Kentucky Woman Invokes Spousal Immunity In Murder Trial Of Same-Sex Partner

1371350261000-Bobbie-Jo-Clary-1306160722_4_3It is inevitable that, as more states recognize same-sex marriage, a host of collateral conflicts will arise over the use of such marriage licenses. One is at the heart of a controversy in Kentucky. Geneva Case, 49, has invoked spousal privilege to shield her from testifying against her spouse. It just so happens that her spouse is another woman: making this the first known spousal privilege claims for a same sex couple. The privilege is being invoked in a murder trial in Kentucky.

Case does not want to testify against her partner, Bobbie Jo Clary (left), 37, who is charged with beating George Murphy, 64, to death with a hammer in 2011 and then stealing his van. She is also charged with tampering with evidence.

Prosecutors insist that Case heard Clary confess and saw the blood-soaked interior of the van. Clary insists that she was merely defending herself after a sexual assault.

The problem is that Kentucky has not legalized same-sex marriage and the state constitution limits marriage to the union of a man and a woman.

Case and Clary secured a civil union in 2004 in Vermont.

This could create a case under the full faith and credit clause, where states are expected to recognize the contracts and licenses of other states. That is likely to be the most promising battleground for the expansion of gay rights in the United States. However, there remains a difference between civil unions and marriages. The advantage in this challenge likely rests with the prosecutors in my view.

However, in a prior Maryland case, a woman was successful in invoking spousal immunity by citing a license in Washington D.C. despite the fact that Maryland did not recognize such marriages. The court ruled that she did not have to testify.

Here is the Kentucky provision on immunity:

KRE 504 Husband-wife privilege
(a) Spousal testimony. The spouse of a party has a privilege to refuse to testify against the party as to events occurring after the date of their marriage. A party has a privilege to prevent his or her spouse from testifying against the party as to events occurring after the date of their marriage.
(b) Marital communications. An individual has a privilege to refuse to testify and to prevent another from testifying to any confidential communication made by the individual to his or her spouse during their marriage. The privilege may be asserted only by the individual holding the privilege or by the holder’s guardian, conservator, or personal representative. A communication is confidential if it is made privately by an individual to his or her spouse and is not intended for disclosure to any other person.
(c) Exceptions. There is no privilege under this rule:
(1) In any criminal proceeding in which sufficient evidence is introduced to support a finding that the spouses conspired or acted jointly in the commission of the crime charged;
(2) In any proceeding in which one (1) spouse is charged with wrongful conduct against the person or property of:
(A) The other;
(B) A minor child of either;
(C) An individual residing in the household of either; or
(D) A third person if the wrongful conduct is committed in the course of wrongful conduct against any of the individuals previously named in this sentence. The court may refuse to allow the privilege in any other proceeding if the interests of a minor child of either spouse may be adversely affected; or
(3) In any proceeding in which the spouses are adverse parties.
(d) Minor Child. The court may refuse to allow the privilege in any proceeding if the interests of a minor child of either spouse may be adversely affected.

17 thoughts on “Kentucky Woman Invokes Spousal Immunity In Murder Trial Of Same-Sex Partner”

  1. Back to the case. If you check, you might note that the Judiciary in the Commonwealth of Kentucky has a proud history of dragging the, perhaps otherwise, stagnant populace down the path of awareness. This case may allow for such an example of the value of the judicial system in preserving/establishing rights not generally popular, but none the less sanctioned by the Constitution.

  2. First line of this threads posting: “It is inevitable that, as more states recognize same-sex marriage, a host of collateral conflicts will arise over the use of such marriage licenses.”
    ***

    It’s only a “collateral conflict” because the civil right isn’t universal. If it were universal it would just be business as usual as it is among heterosexual married couples. The universality of marriage would solve the problem of collateral problems due to a patchwork of discriminatory laws instantly. Just say’n.

  3. Larry :..One of the most floridly inaccurate comments I have ever had the displeasure to read. Everything, and I mean everything, you said is either blatantly incorrect ( for example, homosexuals actually comprise about 10% of the population..which is a finding that carries across most mammalian species) or pure conjecture. Listing the names and (unsubstantiated) sexual preferences of serial killers across the globe just proves that you like to read about serial killers…nothing else.

