Fla. Jury Rejects 'Gay Panic' Defense, Convicts Killer

Jurors in Florida rejected a "gay panic" defense, finding a 28-year-old man guilty of murder in the choking and stabbing death of a 60-year-old man.

Anibal Mayor's defense for the 2008 killing of Dean Blietz was that he thought Blietz was going to sexually assault him, reported the Fort Myers News-Press on June 12. That fear, the defense claimed, had built up over time, with Blietz making sexual advances toward Mayor, with whom he shared a residence. Finally, the defense said, Blietz triggered a lethal panic response, fueled by the trauma of a prison rape that Anibal said he had previously endured.

But the prosecution countered that the story did not make sense, asking jurors to use their "good common sense" in weighing the likelihood that the then-26-year-old Mayor would have continued to live with Blietz if he thought that he was in jeopardy, and noting that Mayor's story had changed over time.

Mayor had initially told police that he killed Blietz for money that Mayor wanted to use for the purchase of drugs. Blietz had taken Mayor is upon Mayor's release from prison after serving a five-year term for burglary; he hadn't even been out of prison for a month when Blietz was murdered in early July of 2008, the article said.

At his trial, Mayor's defense argued that Blietz had put his hand on Mayor's thigh. This, the defense claimed, sent Mayor into a panic. The defense also referenced a ring that was noted around Blietz's genitals at the autopsy, and suggested that the presence of the ring indicated that Blietz was looking for a sexual encounter. In the end, jurors rejected the idea that "gay panic" justified the killing, and convicted Mayor of armed robbery and first-degree murder, the article said.

Fort Myers is on the Florida's Gulf Coast, located between Naples and Sarasota. A June 8 article in the News-Press described Blietz, a Fort Meyers resident, as a "man of faith" who maintained a "ministry" for ex-convicts, taking them in to help them readjust to life outside of prison. In the wake of his death, the Lee County Homeless Coalition established an award in Blietz's name.

A June 16 op-ed in the News-Press hailed the conviction. "This so-called 'gay panic' defense is based on the reprehensible notion that mere sexual advances by someone of the same sex can justify harming or even killing him or her," the opinion piece noted. "The defense played upon what it hoped would be jurors' anti-gay prejudices." Added the op-ed, "It is as abhorrent as appealing to a jury's racism to let a killer off the hook because of the victim's race or ethnicity."

The op-ed went on to recall, "When Matthew Shepard of Wyoming was killed in 1998, his murderers sought to use the 'gay panic' defense, claiming he made passes at them. Shepard's [name] is on the hate crimes bill, which became law in 2009 and now covers people regardless of sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability."