Larry King trial serves as a reminder that the system doesn’t work

This week a judge declared a mistrial in the murder trial of Brandon McInerney, who was 14 at the time, who fatally shot Larry King in the head during his computer class in Oxnard, CA.

For many in the gay world this was a shock —  how could the jury be unable to reach a verdict? Clearly McInerney shot King, no one is disputing that. I found myself upset like others…

 … but after I calmed down I thought about what I was angry about.

I knew it was not right that the defense (McInerney’s lawyers) used the ‘gay panic’ strategy to say that McInerney killed King because he had been repeatedly harassed and had enough — because you know, there is nothing worse/more insulting than people thinking you’re gay. That is a tired excuse that does not excuse anyone for murder. The signs were there, McInerney came from an abusive family and hung out with known white supremacists and King was genderqueer and a person of color.

But why I was really angry was because I wanted justice, I didn’t want McInerney to get off easy. In this case the jury was split on whether he should be found guilty of murder or voluntary manslaughter.

And then I got thinking… about the life of McInerney and King. King was a foster child living at Casa Pacifica, a shelter for abused and troubled children in Camarillo.

And McInerney was a person clearly disturbed and living in a home with an abusive father who would beat him and while that is no excuse for murdering anyone they were both children growing up with troubled pasts.

From the beginning these two peoples lives were shaped by their surroundings. McInerney’s by a bigoted family and King who had to endure being taunted for his gender presentation at school. And where were the adults, the teachers, the guardians, the parents? Where are the policies that are there to protect children like King from being harassed and to help troubled youths like McInerney when the adults have failed?

Clearly justice needed to be served because his actions cannot go without punishment. But the question remains how far are we willing to go? Is it just to punish McInerney, who is being tried as an adult meaning that if re-tried could get life without the possibility of parole?

Currently the U.S. is the only country in the world that has sentenced over 2,000 children to life without the possibility of parole.

The question lies on us….how far are we willing to go, as activists and as humans to end the life of another person by supporting laws that put away children for the rest of their lives for a crime they committed before they had mentally developed?

I was left troubled because I could not answer that question. I wanted justice. I want LGBTQ and gender noncomforming people to stop being persecuted and if by encarcarating one person to serve as an example for others.

What do you think? What does justice look like in this situation?

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