    T

    Of note is the fact that pedophiles are neither homosexual or heterosexual…terms which describe people who engage in sexual activity with ADULT members of either the same or opposite sex. Pedophiles-who may or may not have a gender preference–are in a class all their own. They prefer sex with children specifically because they have yet to develop adult secondary sexual characteristics like breasts and pubic hair. Furthermore, most are serial offenders who never get caught.

    I could go on but I won’t waste my time.

    PS he most current version of the DSM is DSM IV..you probably can’t get your hands on one because you don’t have the credentials.

  4. What Gene and Darren and Juliet said. Lucky L, you need to change your second name.

  5. My old man would say, “Son, if your going to talk out of your ass please stand on your head first.”

  6. Darren,

    It’s amazing what some people say, especially when using an orifice not normally used for speech.

  7. Lucky Larry:

    How can you claim…..

    Homosexuals make up the most serial killers!

    and then two paragraphs later state ……..

    This list is intended for reference purposes only and does not imply a causal relationship between homosexuality and serial killing.

    ??

  8. I think this should hinge on whether or not Vermont defines persons as spouses with regard to their membership in civil unions. If the Vermont law is that this woman is a spouse to the accused, in my view she is immune from being compelled to testify.

    KRE 504, as listed above, states the necessary element as being “Spouse”. It does not state “spouse as defined under the eligibility requirements of the state constitution for a married couple.” If someone can articulate they are legally defined as a spouse in another state or country I believe they would meet this requirement.

    Moreover, some states define age of consent for marriage differently than others do. I don’t see the provisions here where this evidence rule depends upon the underlying marriage must be defined as being exactly equal to Kentucky law.

  9. OMG,

    And I thought only heterosexuals were the ONLY violent people around>

    Ha, ha, ha!

    Lesbians & homosexuals are more violent in their relationships, than heterosexuals.

    Homosexuals make up the most serial killers!

    Homosexual Serial Killers

    Statistical analysis of the proportion of homosexuality among serial killers, with a listing of prominent GLBT/homosexual serial killers

    Below is a list of serial killers who were homosexuals. This list is intended for reference purposes only and does not imply a causal relationship between homosexuality and serial killing.

    Although incidents of serial killing are widely reported in the media because of the heinous and unusual nature of these crimes, there are actually very few serial killers relative to the general population. Research into this phenomenon is ongoing, and a small industry has sprung up around the practice of “profiling” serial killers in order to assist in their apprehension. But, law enforcement officials agree that each serial killer is unique. Society does not currently have sufficient knowledge to predict serial killing before it occurs and thus prevent it from happening.

    Serial killers and their victims include people from all races, cultures, nationalities, economic background, educational levels, genders, and sexual orientations. Because serial killers are so rare, it is impossible to use any demographic indicator as a predictor. There are no “rules” and all apparent trends have been broken. But some general observations can be made.

    Serial killers are nearly always men (93%). Furthermore, of the relatively few female serial killers, one third of them worked in partnership with males.

    In the United States, serial killers are predominantly white. This makes sense statistically, because about 80% of the population is white. According to some sources, whites are over-represented and African-Americans are under-represented among serial killers, but this depends on how one defines a “serial killer.” The more celebrated, headline-grabbing serial killers are generally white, but if one counts all perpetrators of multiple homicides, including drug- and gang-related killings, then African-Americans account for between 20% to 30% of all multiple perpetrators, according to statistics compiled by the FBI. African-Americans comprise about 13% of the total U.S. population. Asians, who comprise probably under-represented among American serial-killers. Asian serial-killers are extremely rare in the United States, but Asians comprise only about 4% of the U.S. population so, statistically speaking, one would expect few Asian serial killers. There have been some high-profile Filipino serial killing and murder cases. Filipinos comprise a relatively newer and less affluent immigrant population relative to other major Asian groups in the United States.

    Although the proportion of serial killers who are known to have had homosexual experience is high (over 43%), the total number of serial killers is too small to make statistically relevant statements about whether homosexuals are over- or under-represented among serial killers. [Click here for source, related studies and statistics.]

    Also, it should be noted that many of the homosexual serial killers on this list were not active members of the Gay & Lesbian cultural community.

    Many of the most famous serial killers (e.g., Jeffrey Dahmer, Andrew Cunanan, John Wayne Gacy, etc.) were homosexuals, but they became widely known due to the nature of their crimes or the identities of their victims, not because they in any way represent serial killers generally.

    Given that less than 2% of adults are homosexuals (plus 1 to 2% who are bisexual), there would not need to be very many homosexuals among the total number of serial killers for them to be over-represented. But with such small overall numbers, and with no universally agreed upon definition of a homosexual, it would be impossible to determine the relative frequency of homosexuals among serial killers. Unlike gender and race (clearly ascertainable), there are no physical or genetic tests for sexual orientation. It can only be determined by behavior and self-identification.

    Some serial killers engaged in sex with both males and females, which would prompt some people to classify them as bisexuals. Their actual identity would then be argued about by various biologists, gay writers, and others, who would classify their status as a variant of homosexuality, a distinct classification, or repressed homosexuals. Such hair-splitting is well beyond the scope of this paper. Suffice it say, all of the individuals listed here as “homosexual serial killers” can be classified as homosexual as the term is generally used.

    Homosexual serial killers have most frequently chosen young boys or gay men as their victims, although some have victimized females as well. Most of the killers have raped their victims either before or after killing them, although in some cases they have killed after consensual homosexual sex. There have been heterosexual serial killers who have targeted gay victims (e.g., Colin Ireland), but this is very rare.

    But more importantly, none of the serial killers listed here represent typical homosexuals, who, like the general population, are almost never involved in violent crime. The exact nature of each individual’s feelings, attitudes, and behavior with regards to sex is unique, in the general population as well as among serial killers. Legally, all or nearly all of the homosexual serial killers on this list would be considered sexual deviants because of the extreme and violent nature of their acts — not simply because of their homosexual orientation. It must be emphasized that violent sexual deviancy is exhibited by heterosexual serial killers as well.

    No ethnic, religious or cultural group promotes this sort of violence. But in a free society, no culture is entirely free from violence, despite their best efforts. Kristi Degn eloquently wrote a letter to the editor in response to a writer who felt it was okay to single one culture out as perpetrators of violence:

    In his letter “Man Is God Here” (Forum, Aug. 25, 2000), Dennis Kostecki wrote, “In my dating days here, I dated six women. All were from this culture. All were abused by their former husbands. Every one! It seems to me this culture promotes the degradation and abuse of their women for reasons only they know and understand.”

    Pinpointing the blame for abuse on any one “culture” is irresponsible and weak. Abuse is no respecter of culture or demographics. It is no respecter of gender, marital or relationship status.

    Our statewide domestic violence hot-line number is 1-800-897-LINK. Perhaps Mr. Kostecki would be interested in knowing that calls received at this number are not from one “culture” only. Further, Mr. Kostecki’s statement is narrow-minded in relation to a problem which is a national concern.

    Gay/Homosexual Serial Killers
    Name # of People
    Killed Year Killer’s Home Location of Murders Notes Birth death
    Jeffrey Dahmer 17 1978, 1988-91 Milwaukee Milwaukee and Chicago homosexual cannibal. He was killed by another inmate while in prison. 21 May 1960 28 November 1994
    Andrew Cunanan 5 1997 San Diego, Calif. Minnesota; Chicago, IL; South Beach, FL killed fashion designer Gianni Versace 31 August 1969 23 July 1997
    Gilles de Rais 300+ 1430s France France associate of Joan of Arc
    Luis Alfredo Garavito 140+ Colombia Colombia Gay serial killer who murdered over 140 boys in Columbia. 25 January 1957
    Randy Steven Kraft 65 (est.) 1971 to 1983 Oregon, Michigan, etc. “Score Card Killer”
    Michael Swango 35 – 60 1983-97 Ohio, Illinois, New York, South Dakota, Virginia “Doctor of Death” — killed hospital patients
    Andrei Chikatilo 52 until 1992 Russia Russia
    Fritz Haarmann 40 (est.) until 1924 Germany Germany “Butcher Of Hanover”
    John Wayne Gacy 33 until 1978 Chicago Chicago bisexual; 27 of his victims (young boys he seduced) were found buried in crawlspace under his house. Executed in Joliet, IL. 17 March 1942 10 May 1994
    Patrick Wayne Kearney 28+ 1968 to 1977 Redondo Beach, Calif. gay cruising areas of Hollywood
    David D. Hill 28? 1968 to 1977 Redondo Beach, Calif. Hollywood Patrick Kearney’s lover; confessed to being co-killer with Kearney, but police weren’t sure about the extent of his involvement
    Hans Grans 27+ until 1924 Germany Germany accommplice and love of Haarmann, the “Butcher Of Hanover”
    Wayne Williams 27 1979-81 Atlanta Atlanta Gay serial killer who preyed mostly on young black male hustlers. 27 May 1958
    Dean Corll 27 1960s to 1973 Ft. Wayne, Indiana; later Houston, TX Houston, Texas
    Elmer Wayne Henley 27 1960s to 1973 Ft. Wayne, Indiana; later Houston, TX Houston, Texas Bisexual. Victims were young boys who he kidnapped and tortured. 9 May 1956
    David Owen Brooks 27 1960s to 1973 Ft. Wayne, Indiana; later Houston, TX Houston, Texas
    Donald Harvey 25 – 40 (est.) 1970-71 London, Kentucky Kentucky
    Juan Corona 25 1971 From Mexico; moved to Yuba City, CA in 1950s Yuba City, Calif. Born in Mexico. All of his victims were men that he first raped, and then killed with a machete over the span of six weeks. Presently resides in Corcoran State Prison. Juan Corona’s brother is Natividad, the gay, owner of the Guadalajara cafe in Marysville, CA. 1934
    Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo 21 (est.) until 1989 Matamoros, Mexico Matamoros, Mexico “Matamoros Cult Killer”
    Larry Eyler 19 1980s Chicago Illinois and Indiana
    Huang Yong 17+ 2001-2003 Henan Province, China Henan Province, China Gay. Executed. Murdered boys that he flirted with and picked up at internet cafes. Saved their belts as souvenirs. His 18th victim escaped, leading to his arrest. 1974 26 December 2003
    Dennis Nilsen 16 1978-83 U.K. U.K.
    Marcelo Costa de Andrade 14 until 1991 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
    William Bonin 12+ 1979-80 Orange County, Calif. Orange County, Calif.
    Henry Lee Lucas 12+ 1970s and 80s Most in Texas, Southeastern U.S. 23 August 1936 12 March 2001
    Ottis Toole 12+ 1970s and 80s West Coast, Florida, etc. accomplice of Henry Lee Lucas
    Vaughn Greenwood 11+ 1974-75 Los Angeles Los Angeles
    Richard Speck 8+ 1966 Chicago Chicago married, bisexual
    Cayetano Hernandez 8 1963 Yerba Buena, Mexico Mexico
    Eleazor Solis 8 1963 Monterey, Mexico Mexico
    David Bullock 6+ 1981-82 New York City New York
    Vernon Butts 6+ 1979-80 Calif. Orange County, Calif. accomplice of William Bonin
    Paul Bateson 6 ? (est.) 1977-78 New York City New York City
    Marc Dutroux 6 1995-1996 Belgium Belgium Bisexual. He is unusual among gay serial killers, in that his victims were all girls, who he kidnapped and tortured before killing. One of most notorious serial killers in Belgium’s history. 6 November 1956
    Michael Terry 6 1980-86 Atlanta Georgia, Ohio, South Carolina
    Orville Lynn Majors 6 Indiana Vermillion County Hospital, Indiana
    Charles Cohen 5+ Delaware Delaware, San Francisco, New York, Miami, and New Orleans
    Arthur Gary Bishop 5 1984 Utah Utah Utah serial killer of young boys. Years before his murder spree, in 1978, he had been excommunicated from the LDS Church. Bishop was an active homosexual and was no longer a member of the LDS Church when he became a serial killer. Executed in Utah State Prison. He said of his crimes, “With great sadness and remorse, I realize that I allowed myself to be misled by Satan. Pornography was not the only negative influence in my life, but its effect on me was devastating. I am a homosexual pedophile convicted of murder, and pornography was a determining factor in my downfall.” 1951 10 June 1988
    Michael Lupo 4+ 1986 from Italy London
    Peter Moore 4 1995 north Wales north Wales
    Westley Allan Dodd 3+ Washingon Washington, Oregon
    David P. Brown
    (a.k.a. Nathaniel Bar-Jonah) 3+ 2000 Massachusetts Montana David Paul Brown. Victims were all young boys. 15 February 1957
    Charles Manson 3+ 1968-72 Los Angeles Los Angeles Bisexual. One of nation’s most famous serial killers. Murdered actress Sharon Tate, the wife of film director Roman Polanski. Deeply interested in the occult. 12 November 1934
    David Edward Maust 5+ 1981; 2003 Germany; Galveston, TX (1981); Hammond, IL (2003) Gay. Killed teenage boys, usually by stabbing 5 April 1954
    Bruce Davis 2+ 1968-72 Los Angeles Los Angeles Charles Manson accomplice
    Erik Menendez 2 20 August 1989 Beverly Hills, CA Beverly Hills, CA with his straight brother Lyle, Erik killed his parents (Jose Menendez and Kitty Menendez). Their trial was a major national news story. 27 November 1971

    Although homosexual murderers of single victims are too numerous to list here, a number of particularly famous ones include: Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb (the wealthy and academically bright gay Chicago couple who murdered a boy in 1924 just for fun; their story became one of the nation’s most famous murder cases, and was the basis for many movies, including Hitchcock’s film “Rope”); Armin Meiwes (the sexually deviant German cannibal known as “Der Metzgermeister” – The Master Butcher, who met a victim over the Internet who he ate and killed); John E. du Pont (the gay member of the wealthy du Pont famil who shot Olympic wrestler David Schultz to death); Gary Hirte (Waupaca, WI high school senior who admitted to killing 37-year-old substitute teacher Glenn Kopitske); Karla Homolka (Canadian lesbian who murdered her own sister). Other notable gay violent criminals include Kenneth Parnell (paid $500 to “purchase” a young black boy named Steven Stayner, who he then raped and kidnapped); John Wojtowicz (whose bank robbery inspired the movie Dog Day Afternoon).

    Serial Killers who were Lesbians
    Name # of People
    Killed Year Killer’s Home Location of Murders Notes
    Magdalena Solis 8 1963 Monterey, Mexico Mexico
    Aileen Wuornos 7+ 1989-90 south of Daytona, Florida Florida killed male “johns”
    Tyria Moore 7+ 1989-90 south of Daytona, Florida Florida killed male “johns”
    Catherine Wood 6 Grand Rapids, MI Grand Rapids, MI nurse who killed patients
    Gwen Graham 6 Grand Rapids, MI Grand Rapids, MI nurse who killed patients

    Links

    Homosexual Serial Murder Investigation, by Vernon J. Geberth, M.S., M.P.S.

    Gay and Lesbian Murderers from 1920s to Present – by Lori Weiner

    The aetiology of serial murder: towards an integrated model, by Edward W. Mitchell, B.A. Hons, M.Phil. (University of Cambridge, UK). Includes section on “Gender identity disorder, homosexuality, and sexual dysfunction”

    The process of criminal profiling as it pertains to serial killers, by Susan Jones, Youngstown State University

    Violence and Homosexuality – by Dr. Paul Cameron

    Homosexuality: A Paradox of Evolution

    GBLT commentary: Why does gay America approve of a fact-based based homosexual serial killer movie such as “Monster” but disapprove of fictional homosexual serial killers?
    By: Mark Adnum
    Date: 28 April 2004
    Headline: “Scary Monsters”
    Source: spiked-online
    URL: http://www.outrate.net/featuresmonster.html

    [Excerpts]

    A lesbian serial killer and her vampiric, crafty lesbian lover are the main characters of Monster, an acclaimed new film that also seems to have, incongruously, won the blessing of the gay and lesbian media and gay activists.

    Gay magazines and newspapers around the world have given the film positive reviews, raving about Charlize Theron’s famous physical transformation, Christina Ricci’s pyrotechnic turn in a key supporting role, and director Patty Jenkin’s understated, effective approach to the sensational storyline. Planetout.com, a multimillion-hit-a-month online gay magazine, describes the film as ‘riveting, bleak and exceptionally intuitive’ and praises its ’emotional complexity’. The Advocate, America’s leading gay glossy, says the film is ‘brutal [and] brilliant’.

