Calif teen to be sentenced for killing gay student

After three years of legal wrangling, a mistrial, and a final plea bargaining deal, Brandon McInerney has been sentenced today to 21 years in prison for the 2008 murder of fellow student, 15-year-old Larry King at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard, CA.

McInerney                                             King

McInerney shot King - an openly gay student - in the classroom in front of other students after supposedly being harassed by him on several different occasions. This blatant murder raised the ire of LGBT groups across the globe when it recently ended in a mistrial (search here for the thread of this entire story for more information) over the issue of him being tried as an adult who committed a hate crime. Several jurors thought he should have been tried as a juvenile and others thought that it was not considered a hate crime.

The obvious fact is that he murdered a fellow classmate, in school, in front of other students with premeditation. At least some justice has finally been served today as he is sentenced to 11 years for voluntary manslaughter and 10 years for use of a firearm. The unfortunate thing is that it won't bring Larry King back. The flip side is that this case has brought to the forefront the issue of LGBT bullying, harassment and discrimination that runs rampant through our school systems nationwide. An epidemic that is slowly becoming more in the news and hopefully, one that will eventually be tamed to the point that we don't have to talk about kids killing each other or taking their own lives because they might be gay.

Hopefully this is the end of this unfortunate saga and Larry can rest in peace. We'll see.

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