On May 16, 2007, 20-year-old Sean William Kennedy was leaving a bar in Greenville, South Carolina, when 19-year-old Stephen Moller jumped from a car, yelled an anti-gay slur, and punched him in the face. Kennedy’s head hit the pavement as he fell, causing his brain stem to separate from his brain, and he died several hours later.
In his statement to investigators, Moller stated that he was reaching to adjust the stereo from the back seat of a car when Kennedy reached into the car for something else and accidentally brushed Moller’s cheek with his hand.
Moller, who claims he didn’t know Kennedy was gay at the time of the attack, left the following voice message with one of Kennedy’s friends shortly after leaving the scene.
“Hey, I was just wondering how your boyfriend feels right about now. Knocked the —- out. The ——- faggot. Your boy is knocked out, man. The mother——. Tell him he owes me $500 for breaking my ——- hand on his teeth, that ——- bitch.”
Kennedy’s mother pleaded unsuccessfully to get the judge to listen to the recording of the voice message before sentencing Moller. Instead, the judge only allowed the transcript to be read in court.
South Carolina doesn’t have any laws regarding hate crimes, and since prosecutors couldn’t prove that Moller intended to kill Kennedy with the punch, they charged him with manslaughter. He was sentenced to three years in prison today, but is expected to only serve about one year.
According to his mother, Elle Parker, Sean Kennedy was an openly gay man. She said that he told her after coming out, “Mom, I understand if you don’t want to love me anymore.” She explained that nothing could make her stop loving him and she says that she never thought her son’s sexuality might claim his life.
The following poem was discovered in Sean’s room after his death:
Grin
I stand tall with all my pride.
You hate.
You discriminate all who are not like you.
Yes, your words do hurt.
But I stand in the end.
I’m a strong person, bigger than you…
I’ll be standing there with a grin.
Visit Sean’s Last Wish for more information.
Sources: GreenvilleOnline, Towleroad
3 Comments
This is so sad. Whether he intended on killing him or not, Sean is dead and the cause of it was senseless violence. How does Moller’s sentence deter other irrational acts of violence against people? I don’t think it does. In fact, I think it just shows other hot headed jerks that they can do heinous things and not be held accountable for it. Very sad day.
The fact is Stephen Moller Killed a person. Three years for murder is not enough. Accidental death of a person should have a minimum of 10 years. If Stephen Moller has a problem with gay people then he has a problem with Racism.
Wow! Murder is murder leave the labels of gay or straight off of it. The judge should be hung and South Carolina should be ashamed of itself for not having legislation that would protect all of its citizens in the state no matter what their lifestyle is. Too bad this stiull happens in this day and age. Humans are still humans.