Media Ignore Homosexual Murder-Rape Trial
CNSNews.com
Tuesday, March 13, 2001
Jury selection began Monday in the trial of a man accused of raping and murdering an Arkansas boy. Family groups have complained that the news media have demonstrated a pro-homosexual bias in their reluctance to cover the case.
The media should give as much attention to this case as they did to the highly publicized "hate crime" murder of Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard, the family groups say.
Joshua Macabe Brown, 22, is one of two men accused of raping and murdering 13-year-old Jesse Dirkhising, on Sept. 26, 1999, in Rogers, Ark., wire services reported. The second defendant, Davis Don Carpenter, 39, is to be tried May 7.
Both men are charged with murder and six counts of rape. If convicted, they face the death penalty.
Prosecutors said the boy died after he was drugged, gagged, tied up and raped in the apartment of the two men, who told police they were homosexual lovers. Dirkhising befriended the men while working at a Rogers hair salon with Carpenter, who was friends with the boy's parents.
Circuit Judge David Clinger granted a request by Public Defender Charles Duell, Brown's lawyer, to prohibit cameras and recording devices in the courtroom. Duell wants the trial moved from Benton County because pretrial press coverage has made it impossible to get a fair trial, he said. The Brown trial is expected to take two weeks.
See more articles about "hate crimes."
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