On this date in 2008, in Oxnard, California, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office filed charges of attempted murder with a hate-crime enhancement and use of a firearm against a 14-year-old male who is expected to be tried as an adult. The eighth grade student at the E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard, California, Brandon David McInerney (Date of Birth: January 24, 1994), is said to have shot a fellow student in the back of the head in front of at least 20 other students, because of the student’s sexual orientation and feminine appearance. Lawrence King, 15, was pronounced brain-dead at St. John's Regional Medical Center on the day he was shot—February 13, 2008. King was taken off of life-supports, some of his organs were harvested for potential transplant, and on February 15, 2008, the medical examiner concluded King’s cause of death was due to head injury. If convicted as an adult as charged, McInerney, who pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder with a hate crime enhancement, could receive a 53-year to life prison sentence, plus another one- to three-year prison sentence for the hate crime enhancement. Police said they recovered white supremacist and neo-Nazi literature from McInerney's bedroom. After unsuccessfully attempting to have the trial in Ventura, California, and Van Nuys, California, jury selection began on June 20, 2011; and, Brandon McInerney's trial began July 5, 2011, in Chatsworth, California. The two-month long trial ended when on September 1, 2011, Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell declared a mistrial after the nine-woman, three-man jury could not decide on the degree of guilt. Seven members of the jury were in favor of a voluntary manslaughter conviction, while five others supported either first-degree or second-degree murder. At trial it was revealed that at least six witnesses had heard McInerney make threats against Lawrence King in the days prior to the murder. On October 5, 2011, Ventura County California prosecutors announced McInerney would be retried as an adult on a murder charge with special allegation of use of a handgun, and with a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait; however, prosecutors said that they would drop the hate crime enhancement against McInerney. McInerney, however, did not have a second trial. Instead, on November 21, 2011, McInerney, 17, pled guilty to second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and use of a firearm. He was subsequently sentenced to 21 years in state prison, and he was held in a juvenile detention center until he turns 18 years old; then, Brandon McInerney will be transfered to an adult prison.

In Lima, Ohio on this date in 2008, a black man, Jason Upthegrove, a civil rights activist with the Lima-area chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, received a hangman's noose in the mail sent by Daniel Lee Jones, 32, of Portland, Oregon. Daniel L. Jones, a white supremacist, was arrested on October 7, 2009, and charged with one count of interference with federally protected activities and and one count of mailing threatening communications. For these charges, Jones could have received up to six years in federal prison and could have received a fine of up to $350,000. However, on May 17, 2010, Daniel Lee Jones pleaded guilty to using the U.S. Postal Service to send a threatening communication to the president of the Lima, Ohio, chapter of the NAACP because of Mr. Upthegrove's race. As part of the plea agreement Jones could have been sentenced to up to five years in prison and could have received a fine of up to $250,000. Instead, on November 8, 2010, Daniel Jones received just 18 months in federal prison and three years supervised release.

On this date in 2011 in Lafayette, Louisiana, it was discovered that someone spray-painted the word "nigger" all over the doors and signs of the Saint James the Baptist's Church, a predominantly black church. The FBI was called to help investigate the vandalism as a hate crime. If you have any information about this crime, please call the Lafayette Police Department or Crime Stoppers at 337-232-TIPS.

In Mountain View, North Carolina, on this date in 2011, a white man, Michael Joseph Anderson, 19, originally from King’s Mountain, North Carolina, brutally murdered his gay roommate, Stephen Starr, 38, as he slept in the house the two men shared on Ruth Drive. Mr. Starr was the victim of overkill, a phenomenon not uncommon in hate crime homicides, in that he was shot with both a shotgun and a pistol, had words carved into his body, had words written on his body in pen, and was axed in his stomach. Mr. Starr's body was so badly mutilated that Anderson told the 911 responder, "You’re not going to know who it is," and "I’m sorry ma’am, but the ax is inside his stomach." Anderson also had a convenient defense: the released 911 audiotape revealed that Anderson said Mucinex pills "drove me mad," and "I OD’d on Mucinex DM. Dextromethorphan makes me feel a little weird and I took too many." While dextromethorphan can act as a dissociative hallucinogen when used at high dosages, Anderson also told the 911 responder about the motive for the slaying of Mr. Starr, stating, "I met him and went to his house and he took me in and I turned straight again. And he wanted to touch me and stuff and I wouldn’t let him, and he kept trying. And I waited until he went to sleep and then I shot him three times. And I mutilated him very badly and I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Oh God, please help me." That premeditative homophobic motive is starkly at odds with Anderson's claim that he went "mad" because of a cough medicine. At about the time of the murder, Anderson posted this message on Facebook (in all capital letters): "God forgive me of my sins of which I have done plz let your holy name be with me as I go to the heavenly place they will not take me alive my killing starts tonight I kill one by one hopefully I kill more than one though you it seems that I would rather want to kill a lot more you know but oh well one will do I guess but if you get in my way you will be next." A short time later, Anderson posted "i finally cracked guys i really did it this time guys." Michael J. Anderson also gave detailed directions to the home to the 911 responder. These compositions and statements are not indicative of someone who was unaware of what he was doing, and they are also not indicative of someone unaware of the wrongfulness of killing someone. Mr. Starr's murder was not classified as a hate crime, although authorities have not ruled out that possibility. Even if the murder is classified as a hate crime, North Carolina law does not include sexual orientation as a protected category so Anderson cannot be brought up on state hate crime murder charges.