Zombiecreep's blog: "i don't even know what 2 say about this"

ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously threw out the state's hate crimes law Monday, calling it over-broad and "unconstitutionally vague." The four-year-old law calls for stiffer criminal penalties for crimes in which a victim was chosen because of "any bias or prejudice." The 7-0 ruling came in the case of a man and woman convicted of an assault on two black men in Atlanta's Little Five Points neighborhood. Angela Pisciotta and Christopher Botts were convicted of beating two black men while screaming racial epithets in 2002. The trial judge sentenced them to six years in prison, plus an additional two years under the hate crimes law. Pisciotta and Botts appealed to the state's highest court in April. Their lawyers argued that the hate crimes statute should be struck down because almost any crime involving prejudice falls under its scope. The court wrote Monday that it "by no means condon(es) appellants savage attack on the victims in this case or any conduct motivated by a bigoted or hate-filled point of view," but that "the broad language" of the law didn't pass constitutional muster. Originally, the legislation defined a hate crime as one motivated specifically by the victim's race, religion, gender, national origin or sexual orientation. That language was removed by the Legislature and replaced with a section defining a hate crime as one in which the victim or his property was targeted because of bias or prejudice.

Las Vegas -- After his son was murdered on July 4, 1998, Lionel Newborn thought this year would be a time for peace and remembrance. He was wrong. Outside the Vacation Village casino on the Las Vegas Strip on Saturday, on the eve of the anniversary of his son's death in what he calls a hate crime, Lionel Newborn watched in disbelief as a carload of skinheads screeched to a stop. One young man with ''Intimidation One'' tattooed across his chest jumped out and started shinnying up a flagpole in an attempt to destroy first the Mexican, then the Israeli, flag. Later that night, according to Las Vegas police, white power bands planned to stage a rock concert to celebrate the slaying of Lin Newborn, a 24-year-old African-American who had spent much of his adult life campaigning against racism. ''If these neo-Nazis are going to have a concert to celebrate my son's death, I can't feel vengeance because I am a Christian,'' said Newborn's father, a Las Vegas resident. ''I can, however, express concern for their lack of intelligence. ''They have their rights, that's what makes this country great. You can hate whoever you want to hate, you can even demonstrate your hate, but you are not supposed to bring harm to other people.'' The white power groups, who were interrogated by police, postponed their concert, citing a heavy police presence. While hate crimes such as the torture of a gay man in Wyoming and the dragging death of an African-American man in Texas have received national attention, the deaths of Lin Newborn and his friend Dan Shersty are chronicled more by friends and activists than the national press. In Las Vegas, police Officer Harry Fagel has written poetry in memory of Lin Newborn, whom he described as a role model for the neighborhood. During the morning briefings given to the Las Vegas Police Department, Fagel reads his poetry to try to keep Newborn's memory alive. John Toddy, 19, described his friend Newborn as a ''father figure to the Las Vegas underground antiracist scene.'' Toddy, a member of the Las Vegas chapter of Anti Racist Action, said Newborn ''did everything he could to stop racism and was so outspoken. That is what led to his murder. He tried to keep us thinking it's not so much the person as the disease of ignorance. ''Our main fight wasn't against the neo-Nazis, but against their beliefs.'' Nicknamed ''Spit,'' Lin Newborn was a civil rights activist with the groups Unity Skins and Anti Racist Action. Lionel Newborn described his son as an idealist who could never understand racism. ''Our home would look like the United Nations. Racial prejudice didn't exist. Spit couldn't deal with racism. It really hurt him that this hatred and ignorance existed. He couldn't understand why people couldn't get along.'' The circumstances surrounding the deaths of Newborn and Shersty will be fully aired in a trial this year. What is now known, according to police and press reports, is that July 3, 1998, two women entered Tribal Body Piercing, where Newborn worked. After getting a belly ring clipped in, the women invited Newborn to a party. Newborn invited his friend Shersty, a white serviceman who fixed F-16 engines at Nellis Air Force Base. The two left home at midnight. Tourists riding in the desert the next morning discovered Shersty's badly beaten body. It was covered with boot prints. Shersty had received a shotgun blast to the chest. Two days later, police found Newborn's body. He had been shot repeatedly. In September, John Edward Butler, 26, a local man with a lengthy criminal record, was charged with the murders. Police in Las Vegas were unwilling to give details of the investigation, but hinted that further arrests could be imminent. Civil rights activists with the national group Anti Racist Action are using the deaths of Shersty and Newborn to raise consciousness at rock and punk concerts nationwide. At a ''Warped Tour'' concert Friday in San Bernardino, Calif., hundreds of newsletters describing the deaths were handed out. Mo Acosta, 24, a hospital worker who attended the show, said he encounters youth with Nazi beliefs every day. ''If you go to a punk ... show, you can tell by their boot laces, the brotherhood tattoos, and the swastikas, they'll be talking about white power,'' and giving you the Nazi salute.

