From: MPetrelis@aol.com
Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1999 12:27:12 EST
Subject: Queer Watch condemns death of AL gay and death penalty

 PLEASE REPOST WIDELY!!      PLEASE REPOST WIDELY!!

NEWS FROM QUEER WATCH
For Immediate Release
March 5, 1999
Contacts:
Chris Farrell:  212-505-6985
Michael Petrelis:  415-621-6267

Queer Watch Condemns Murder of Gay Man in Alabama;
Gays Fear and Denounce Death Penalty Possibility

San Francisco, CA - Queer Watch, the group in the forefront of gay opposition
to the death penalty, deplores the murder of Billy Jack Gaither, a 39-year-old
man from Sylacauga, Alabama.  Gaither was beaten to death and his body burned
on February 19; two suspects, Steven Mullins and Charles Butler, have been
arrested and charged with his murder.

Queer Watch is shocked a major gay organization has joined in the rush to
judgment that might deny the accused killers a fair trial and send them to the
electric chair.  Alabama statutes allow capital punishment, and since 1977
there have been 18 people executed in the state.

Members of gay human rights groups are outraged other gay groups have used
Gaither's death to call for so-called hate crime laws rather than work for
justice in this case.  "Hate crimes legislation is wrong -- it is a quick fix
that diverts attention from the complex issue of hatred of homosexuals in
America," said Queer Watch spokesperson Michael Petrelis.  "If Alabama had
hate crimes penalty enchantment and the suspects were convicted of murdering
Gaither, would hate crime advocates seek to fry them twice?  If the death
penalty statute didn't serve as a deterrent to the murder, what tangible
effect would a hate crime law have?"

"The Human Rights Campaign, which supports hate crime legislation but refuses
to condemn the death penalty, has already tried the suspects in the media and
found them guilty," said Chris Farrell, a New York based member of Queer
Watch.  The HRC, a gay lobbying group in Washington, DC labeled Mullins and
Butler "the two killers" in a March 4 release.  The two men have not entered a
plea, nor made statements to the press and only one has an attorney.  HRC's
guilty verdict is based on a claim by Coosa County Sheriff's Deputy Al Bradley
that they confessed to killing Gaither because "he was a homosexual."

"The preference for instant judgment rather than due process is a hallmark of
cases that end the death penalty.  HRC seems more concerned with revenge than
justice," Chris Farrell said.

In January Queer Watch denounced the Wyoming prosecutor in the case against
two men charged with killing gay Matthew Shepard last October when he filed
motions announcing his intention to seek the death penalty.  The group also
implored major gay advocacy organizations to join us in expressing opposition
to 
the prosecutor's moving toward executions, and in late February eleven
organizations united to condemn the death penalty.

"We call on every gay group committed to social justice and human rights to
join Queer Watch in sending Alabamans a clear message -- not in our names
should you seek the death penalty as punishment for Gaither's killing," said
Michael Petrelis from San Francisco.  "Education about gay lives, not
retaliation, will help prevent the demise of another Shepard or Gaither."

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