7-18-2009 Illinois:How do you stab and slash someone 61 times, not just killing but slaughtering him, then walk free?
That's the lingering question in the wake of last week's acquittal of Joseph Biedermann of Hoffman Estates, who admitted to inflicting numerous fatal wounds on Terrance Hauser during an early-morning altercation in March 2008 in Hauser's apartment in the complex where both men lived.
The answer, in this case, is that you cast yourself as the victim of an attempted homosexual rape, then you throw in all-or-nothing with the jury.
Biedermann, now 30, testified that he first met Hauser, 38, at a tavern shortly before the incident. After the bartender refused to serve Biedermann any more alcohol, the two, both drunk, repaired to Hauser's apartment. Biedermann said after some conversation he passed out, then awoke to find Hauser holding a sword to his neck, ordering him to disrobe and submit to a sexual act.
"It's the most bizarre case I've ever been a part of," said Biedermann's defense attorney, Sam Adam Jr., whose strangeness threshold is high as he represented rapper R. Kelly in his sensational rape trial and now represents former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Biedermann described the subsequent melee in which he gained control of a dagger and used it to stab Hauser repeatedly in an attempt to escape. Cook County prosecutors and other skeptics say that story doesn't add up: Biedermann was slightly larger and slightly less drunk than Hauser, and couldn't possibly have had to stab him five dozen times in order to escape.
The scene showed almost no signs of a life-and-death struggle, suggesting Biedermann simply attacked Hauser.
In the bloody overkill of the stabbing frenzy some see the hallmark of "gay panic" cases -- ones in which defendants suggest, sometimes successfully, that homosexual overtures are themselves sufficient provocation for acts of extreme violence.
Rick Garcia, political director of Equality Illinois, said he was "disgusted" by Biedermann's acquittal. "The gay panic defense is passé but, unfortunately, it still works in some places. It seems to me that this jury based its verdict not on the facts but on deep seated anti-gay sentiment."
Adam, not surprisingly, disagrees. "This verdict wasn't anti-gay, it was anti-rape," he said. "Hauser threatened to kill my client. He simply fought back."
With 61 thrusts of a knife? "During the fight, Hauser fell on top of [Biedermann] on the couch," Adam said. "So [Biedermann] just kept stabbing and stabbing trying get him off."
Believers say Biedermann's account adds up. He had no history of violent behavior (nor did Hauser), the weapon he used belonged to Hauser, and he, Biedermann, also suffered wounds in the altercation, albeit comparatively minor.
Adam said he thinks jurors might have voted for a compromise verdict -- second-degree murder, which, under Illinois law, means that the killer believed his actions were justified, but that belief was objectively unreasonable.
Prosecutors didn't want to give the jury that option, even though it might best fit the boozy, horrific mayhem that left Hauser dead and Biedermann covered with blood.
"Our view was the evidence showed [Biedermann] never actually believed his life was in danger," said Joe Magats, deputy chief of criminal prosecutions for the Cook County state's attorney's office. "We couldn't then turn around and argue to the jury that he did believe that ... ."
Biedermann didn't want to give the jury that option either, even though second-degree murder is a probationable offense that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, and first-degree murder, the original charge, carries a 20-year minimum. The charge of first-degree murder does not require premeditation and can include killings committed "under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance," so it was a huge risk.
(See Illinois law --second-degree murder; and first-degree murder and justifiable use of force)
"He gambled," said Adam. "He felt the jury would have reasonable doubt about what happened in that apartment that night. The state gambled too."
Biedermann won. The state lost. How did justice do? We'll never know for sure. ..Source.. by Eric Zorn
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