Denver -- A skinhead was convicted of murder and attempted murder in the 1997 shooting death of a West African immigrant at a bus stop and the wounding of a bystander who came to the victim's aid. The jury reached the verdict against Jeremiah Barnum, 25, on Monday. The color drained from his face when he heard the verdict. He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty. The jury also found Barnum guilty of ethnic intimidation. Barnum is one of two white men accused in a shooting at a Denver bus stop that killed Oumar Dia, an immigrant from Senegal, and left Jeannie VanVelkinburgh paralyzed. The other defendant, 21-year-old Nathan Thill, is accused of pulling the trigger and will stand trial next month. Prosecutors said Barnum and Thill killed Dia because he was black. Ms. VanVelkinburgh, who is white, was shot after she came to the aid of Dia. "I do not have anything to celebrate about as the life of Oumar Dia is lost forever," said Mohamedou Cisse, Dia's childhood friend. "But I am satisfied that justice has been served." The defense argued that Barnum had no idea Thill was going to open fire. They said Barnum has renounced his racist views. "I don't think there was any evidence whatsoever that he still harbors any of the belief system that he had as a young man," said defense attorney Peter Bornstein. Bornstein said he will appeal.

Chicago -- An admitted member of a white supremacist group was sentenced Wednesday for joining two knife-wielding friends in chasing four terrified black children and shouting racial epithets at them. Harley Hermes, 21, a member of an organization known as the Lake County Skinheads, was sentenced in federal court to 20 months in prison for conspiring to violate the civil rights of the four youngsters. "Today's sentence ... warns those who would commit hate crimes that they will receive the punishment they deserve and alerts victims of such violence that we will vindicate their civil rights," U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said in a statement. The incident took place in Fox Lake in suburban Lake County on the night of Aug. 30, 2002, after a Grant Community High School football game. Hermes pleaded guilty Sept. 3 and acknowledged seeing the youngsters and falsely telling two friends that one of them had started trouble. Hermes and his friends, Shaun Derifield and a person prosecutors identified only as Individual A, then went running after the four youngsters, shouting racial slurs. Hermes acknowledged in his signed 14-page plea agreement that he chased a boy and girl into a nearby house. He then found that his friends had cornered another girl and were menacing her with their knives. While the three shouted epithets at the girl, she cried and begged Derifield, "Please don't kill me," according to the plea agreement. Her three tormentors finally relented after Hermes became concerned that the police might show up, according to the document. Derifield pleaded guilty to a similar charge in September. His sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 19.

A 10-year-old Armenian boy has been set on fire as a result of an apparent racist attack in the northern Russian city of Kostroma, the Regions.ru web-site reports. The local police believe that the boy fell victim to skinheads. Eyewitnesses have told the police that two friends, aged 10 and 11 had dropped into a grocery store after classes. A group of youths was apparently waiting for them outside. As the boys came out of the shop, the attackers splashed gasoline over one of them and set him on fire. Luckily, some passers-by helped the boy and quickly extinguished the fire. He was then rushed to hospital. Doctors said the boy had burns to his face and hands. The attackers fled the scene. The local police reported that they looked like skinheads. The fact that the victim was Armenian also suggests the attack may have been racist, the police say.