    The film hasn’t been called a masterpiece, but no gay publication I’ve seen has expressed irritation, concern or resentment over the gritty homo-killer tilt of the film, irks that have characterised gay relations with cinema for almost 30 years.

    Things seem to have changed enormously from the days when murderous, negative or stealthy gay movie characters triggered geysers of vitriolic spittle from gay groups, who have a history of sensitivity to their big-screen representation. Most famously, they disrupted the location shoots of Cruising (1980) with whistles and mirrors, protested inside and outside the 1991 Oscars ceremony over the crowning of ‘gay negative’ The Silence of the Lambs at the expense of ‘gay positive’ My Own Private Idaho, and picketed cinemas showing Basic Instinct (1992), furious over the film’s murderous lesbians and ruining it for moviegoers entering the cinema by waving placards that revealed the surprise ending…

    The current crop of gay films and TV shows feature gay characters that are inoffensive, American Dream-friendly and, above all, nice. Gay activists got their Russonic message across: unflattering gay characters will cause you more trouble than they’re worth, and happy shiny gay characters sell – you can make money.

    So, in this Queer Eye context, the calm gay media response to Monster is anachronistic and confusing. We see Aileen Wuornos (Theron) get seduced by needy-yet-wily Selby (Ricci), a young lesbian kicked out of home for being gay who manipulates and uses the hopeless Wuornos to gain a bit of off-the-wall life experience. While Wuornos is out pulling Johns off the Interstate, unemployed Selby lounges at home watching TV, only getting up to complain about how bored she is when Wuornos – usually covered in blood – gets home from a hard day’s work.

    Selby sells Wuornos up the river when the police close in, retreating back to her conservative family and sending her one-time gay lover to her fate (and, eventually, to the lethal injection room) as part of a favourable plea bargain. For her part, Wuornos corrupts and recruits Selby as an accessory to her prostitution, petty crimes and murders.

    In short, if ever there was a movie about vampiric killer lesbians and stealthy, untrustworthy homosexuals who form secret pagan bonds yet who never forget how to slide, unnoticed, back into the suburban fold, Monster is it. The killer lesbians in Monster make those in Basic Instinct look like the lesbians in The Color Purple, and while one of them ends up condemned and executed by the state, the other is emotionally and psychologically destroyed after giving in to heteronormativity. On paper, Monster is a gay activist movie nightmare – so where’s the gay media backlash?

    The first clue is that Monster is ‘based on a true story’. Theron’s celebrated performance was built on repeated watchings of videos of Wuornos speaking of her life, while the film, admirably, doesn’t seek to over-dramatise the facts or editorialise about Wuornos’ motives… Monster is a sensitive tale of a real woman who was both the lover of another woman and a serial killer. It doesn’t seem to matter, then, if the gay character kills, lies and ends up dead, as long as that’s what really happened to the character in real life.

    Confusingly though, this reminds us of the existence of real gay and lesbian serial killers – Wuornos obviously, as well as Jeffrey Dahmer, Leopold and Loeb, John Wayne Gacy, Andrew Cunanan et al – and beg the question, what’s so offensive and problematic about including killer homosexual characters in films, when there are ample precedents in reality for such characters? Why the books, placards, picket lines and protests for so many decades? What difference does it make if gay movie killers are based on real-life examples, or whether they’re the invention of a screenwriter, especially since, even in ‘true story’ films, creative liberties have to be taken and there’s always substantial fictionalisation? Why does a film about an actual homosexual character get gay media approval, while a film with a fictional negative homosexual character – not necessarily a killer – get torn to shreds?…

    Wuornos and Shelby are working-class Americans, struggling to get by and railing against the hypocrisies of the predominantly heterosexual society they have to live in. Like Thelma and Louise, they are heroic outlaw chicks, out to prove a few bloody fair-enough points about the crappy straight-male dominated system before they bond for life and go down in a proverbial hail of bullets. So, it doesn’t seem to be the killing or the stealth that’s been the problem all these years, but the exclusion of gay characters from the sympathies of the narrative, and through that, the audience. Kill all you like, as long as you’re located within the heart of the film, and presented to the audience as a struggling, sympathetic, preferably working-class person.

