Samuel Woodward, who is now 27, is scheduled to be sentenced in a Southern California courtroom for the murder of Blaze Bernstein nearly seven years ago. There is no question about the sentence Woodward will receive because the jury’s verdict carries a life sentence without parole, said Kimberly Edds, a spokesperson for the Orange County District Attorney’s office.
Woodward was convicted this year of first-degree murder with an enhancement for a hate crime for killing Bernstein, a gay, Jewish college sophomore.
Bernstein, who was 19, disappeared in January 2018 after he went out at night with Woodward to a park in Lake Forest, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. After Bernstein missed a dentist appointment the next day, his parents found his glasses, wallet and credit cards in his bedroom and tried to reach him, but he didn’t respond.
According to the article my theory is that he’s likely confused about his own orientation but also still a member of atomwaffen. Like, being gay isn’t an excuse for homophobic violence, it’s something that we as a community have had to push forward as a stance for a long time because of the fact that it’s often gay people doing the dirty work of homophobia whether it’s running conversion camps or Joe McCarthy doing the lavender scare. But also, maybe he was lying. Neonazis love to claim to be queer during sentencing for queerphobic hate crimes
But beyond that, it’s not like Woodward was secretly confused Jewish. This was also antisemitic violence by a neonazi.
I hope Woodward gets his shit together in prison and becomes a voice for peace and tolerance from behind bars. But any issues I might begin to have with his sentencing aren’t about him, they’re about my discomfort with our country’s disproportionately long sentences as a whole.