The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

GAY rights activist Alexis DeMarco has called for hate crime legislation after linking a string of recent and historic killings involving people believed to have been members of the LGBTQ+ community to concerns about bias-motivated violence and unequal treatment within the justice system.

However, Attorney General Wayne Munroe yesterday rejected her call, saying he had received no briefings suggesting that murders in The Bahamas were motivated by hatred of a victim’s sexual orientation.

Ms DeMarco pointed in particular to two killings this year — the stabbing death of a 63-year-old man whose body was found inside a burning Nassau Village duplex recently and the January killing of a 38-year-old man inside his Daffodil Avenue home.

Police have not publicly identified a motive in either case, and Ms DeMarco acknowledged that authorities have not classified the deaths as hate crimes. However, she said the absence of legislation specifically recognising bias-motivated offences makes it difficult to determine whether prejudice played a role.

Ms DeMarco argued that the country cannot properly identify or prosecute bias-driven violence without a legal framework that recognises such crimes.

She said LGBTQ+ Bahamians have long feared that violence against members of their community is not pursued with the same urgency or seriousness as other crimes.

“When perpetrators of violence against LGBTQ+ people receive convictions for lesser offences instead of murder, many in our community are left questioning whether prejudice and harmful stereotypes continue to influence the pursuit of justice,” she said.

She cited the case of Latherio Jones, who was originally charged with murder after fatally shooting Trevor Wilson but was convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of apparent provocation.

The court heard that Wilson had made repeated homosexual advances towards Jones.

The Crown appealed the sentence as unduly lenient, arguing that Jones armed himself, went to Wilson’s room and shot him in the head after what prosecutors described as a second homosexual advance.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and upheld the sentence.

Delivering the court’s oral ruling in 2010, then Court of Appeal president Dame Joan Sawyer said: “One is entitled to use whatever force is necessary to prevent oneself being the victim of a homosexual act.”

Ms DeMarco said that ruling, together with the defence commonly known internationally as “gay panic”, has deepened fears that violence against LGBTQ+ people can be diminished or excused through prejudice and stereotypes.

Mr Munroe rejected the suggestion that a separate hate crime framework was needed to protect LGBTQ+ people from murder, arguing that existing homicide laws apply equally regardless of a victim’s identity.

“From all of the briefings I got, I didn’t get anything that appeared hate crime related,” Mr Munroe said.

He said murder charges are generally reduced to manslaughter only where recognised legal principles affect an accused person’s criminal responsibility.

“Murders that get reduced to manslaughter are generally if you have anything that has a mental element,” he said.

“So let’s say I represented a woman who set her husband on fire over a lot of mental abuse. It was clearly an intention to kill him, but it was reduced because of diminished responsibility. So some intimate violence case, especially when it’s the female killing the male, is reduced to manslaughter based on intimate partner violence.”

Mr Munroe said that during his time at the Bar, he had not encountered a murder that he considered motivated by hatred of a person because they were gay or black.

“I have not heard in all of my time at the bar of any hate crime-related murder where somebody is murdered because they are gay or because they are black,” he said.

“I’ve not. I’ve seen a lot of personal, intimate partner violence. But the intimate partner violence has nothing to do with your sexual orientation or your sexual preference. It has everything to do with the nature of the interpersonal relationship.”

Ms DeMarco said advocates have questioned whether killings involving people believed to have been members of the LGBTQ+ community received the same attention as other homicide investigations.

She cited the death of the 63-year-old man found inside a burning duplex on Lee Street in Nassau Village on July 15.

Firefighters responding to the blaze shortly after 2am forced their way into the residence and found the man lying unresponsive near the front door.

Police later determined that he had apparent stab wounds and opened a homicide investigation. An autopsy was ordered to establish the precise cause of death.

Ms DeMarco also pointed to the January 14 killing of a 38-year-old man found stabbed to death inside his Daffodil Avenue home.

A colleague requested a welfare check after being unable to reach him. Police said the victim suffered stab wounds to his upper body.

The killing came nearly three years after he survived a separate shooting for which another man was charged with attempted murder and firearm offences.

Police have not said whether the earlier attack was connected to his death.

Ms DeMarco also highlighted a succession of older, unsolved killings involving people believed to have been members of the LGBTQ+ community.

They included police officer Kevin Williams in 2001; lecturer Thaddeus McDonald and fashion designer Harl Taylor in 2007; HIV/AIDS activist Wellington Solomon Adderley, Jamaican waiter Marvin Wilson and dancer Paul Whylly in 2008; photographer Sharvado Simmons in 2011; waiter Elkin Moss in 2013.