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The Queen (aka "mrsmuir") SWBB
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Murder of Gay, Jewish Student Raises Questions About Hate Crime Prosecution
OCTOBER 3, 2018
"On January 9th, 2018, Blaze Bernstein’s corpse was discovered in a shallow grave in Lake Forest, California. Bernstein’s murder came in the wake of the year that had, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the largest single-year increase of anti-Semitic incidents on record. Bernstein was a 19-year-old gay, Jewish man. His alleged killer is 21-year-old Samuel Woodward, a peer of Bernstein’s from high school. According to an investigation by ProPublica, Woodward has been involved with the Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi group with a violent history. (Among other evidence, ProPublica obtained photographs of Woodward at a Atomwaffen meeting, including a photo in which he gives a straight-armed Nazi salute).
So far, Woodward has not been charged with murder motivated by Bernstein’s religion. He has been charged, however, with murder motivated by Bernstein’s sexual orientation. These two charges may seem comparable, but they actually carry drastically different possible sentences. Woodward’s future rests on the answer to two questions: Did he kill Bernstein? If so, was he motivated by anti-Semitic and/or homophobic hatred?...
In an interview with New Voices, OCDA Chief of Staff Susan Kang Schroeder explains that in California, a murder that is proved to be a hate crime opens the door to what many consider the most extreme form of punishment: the death penalty. However, the death penalty is only an option if the murder was motivated by race, color, religion, nationality, or national origin. “What it doesn’t cover,” she points out, “is sexual orientation and gender identification.”..."
Murder of Gay, Jewish Student Raises Questions About Hate Crime Prosecution | New Voices: The National Jewish Student Magazine
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OCTOBER 3, 2018
"On January 9th, 2018, Blaze Bernstein’s corpse was discovered in a shallow grave in Lake Forest, California. Bernstein’s murder came in the wake of the year that had, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the largest single-year increase of anti-Semitic incidents on record. Bernstein was a 19-year-old gay, Jewish man. His alleged killer is 21-year-old Samuel Woodward, a peer of Bernstein’s from high school. According to an investigation by ProPublica, Woodward has been involved with the Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi group with a violent history. (Among other evidence, ProPublica obtained photographs of Woodward at a Atomwaffen meeting, including a photo in which he gives a straight-armed Nazi salute).
So far, Woodward has not been charged with murder motivated by Bernstein’s religion. He has been charged, however, with murder motivated by Bernstein’s sexual orientation. These two charges may seem comparable, but they actually carry drastically different possible sentences. Woodward’s future rests on the answer to two questions: Did he kill Bernstein? If so, was he motivated by anti-Semitic and/or homophobic hatred?...
In an interview with New Voices, OCDA Chief of Staff Susan Kang Schroeder explains that in California, a murder that is proved to be a hate crime opens the door to what many consider the most extreme form of punishment: the death penalty. However, the death penalty is only an option if the murder was motivated by race, color, religion, nationality, or national origin. “What it doesn’t cover,” she points out, “is sexual orientation and gender identification.”..."
Murder of Gay, Jewish Student Raises Questions About Hate Crime Prosecution | New Voices: The National Jewish Student Magazine
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