Dec 12 2008
Come out, whether you want to or not!
Those of you keeping up with TruTV’s trial coverage know that Steven Rios was found guilty of killing Jesse Valencia. This was an interesting case because it was an appeal; Rios had already been convicted once. I could discuss the fault with the findings (a friend and I re-enacted the crime scene in my living room, and depending on the amount of time before losing consciousness, a person in a headlock can do quite a bit of damage to the hands, forearms, and face of the attacker), but I am more interested in a social aspect of this crime.
The prosecution argued that Rios killed Valencia because Rios was concerned that Valencia would expose their affair. In the name of justice, we have already “outed” one person (who may or may not be guilty of this crime). I’m not naive; some married men have affairs, and some of those men having affairs commit crimes to conceal their activities. Indeed, a married man having sexual relations with another man would have more to hide than a married man having an affair with a woman because of the stigma and hate attached to homosexuality. I have no problem with this theory.
My problem is with the number of witnesses called to testify about the victim’s sex life. Apparently Valencia had a lot of partners, as the defense made clear as an alternative theory; someone else killed him out of jealousy. Leaving all comments on victim-blaming aside, I would like to know how many people were “outed” during this trial. How many people risked their jobs, their friends, their relationships with their families because of this crime?
This is not a perfect world, and many people are not accepting of lifestyles which differ from their own. Many people were subpoenaed to testify; they had no choice but to put Valencia’s (and in some cases, their own) sex lives on display before the public.
Justice is important, and whoever killed this young man should face the consequences, regardless of age, race, or sexuality. I do not feel that justice was served here on a number of levels; people’s privacy was invaded, all to the end of convicting a man under quite problematic pretenses.
