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SOUTHERN VOICE • DECEMBER 29/1994 CRAIN-DALY Chevrolet • Geo • Volkswagen • Subaru Respect for Our Customers/Excellence in Service Atlanta's Oldest Volkswagen Dealer— Atlanta's Newest Chevy Geo Dealer ASK FOR JANET WALKER 404.261.7500 2980 Piedmont Road NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30305 Impreza™ Sedan Uptown, but not uptight Cabriolet hi'Jhij ti'j'Jiii IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO BUY OR SELL A CONDOMINIUM, CLUSTER OR TOWNHOME IN ATLANTA... CALL OUR TEAM OF EXPERTS! 2140 Peachtree Road, NW Brookwood Square, Suite 325 Atlanta, Georgia 30309 [404] 26-CONDO Fax: [404] 355 5341 Third gay man slain in Miss. Washington, DC—The body of a gay man was discovered Dec. 11 in Indianola, Miss., just two months after the killings of Robert Walters and Joseph Shoemake, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force reported Dec. 21. The body of Stanley King was discov ered near a vacant house in Indianola, approximately 100 miles north of Laurel, where the bodies of Walters and Shoemake were found. Within hours of the discovery, the Sunflower County sheriff's department arrested Remus Terrell Wilson, 17, on charges of armed robbery and murder. The circumstances of the cases are strikingly similar to those of the Walters and Shoemake murders: the victim was a gay man; Wilson, an African-American youth, has confessed to the crime and has tried to justify it by claiming that King tried to rape him. In a letter sent last week to Attorney General Janet Reno, NGLTF executive di rector Melinda Paras reiterated the gay rights group's request for an independent Department of Justice investigation. "From our point of view," said Paras, "there is more going on in Mississippi than meets the eye. It is difficult to imag ine that this is merely a coincidence." In a Nov. 30 response to previous NGLTF requests for federal intervention in Mississippi, Assistant Attorney Gen eral Deval Patrick wrote that while the DOJ continues to monitor developments related to the Jones County murders, DOJ intervention is not possible on the basis of sexual orientation. "As you know," Patrick wrote, "there are no federal laws providing criminal civil rights protections on the basis of sexual orientation, thus we would not be able to respond on that basis. However, in the event the investigation indicates that existing federal laws might have been violated, we will take appropriate action." "Violence against gay men and lesbi ans in Mississippi is an out-of-control problem that local officials seem unable to handle," countered Paras. "We strongly believe that the truth of this situ ation has not yet been discovered and fear that, without federal intervention, the pattern of violence and killing will continue." In his letter, Patrick indicated that the DOJ had contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney's Of fice for the Southern District of Missis sippi. As a result of FBI intervention, les bian and gay activists in Biloxi have been granted police protection at the G.L. Friendly community center. Judge considers evidence in slayings Laurel, Miss.—A Jones County judge is considering whether to allow HIV test results from murder victims Joseph Shoemake and Robert Walters to be ad mitted as evidence in the trial of a teen ager accused of the slayings. Defense attorneys for Marvin McClendon, 17, had requested the tests be performed. McClendon is charged with two counts of murder in the Oct. 7 shooting deaths of the two gay men. The test results were opened Dec. 20 in Judge Billy J. Landrum's chambers be fore lawyers for the prosecution and de fense. Attorneys, however, were in structed not to discuss the results. Also on Dec. 20, Landrum denied a prosecution request to suppress all ref erences to sexual preference in McClendon's trial. The prosecution had argued to delete references to the men's sexual preference. But Parrish said it would be impossible to present his defense without mention ing it. "My client maintains that this was a case of self-defense, that it happened as a result of the victims' trying to force him to have sex," Parrish said. "I can't present an argument for self-defense without making reference to the sexual preference of Walters and Shoemake." Gay rights groups Dec. 20 expressed outrage that the victims' HIV status was playing a role in the case. "That the HIV status of a murder vic tim should be evidence 'justifying' or 'ex plaining' his murder is an absurd legal concept," said Roger Coggan, director of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Ser vices Center's Legal Services Depart ment. "Mississippi must be operating under their own system of justice. Cir cuit Judge Billy Joe Landrum never should have allowed posthumous HIV testing of the victims in the first place." Said Catherine Hanssens, AIDS project director for Lambda Legal De fense and Education Fund, Inc., "This use of private medical information would set a dangerous precedent not only for people known or believed to have HIV, but for any person with a disability that some members of society might perceive as dangerous or offensive." "Justice should not hinge on the health status, disability, or sexual iden tity of the victims," Hanssens said.