Woodward murders Bernstein for being gay

[Gil Bang 26,163]

18 at 12:13 pm | UPDATED: August 2, 2018 at 4:09 pm

SANTA ANA – Samuel Lincoln Woodward, already charged with the murder of his former high school classmate Blaze Bernstein, will now face a hate-crime enhancement as well.

That means Woodward, if convicted, could spend his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“We will prove that Woodward killed Blaze because Blaze was gay,” Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said during a Thursday news conference at his Santa Ana office announcing the enhancement.

 

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The enhancement, filed Thursday, arose from evidence discovered since Woodward’s initial arrest in his cellphone, laptop and social-media accounts that the district attorney described as revealing “the dark side of Woodward’s thoughts and intentions.”

That included a “large number of texts and images” that Rackauckas described as “graphic and chilling” and “spewing hate toward almost every protected group.”

“They could be described as racist, homophobic, anti-semitic, misogynistic and anti-government,” Rackauckas said.

Bernstein’s father, Gideon, said the “truth of what happened to our son” is becoming more apparent as evidence is analyzed.

“Today we suffer an added layer of pain for learning he was killed for who he was as a human being,” Gideon Bernstein said.

Woodward, 21, is accused of stabbing to death Bernstein, whose body was found in a shallow grave at Borrego Park in Lake Forest early this year.

Woodward and Bernstein were classmates at the Orange County School of the Arts in Santa Ana. Bernstein was home from college on winter break when he died.

Prosecutors allege that Woodward picked up Bernstein from his parent’s Lake Forest home around 11 p.m. on Jan. 2, driving him to a shopping center in Foothill Ranch and then to Borrego Park.

According to an affidavit filed by detectives, Woodward told investigators that he and Bernstein met up that night to catch up, and that Bernstein kissed him on the lips while the two were sitting in a parked car. Woodward told the investigators that he pushed Bernstein away, and that Bernstein exited the car and walked alone into the park.

Prosecutors allege that Woodward stabbed Bernstein to death and then buried his body in the dirt.

A day after their son went out, Bernstein’s parents reported him missing. Six days later, his body was discovered. And on Jan. 12, at his Newport Beach home, Woodward was arrested.

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Woodward has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. Prior to the hate-crime enhancement, Woodward was facing 26 years to life in prison if convicted.

To prove the hate-crime allegation, the prosecutors must get the jurors to decide that Woodward committed the killing at least in part because of Bernstein’s sexual orientation. If prosecutors argue that there were multiple reasons Woodward is believed to have killed Bernstein, then sexual orientation must be a substantial factor.

State law does not allow prosecutors to consider a killing motivated by sexual orientation as a special-circumstances murder, a distinction that means Woodward, as currently charged, is not eligible for the death penalty.

Rackauckas said the evidence now available to prosecutors does not support charging Woodward with a sentencing enhancement alleging the killing was driven by Bernstein’s religion; he was Jewish.

Woodward was reportedly a member of the Atomwaffen Division, an armed fascist organization. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the Atomwaffen Division is a “small neo-Nazi group whose members see themselves as soldiers preparing for an impending race war.”

“This case is a stark reminder of how white-supremacist organizations sweep up young recruits into their violent and hateful culture, with potentially deadly consequences,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League in a statement following the DA’s announcement.

Bernstein’s parents have started a group called Blaze It Forward in their son’s memory.

“We live in a world where hate is real, and the people who practice it can be hiding in your child’s bedroom, through their computer,” said Jeanne Pepper Bernstein, Blaze Bernstein’s mother, during the news conference.

[Orca of Peace 109]

Quote

Prosecutors allege that Woodward stabbed Bernstein to death and then buried his body in the dirt.

deep throat wounds? 

[EMAWesome 101]

So Blaze was flaming?

[Lhorn 5,062]

The Watergate guys?  Well what do ya know?

Edited August 3, 2018 by Lhorn

[Longhorn Al 440]

I guess he wasn't too worried about getting it in the end.

[Guest]

The "hatecrime" label is a fucking joke, even when it is such a heinous act. Murder is not typically an act of love...

 

The dead dude is not "more" dead because of his sexual orientation.

 

That being said, I hope the perp gets the max sentence for murder.

[Stoogey 219]

1 hour ago, slorch said:

The "hatecrime" label is a fucking joke, even when it is such a heinous act.

I can immediately think of several examples of people being killed because of their race. The Zebra Murders, the soldiers who murdered Toshiro Kobata and Hirota Isomura at Lordsburg and James Byrd, whose death-by-dragging was the sparking point for the Texas hate crimes law. 

The hate crimes enhancer is like tripling traffic fines in freeway construction and school zones. 

I don't know how effective of a deterrent the hate crimes enhancer is ....

Edited August 3, 2018 by Stoogey
traffic fines, not violations

[RollLeft 5,057]

6 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

Bernstein’s parents have started a group called Blaze It Forward in their son’s memory.

[Orca of Peace 109]

2 hours ago, slorch said:

The "hatecrime" label is a fucking joke, even when it is such a heinous act. Murder is not typically an act of love...

 

The dead dude is not "more" dead because of his sexual orientation.

