KENTUCKY: Two Gay Bashers Acquitted Of Federal Hate Crime Charges

The two men charged in the federal government's first-ever federal anti-gay hate crime case were acquitted yesterday by a Kentucky jury.

Prosecutors had argued that Anthony Ray Jenkins and his cousin David Jason Jenkins attacked 29-year-old Kevin Pennington at a rural state park because of Pennington’s sexual orientation, violating a hate crime law that was expanded in 2009 to cover assaults motivated by bias against gays, lesbians and transgender people. It was not clear why jurors late Wednesday rejected that argument. They were whisked away immediately after delivering the verdicts and did not make any comments. Anthony Jenkins’ attorney, Willis Coffey, said after the trial that jurors didn’t find Pennington’s account of the events credible. “You’d like to have an acquittal on all counts, but he’s happy he was found not guilty of a hate crime,” Coffey said of his client. “So am I.”

Defense attorneys argued that their clients were literally too drunk and stupid to have committed the crime.  They also claimed that the case was only brought to serve President Obama's gay constituency.