    It’s a peculiar message though, surely, that gay audiences, and the media that represent them, won’t tolerate being the crazy killers on the fringe – they insist on having the right to serial kill like any other normal person.
    Homosexuality among Serial Killers: Statistics
    Source, “over 43%”: “Homosexual Rape and Murder of Children”, published in Journal of the Family Research Institute, Vol. 18 No. 1, Feb 2003.
    Technically, 69% of the serial killers in this study were homosexuals (i.e., people who were self-described homosexuals or people who had engaged in homosexual behavior immediately prior to, during, or after committing their murders). The lower statistic of 43% cited above is the proportion who were homosexual among people who molested or raped and then murdered children: 43% of these perpetrators were homosexuals. This lower figure, however, includes people who killed only a single person, and are thus not classified as serial killers. The lower figure is used in the article above (as “over 43%”) because it comes from a larger sample size. Presumably, if the sample size were expanded to include a wider range of years, the proportion of serial killers who are homosexuals would remain between the proportion in this study who are serial killers (69% homosexuals versus 31% heterosexuals) and the proportion of all killers in this study (43% homosexual versus 57% heterosexual). Also note the approximately 50% of murders committed by homosexuals reported by Warren with regards to murders of adults. See also: Gemert, F. van, “Chicken kills hawk: gay murders during the eighties in Amsterdam”, published in Journal of Homosexuality. 26(4), 149-174 (1994).

    Excerpts, including methodology:

    Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, an on-line search service, scans the whole text of over 50 English regional and national newspapers, largely in the U.S., but also including major papers in Australia, England, Canada, and New Zealand (e.g., the Baltimore Sun, Boston Globe, Independent [London], Ottawa Citizen, etc.). For 1989 through 2002 inclusive, every news story that included “child molestation” was examined — a total of 6,444 stories which, after eliminating repeat stories about the same cases, reduced to 1,914 unique child molestation events. The 6,444 story database was double-checked by running “murder” and “killed” against it. Only news stories were tallied, not editorials or opinion pieces, so these were stories of fairly recent events.

    One hundred and three news stories involved the rape and/or murder of children: 90 involved the molestation and murder of a child or children, 11 stories involved only the abduction and rape of children, and two the rape and mutilation, but not the murder, of the children involved. Of the 90 news stories where the child was raped and murdered (0.47% of the unique child molestation stories), 40% involved homosexual molestation.

    In the most unusual case, an “educated and relatively wealthy” leader recruited two other men and a boy. This team raped and murdered precisely 100 boys 1. The leader had had prior arrests for suspicion of sodomizing boys…

    Of the 95 perpetrators in these 90 stories, at least 43% engaged in homosexuality… Of the 217 victims, at least 68% were victimized by homosexual perpetrators, and at least 67% were boys… Furthermore, both multiple perpetrators and multiple victims were associated with homosexuality. In the three stories where two or more killers were implicated, the rapes were homosexual. In 69% of the 13 stories involving more than one victim, the perpetrator engaged in homosexuality. Another 11 stories involved a charge of attempted murder. In 64% of those cases, the perpetrator engaged in homosexuality.

    When all other cases of child molestation from the Lexis-Nexis search are added to these stories, there were 2,181 perpetrators in the 1,914 distinct events whose sexual proclivities could be characterized by the sex of their victim: 41% engaged in sex with their own sex, the remaining 59% with the opposite sex (another 118 perpetrators violated at least 190 children whose sex was not given). Of the 5,630 underage victims of these molestations, 61% were victimized by individuals who engaged in homosexuality. And those who performed homosexual seductions were quite one-sided: 3,386 of their victims were boys, only 60 were girls.

    Overall, there was a slightly higher rate of homosexuality among perpetrators who raped and killed than among those who “merely” raped or molested (43% vs. 41%). In addition, the proportion of victims attributed to homosexual perpetrators who raped and murdered was higher than the proportion attributed to homosexuals who only raped or molested (68% vs. 61%). All of the cases involving eating or torturing the victim were committed by homosexual practitioners…

    Murder and child molestation combine[ed]… are also independently associated with those who engage in homosexuality. Blanchard, Barbaree, Bogaert, Dicky, Klassen, Kuban, and Zucker, working with male offenders, concluded in 2000 that 2 the “best epidemiological evidence indicates that only 2-4% of men attracted to adults prefer men; in contrast, around 25-40% of men attracted to children prefer boys…. Thus the rate of homosexual attraction is 6-20 times higher among pedophiles [those who have sex with children under the age of 12 yr.]” (p. 464).