 

That being said, I hope the perp gets the max sentence for murder.

it's political correctnes and thought policing where a crime against a subset of the population is worse than the overall population. So if a rapist, in a town of 10k, says "I'm going to rape only the Asian women", 400 ppl, that is much worse than raping the entire town. How does that make sense, in the context that hate is protected speech. 

Edited August 3, 2018 by Orca of Peace

[phdhorn 6,224]

8 hours ago, Orca of Peace said:

deep throat wounds? 

and/or dirty tricks.

[Mojo Hand 4,580]

A "hate crime" charge exists for the same reason we have special criminal laws against terrorism.  One could argue that terrorist murders are no worse than regular murders, but society disagrees, having decided that there is extra harm in the consequences of a terrorist attack in the populace.  The same is true with respect to hate crimes, which are responsible for terrorizing minority groups in a way that goes beyond a generalized concern that one might be randomly attacked. 

[irishtexan 11,648]

3 hours ago, slorch said:

The dead dude is not "more" dead because of his sexual orientation.

But he is dead because of his sexual orientation. And he would likely not be dead if he were not gay. Which is exactly why hate crime laws exist.

[Digdogger 1,345]

I’m looking forward to the movie All the President’s Semen

[Orca of Peace 109]

22 minutes ago, irishtexan said:

But he is dead because of his sexual orientation. And he would likely not be dead if he were not gay. Which is exactly why hate crime laws exist.

or he could be dead for wearing a Longhorn cap or being fat, or both. Or for being very good looking and the killer is jealous of good looking dudes. 

['stache 22,071]

A "hate crime" charge exists for the same reason we have special criminal laws against terrorism.  One could argue that terrorist murders are no worse than regular murders, but society disagrees, having decided that there is extra harm in the consequences of a terrorist attack in the populace.  The same is true with respect to hate crimes, which are responsible for terrorizing minority groups in a way that goes beyond a generalized concern that one might be randomly attacked. 

This.

[Orca of Peace 109]

terrorist murders are no worse than regular murders, the only distinction being political motive.  The numbers are much less than even considering apolitical mass shootings, but media brainwashing leads to the usual paranoia. 

Hate crime legislation is an overreaction fueled by political correctness. For example, the Puerto Rican lady at the park who was verbally assaulted by a right winger for her PR  shirt; he was charged with a felony, even without a physcial assault. Sure he hate PR or minorities but there is nothing wrong with hating people, legally.  The KKK could march through town hating PR people and it's legal, that might lead to a fear of eventually being attacked. But it's legal. We need to decouple hate and it's legal escalation. 

[RDCanecutter 26,764]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this was as much of a self-hate crime as a hate crime.

[Liquor and Poker 3,659]

7 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this was as much of a self-hate crime as a hate crime.

He will be able to explore his obvious sexual conflicts in prison

[Hugo Stiglitz 23,367]

Vanilla ISIS strikes again 

[phdhorn 6,224]

5 hours ago, Digdogger said:

I’m looking forward to the movie All the President’s Semen

Where the fuck have you been lately, imprisoning a few granddaughters in your basement?  

[SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3,861]

More like Mark Feltabulge

[Digdogger 1,345]

2 hours ago, phdhorn said:

Where the fuck have you been lately, imprisoning a few granddaughters in your basement?  

I can't say.  Other than I was definitely not in prison.

[phdhorn 6,224]

7 minutes ago, Digdogger said:

I can't say.  Other than I was definitely not in prison.

Okay, well at least stick around for the next 9 months.  After that I can understand...

[Jack Burton 35]

8 hours ago, Orca of Peace said:

or he could be dead for wearing a Longhorn cap or being fat, or both. Or for being very good looking and the killer is jealous of good looking dudes. 

But he wasn't, he was killed for being gay.

[Orca of Peace 109]

7 minutes ago, Jack Burton said:

But he wasn't, he was killed for being gay.

and why is that more important than any other reason? Even if it 'scares' other gays, scaring people isn't a crime - threatening them directly would be a crime, no?

[SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3,861]

1 hour ago, Orca of Peace said:

and why is that more important than any other reason? Even if it 'scares' other gays, scaring people isn't a crime - threatening them directly would be a crime, no?

Because laws represent the values of our community and our community deems it more abhorrent to kill someone for these identifiable traits then because, say, he wanted your wallet.  Done?

[Orca of Peace 109]

21 minutes ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

Because laws represent the values of our community and our community deems it more abhorrent to kill someone for these identifiable traits then because, say, he wanted your wallet.  Done?

yes we know that already, but it's the same result for the victim. It's actually quite offensive to the victims of the family of the guy who died to say, well "at least it wasn't a hate crime". These laws actually downsize the crimes against people not in a protected class and are ironically discriminatory.

Edited August 4, 2018 by Orca of Peace

[SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3,861]

Write your congressman. 

[Orca of Peace 109]

i thought Surly was the place for that. 

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4,990]

I would figure our congressmen already post here as degenerate as they all seem to be.

Edited August 4, 2018 by NotActuallyALonghorn

[Bullneck 19,392]

14 hours ago, Digdogger said:

I’m looking forward to the movie All the President’s Semen

This does not surprise me.