The Nevada Supreme Court upheld the murder conviction but called for a new penalty hearing for a skinhead leader sentenced in 2001 to die for killing two men who opposed his racist beliefs. John Edward Butler will get a new hearing as a result of several problems in the penalty phase of his Clark County District Court trial, the court ruled Monday. The court cited an erroneous jury instruction and inflammatory comments made by prosecutors to the jury about the tactics Butler's defense attorneys used to argue for a sentence less than death. "Butler not only has a legal right, but his counsel have an ethical duty, to present all evidence in mitigation of a death sentence," the court said. Two of the five justices who agreed a new penalty hearing was warranted disagreed that prosecutors engaged in misconduct in their comments to the jury. Justices Deborah Agosti and Bill Maupin said calling an expert defense witness "high falootin" - did not rise to the level of misconduct, but said other factors cited by Chief Justice Miriam Shearing in the majority opinion warranted the penalty hearing. Justice Mark Gibbons was the lone dissenter, saying he would have upheld the death sentence. Joseph Sciscento, one of two attorneys who represented Butler at trial, called the ruling a partial victory. He cited comments from the state high court that both defense attorneys should have been allowed to present arguments in the penalty phase. Sciscento was not allowed to make an argument. Butler was a leader of the Independent Nazi Skins when Lin Newborn, 25, and Daniel Shersty, 21, were slain. Shersty was white. Newborn was black. Prosecutors said they were members of a skinhead group that worked against racism. Prosecutors told jurors that several people participated in the Independence Day 1998 ambush near Powerline Road and Centennial Parkway. Butler was the only person charged in the case. Jurors found him guilty in December 2000, and recommended in January 2001 that he die by lethal injection.

Skinheads beat up Latinos at bar Trio treated at hospital after attack by gang of 10 SubSun.com/January 6, 2005 By Bill Byron Redlands -- A gang of about 10 skinheads attacked three Latino bar patrons in the parking lot of Larry Flynt's Hustler Club early Wednesday. The topless bar has been the scene of a number of brawls recently, police said. The victims described their attackers as skinheads white men in their 20s with shaved heads. The assailants claimed membership in skinhead gangs in Redlands and Riverside and yelled racial slurs before and during the assault, according to the victims. The three victims were cut and bruised and taken to nearby hospitals. One of the men's arms was broken. The topless bar, at 1331 W. Colton Ave., has been the scene of about nine "significant disturbances' in the past year, Redlands police spokesman Carl Baker said. The bar has been known as Larry Flynt's Hustler Club for about a year but has been a strip club for about nine years. "We've experienced more disturbances in the last several months,' Baker said. "We've set up a meeting with the management of the club to discuss some of the ongoing issues, to see what we and they can come up with to resolve some of the ongoing issues there.' Bill Pigott, a manager at the bar who was working the night of the fight, said he was unaware of the scheduled meeting with police and code-enforcement officials. "We've been talking about (increasing security measures) ourselves,' Pigott said. "You can't pick your clientele, (but) we do everything in our powers to prevent situations like that.' Fights, Pigott said, occur at the topless bar about once every month or so. The bar currently employs two to seven private, unarmed security guards and has cameras in the parking lot. Baker said parking-lot cameras, increased security and increased police patrols will all be discussed at the meeting. Police have a lead on at least one of the suspects, but he was not at his residence when police arrived there Wednesday. Anyone with information is asked to call police Detective Rick Smith at (909) 798-7681.

