butchcommunist:

Some of the jurors who imposed the death penalty on Charles Rhines,
who was convicted of murder, have said they thought the alternative — a
life sentence served in a men’s prison — was something he would enjoy
as a gay man.

During deliberations,
the jury had often discussed the fact that Mr. Rhines was gay and there
was “a lot of disgust” about it, one juror recalled in an interview,
according to the court petition.
Another said that jurors knew he was gay and “thought that he shouldn’t
be able to spend his life with men in prison.” A third recounted
hearing that if the jury did not sentence Mr. Rhines to death, “if he’s
gay, we’d be sending him where he wants to go.”

The
justices rejected Mr. Rhines’s plea to hear his bias claim, allowing
his death sentence to stand despite disturbing evidence that it may have
been the result of anti-L.G.B.T. animus. As usual, the court gave no
explanation for its decision not to review the case. But its silence
sent a deeply troubling message about the value placed on the lives of
L.G.B.T. people.

Opinion | A Jury May Have Sentenced a Man to Death Because He’s Gay. And the Justices Don’t Care.