's father,Greg King, said after a court hearing Monday afternoon.

McInerney’s first trial ended with jurors split between convicting him of voluntary manslaughter and first-degree murder. Several of the jurors have since spoken in favor of a plea bargain, in order to avoid a second trial.

Prosecutors, in initially deciding to try McInerney a second time, had already dropped a key allegation that the shooting was motivated by a hatred of homosexuals, an accusation that several jurors in the original trial said they did not believe.

During the first trial, prosecutors portrayed McInerney as a budding white supremacist who hated homosexuals and was enraged by King's sexuality and aggressive flirtations.

The defense argued that McInerney was the product of a violent and dysfunctional home and had reached an emotional breaking point in response to King's advances.

McInerney was 14 when he carried a .22-caliber handgun to school in a backpack on Feb. 12, 2008, took a seat behind King, 15, and shot him twice in the back of the head.

Gay rights advocates were largely silent after the mistrial. A national gay rights group later said prosecutors should have done the "just and merciful thing" and reached a plea deal in the case.

It's probably the best decision overall to make the case go away. I am satisfied that the brazen killer of an openly gay (or transgender) teen will be serving significant time in jail, thus validating the idea that perpretators of such heinous acts will be prosecuted and punished by the state.