    Likewise, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual III-R (DSM III-R, 1987) 3 of the American Psychiatric Association, summarizing the clinical material about men, states that “Attraction to girls [aged 13 yr. or younger] is apparently twice as common as attraction to boys” and notes that the “course is usually chronic, especially in those attracted to boys…. The recidivism rate for people with Pedophilia involving a preference for the same sex is roughly twice that of those who prefer the opposite sex” (pp. 284-5).

    Both of these sources estimated that about a third of child molesters engage in homosexuality — similar to the 41% of male perpetrators who ‘only’ raped the underage in the newspaper database. In other studies 4, it has also been found that male perpetrators who engage in homosexuality claim larger numbers of rape victims than non-homosexual rapists. For instance, 84% of the 28,574 children under the age of 14 who were raped in Abel, et al. were victimized by homosexuals. Also, the higher rates of recidivism by homosexuals noted in the DSM would imply more victims too.

    In line with these reports, of the 217 victims in the 90 murder and rape stories, at least 68% were victimized by homosexual perpetrators. This 68% falls between the estimate that “roughly equal numbers of girls and boys, each year fall victim to some form of sexual exploitation” cited in a recent National Association of Social Workers review of a large set of studies of child molestation 5 and the 84% reported by Abel, et al.

    Murder also appears to be disproportionately associated with homosexuality. Jim Warren did the intake interview for almost all younger murderers (i.e., those under age 36) at the Washington State Corrections Center from 1971-82. In an interview in 1994… Warren said that he was struck with how frequently homosexuality turned up in the cases…: Although the motive listed in the report was often robbery or theft, he said that “about 50% of the time” it was associated with homosexuality…

    …a group [homosexuals] constituting perhaps 1% to 5% of men (1.3% in the 1996 National Household Survey of Drug Abuse; higher in Black, et al. 7, Anderson and Stall 8, and Cameron and Cameron 9) generated 43% of those who were recorded in the most recent 14 years of news stories as having raped and killed children. [The minority of the population that is homosexual] also accounts for around a third of child molesters, commits between a third to two-thirds of child rapes, and may be involved in up to half of all murders…

    1. Popham, P. (2000) Child killer sentenced to be throttled, cut up and immersed in an acid bath. Independent [London, England] 3/17/00.
    2. Blanchard, R., Barbaree, H. E., Bogaert, A. F., Dicky, R., Klassen, P., Kuban, M. E., Zucker, K. J. (2000) Fraternal birth order and sexual orientation in pedophiles. Archives of Sexual Behavior 29, 463-478.
    3. American Psychiatric Association. (1987) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual III-R. Washington, D.C.
    4. Abel, G. G., Becker, J. V., Mittelman, M., Cunningham-Rathner, J., Bouleau, J. L., and Murphy, W. D. (1987) Self-reported sex crimes of nonincarcerated paraphiliacs. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2 (1), 3-25.
    5. Houston Chronicle (9/26/01) Define child sex abuse to combat problem. Editorial.
    7. Black, D., Gates, G., Sanders, S. and Taylor, L. (2000) Demographics of the gay and lesbian population in the United States: evidence from available systematic data sources. Demography. 37, 139-154.
    8. Anderson, J. E. and Stall, R. (2002) Increased reporting of male-to-male sexual activity in a national survey. Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 29, 643-646.
    9. Cameron, P. and Cameron, K. (2002) What proportion of heterosexuals is ex-homosexual? Psychological Reports 91, 1087-1097.

  10. I’m hoping that the civil union is upheld…. It will have weight in a number of other states spousal privilege…..

  11. Since Kentucky has amended our constitution to define marriage as being between one man and one woman, I don’t think the recent SCOTUS decisions will provide any assistance to the defense, in this regard.

  12. I don’t think this would be a good case to present to the public as a reason to support gay marriage.

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