Robert Hannah, who was permitted to plead down to misdemeanor assault after murdering Tony Hunter in Washington DC last September, has been given the maximum sentence possible by a DC judge. Six months.

Tony made a pass at Hannah, see, so it was totally justified. He just panicked. From gazette.net:

Hunter’s family and gay rights activists from the region who attended the hearing said they were pleased Superior Court Associate Judge Rafael Diaz handed down the maximum sentence. However, they also expressed disappointment that the grand jury returned an indictment of simple assault this summer against Hunter, as opposed to the more serious manslaughter charge he was first arrested under in 2008.

“I don’t think the charge was appropriate. … It doesn’t seem right, and it doesn’t equal out,” said Veronica Yarborough, Hunter’s sister. She was present along with Hunter’s mother, Queen Yarborough, and stepfather, John Yarborough, all of Henderson, N.C., at the sentencing hearing.

During the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Flynn requested the maximum sentence, pointing to numerous letters sent to Diaz by Hunter’s friends and family, as well as individuals who did not know Hunter but perceived the assault as a hate crime.

“It would be a mistake to say this is just a misdemeanor,” Flynn said in his statement. “This was a crime of violence.”

Flynn, you’ll remember, is the attorney who brokered the deal to reduce the charges to “just a misdemeanor”, so I’m not sure what he’s on about here.

For his own part, Hannah drove a hard bargain, demanding that shoplifting charges filed by DC police in August be dropped. You gotta love a murderer who drives a hard bargain.

My bad.

Prior to issuing a sentence, Diaz addressed Hannah and told him that he should have considered his options before responding violently.

Oh, come on. Like there’s any other response to being hit on by a fag. What, prithee, was he supposed to do? (Never mind that the truth of the inappropriate touching is questionable at best, and has been denied by Hannah’s own witnesses.)

“You are lucky you are not being charged with murder,” Diaz said. “You could have spent a long, long time in prison.”

That’s right, he’s lucky he only killed a faggot. If he’d killed a real person they might have had to punish him.

Gosh, I wonder why beating up and killing LGBT people is a national pastime?

</furious sarcasm>