Washington Blade/April 25, 2006 One man remains critically injured with stab wounds suffered in an attack by a group of 10-15 apparent skinheads on a street in São Paulo, Brazil, that is a traditional meeting spot for young gays, lesbians, drag queens and punkers. Police say the attack, which took place in the early morning hours of April 22, was unprovoked and probably motivated by bias, according to local media reports. Jefferson Marcelo dos Reis Silva, 22, was stabbed serveral times and is still hospitalized after surgery, the newspaper O Estado reported. A 15-year-old male, punched in the face by the attackers, was treated and released, while two females, ages 14 and 15, were less seriously injured, the paper reported. São Paulo city officials are taking heat for the attack, which came only two days after gay activists met with government representatives to complain about an increase in skinhead activity at that exact location. The April 19 meeting, called by São Paulo's GLBT Advisory Board, had drawn promises of a stronger police presence, according to press accounts at the time. "It is unbelievable this is happening again in São Paulo in 2006," one activist said at the meeting, Mix Brasil reported. "I remember the case of Edson Néris, who was brutally beaten to death by skinheads in the city's Praça da República," an event that shook the city's large but politically docile gay population, the activist said.

Philadelphia -- A skinhead accused in a racially motivated murder nearly two decades ago had been cruising around looking for a black man to kill before he fatally shot a man headed for a night on the town, his friend testified. Thomas Gibison, 35, of Newark, Del., was arrested in November and charged with murder and ethnic intimidation in the April 16, 1989, shooting death of Aaron Wood. Common Pleas Judge David Shutter on Wednesday ordered Gibison to stand trial on the charges. Gibison, then 17, and Craig Peterson, 19 at the time, were driving around Philadelphia, looking to kill a black man, an act they viewed as a rite of passage among white supremacists, Peterson testified at the preliminary hearing. Peterson said he borrowed his mother's car and the two drove to Wilmington, Del., but they "didn't see anybody." They then headed to Philadelphia. "Our target was the black man," he told Assistant District Attorney Roger King during Gibison's preliminary hearing Wednesday. When the duo got near Girard College in North Philadelphia, Gibison spotted Wood, 35, walking under a streetlight. "There's one right there!" Peterson recalled Gibison saying. Peterson said he pulled up and Gibison rolled down the passenger-side window, fatally shooting Wood in the head with a handgun. The two then sped back to Delaware, he said. Gibison's former girlfriend, Jennifer Kaczmarczyk, testified that he had told her he shot a black man in Philadelphia. He was initially a nonracist "blue-collar" skinhead, with patriotic views, but later became involved in the Nationalist Nazi movement, she said. Asked what Peterson's role in the slaying had been, Kaczmarczyk said, "He just drove." Michael Farrell, Gibison's attorney, has said his client has tattoos associated with the white supremacist ideology, but was not a member of any such group himself. Peterson testified that the men were hoping the killing would earn them each a spider-web tattoo, a badge of status among white supremacists. Gibison was arrested in November at his home in Delaware in what had been a cold case. Philadelphia homicide detective Leon Lubiejewski testified that FBI agents working on a firearms case in Delaware contacted him last year to check on unsolved murders between January and May 1989. He said he narrowed down the cases to Wood's killing. Ballistics tests later found that the markings on a pistol seized from Peterson's home were similar to those on the bullet taken from Wood's head, Lubiejewski said. Peterson was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony and has not been charged in the killing, King said.

A Russian court has passed sentences ranging from eight to 19 years in jail for six young men who committed three racist murders, local media reported. The youths — three of whom were minors at the time they carried out a series of attacks that led to the deaths of their victims — were also each ordered to pay damages of around $8,000 to their victims’ families. “All members of the group were incriminated for crimes motivated by racial hatred and animosity,” prosecutors were quoted as saying. “People who did not look Slavic or who were not Russian citizens were deliberately chosen as victims of the crimes.” In March an investigator for the United Nations Human Rights Commission said racist attacks were on the rise in Russia and that a growing “skinhead movement” had been responsible for many incidents. Several racist killings — particularly the murders of two Tajik girls aged 5 and 9 — have provoked widespread revulsion and brought calls for the government to crack down. President Vladimir Putin has also called for greater racial tolerance and accused extremists of trying to encourage hatred to hamper the Kremlin’s drive against terrorism. Attacks blamed on Chechen separatists have been accompanied by a rise in brutality against people clearly identified as non-Russians, much of it directed at darker-skinned Muslims from southern Russia and nearby ex-Soviet states.