“Today I feel like we’ve had answers and we’ve had justice, and that’s for our brother and that’s for gay men who were bashed or killed in that era,” she said. Younger sister Rebecca Johnson said she was satisfied with the sentence. “We didn’t get compensation for Scott this week but what Scott got was dignity,” the older sibling told reporters. Outside court, Boston resident Steve Johnson thanked prosecutors and the judicial system for ensuring White was sent to prison. She said she only became aware of a reward when the victim’s brother, Steve Johnson, doubled the sum in 2020. Under cross-examination on Monday, Helen White denied she had been aware of a 1 million Australian dollar ($704,000) reward for information on Johnson’s murder when she went to police in 2019.
Wilson did not accept the defense lawyers’ argument that Helen White had been motivated to report him to police by a reward. Johnson must have been terrified, aware that he would strike the rocks below and conscious of his fate,” Wilson added. “In those seconds when he must have realized what was happening to him, Dr.
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Johnson, causing him to stumble backwards and leave the cliff edge,” Wilson said. Wilson said it was not possible to draw any conclusions beyond a reasonable doubt about what had happened at the clifftop. Scott White told police that he was himself gay and frightened that his homophobic brother would find out. She told the court on Monday that her husband had told her Johnson had run off the cliff. White’s former wife Helen White told police in 2019 that her then-husband had bragged about beating gay men and had said the only good gay man was a dead gay man. White was 18 and homeless when he met 27-year-old Los Angeles-born Johnson at a bar in suburban Manly in December 1988 and went with him to a nearby cliff top at North Head. He must serve at least eight years and three months in prison before he can be considered for parole. She also said she applied more lenient sentencing patterns in place in New South Wales state in the late 1980s. Justice Helen Wilson said she did not find beyond reasonable doubt that the murder was a gay hate crime, an aggravating factor that would have led to a longer sentence. Scott White, 51, pleaded guilty in January and could have been sentenced to up to life in prison. A coroner in 2017 found a number of assaults, some fatal, where the victims had been targeted because they were thought to be gay. The death of mathematician Scott Johnson was initially called a suicide, but his family pressed for further investigation. "He is very much opposed to our support of queer people," Pastor Eileen Gebbie told the publication, adding that his actions "reveal the depth of homo-, trans-, and queerphobia in our 'Iowa nice' community.CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - An Australian man was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in prison Tuesday for the 1988 murder of an American who fell off a Sydney cliff that was known as a gay meeting place. No, none whatsoever."Īccording to state sentencing guidelines, an offender faces a maximum sentence of five years for the hate crime and arson charge, and a maximum of 13 months for the other charges however because he was deemed a habitual offender, the judge could hit him with the far-longer sentence. In an interview with KCCI, when asked if the incident was about homosexuality, he emphatically replied: "Yes, yes, yes. Story County Attorney Jessica Reynolds said the hate crime charges were added because he had targeted the church over "what it represents as far as sexual orientation." He also allegedly threatened to burn down the strip club after getting kicked out.
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They said he admitted stealing it and dousing it in lighter fluid before burning it. Police arrested Martinez outside Dangerous Curves Gentleman's Club, where they found him yelling while setting the LGBTQ banner ablaze. The rainbow flag, which read "God is still speaking," was hung above the doorway of the Ames United Church of Christ. #BoycottHallmarkChannel Trending After Network Bows to Conservative Pressure, Pulls Same-Sex Wedding Ad