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Chatham County Fails To Prosecute Assault On Daly As Hate Crime Or Even Felony

08/30/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
On Friday, the Chatham County District Attorney announced that the alleged assault against Kieran Daly would not be tried as a hate crime, or even felony assault. The two Marines who hit him will, instead, be facing misdemeanor charges. According to a DA spokesman, “I can’t speak on the specifics because this is pending litigation, but for a crime to be considered a felony, there has to be proof of a sustained injury.” The news reports appear to contradict that in that it appeared that Keil Cronauer and Christopher Stanzel not only struck Daly with enough force for him to sustain some lasting problems, but that they nearly killed him with a blow to the back of the head.

Not including the hate crimes designation is another problem with this. According to all accounts except for the two Marines, Cronauer and Stanzel both called Daly several epithets and harassed him even as he was walking away. As he turned to leave the two, they struck him. According to both Cronauer and Stanzel, Daly winked at them, though that is in dispute. Both men ran from the scene and eventually told police that they were being harassed by a gay man.

According to news reports at the time, “Daly said after his friends performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation at the scene, he was taken to Memorial University Medical Center and diagnosed with bruises to his brain. He had two seizures immediately after the attack and was expected to remain at Memorial for several days.” Injuries to the brain can linger, and even appear to not effect a person for a long time before they are effected by it in some manner.

It now falls upon the Department of Justice and Attorney General Eric Holder to determine if there will be any Federal hate crimes prosecution under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr Hate Crimes Law. According to 2009 testimony of AG Holder “The Federal government has a strong interest in protecting people from violent crimes motivated by such bias and bigotry. . .I am particularly pleased that Section 249(a)(2) would for the first time allow for Federal prosecution of violence undertaken because of the actual or perceived gender, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity of any person. The Department therefore welcomes the expanded coverage of section 249, which would allow us to prosecute and deter violent acts of this sort more effectively.”

Now, the question is, will Holder and President Barack Obama do what is right or will they continue to worry about the Midterm Elections?

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