Joseph Biedermann, who was accused of first-degree murder in the 2008 death of Terrance Michael Hauser, was acquitted by a Cook County jury July 10, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office told Windy City Times.
What makes this case particularly unique is that Biedermann claimed he was defending himself against a sexual advance from Hauser—which several have called a “gay-panic defense.”
Biedermann had met Hauser hours before at a bar near the Barrington Lakes Apartment Complex in Hoffman Estates, where both men resided, the Daily Herald reported. The defendant claimed he passed out on Hauser’s couch; when he woke up, Biedermann said that Hauser was threatening him with a four-foot-long sword to his neck. A fight reportedly ensued, and Biedermann allegedly stabbed Hauser 61 times with a dagger.
Both men were drunk, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
In his closing argument, Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Clarke showed the jury photographs of the grisly crime scene and said, “A picture speaks a thousand words—and the pictures in this case speak volumes,” according to the Herald. Clarke called Hauser’s death “a cold, brutal, senseless killing.” (Mike Gerber was the other prosecutor in the case.)
Defense attorney Sam Adam Jr.—who represented singer R. Kelly in 2008 and is ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s lawyer—told Windy City Times that “the crux of our defense was self-defense.” When asked how he was able to convince the jury that 61 “total injuries” (Adam’s term for what Hauser suffered, which included “48 stabbings”) constituted self-defense, Adam said, “It was the way the attack happened. Hauser was on top of Biedermann, and [Biedermann] tried to push him off. Also, the forensic evidence [supported the theory of] self-defense.”
Adam took exception to the term “gay-panic defense.” “This was an issue of power, not sexual orientation,” he said. “It doesn’t reflect on anyone’s orientation; it was about someone who was trying to prey on someone else. … I understand the frustration of people; people don’t know all the facts.”
Joe Magats, deputy chief of the criminal prosecutor’s bureau for Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, told Windy City Times that first-degree murder was the only option for the jury. “The defendants did not request second-degree murder [a non-premeditated killing, resulting from an assault in which death of the victim was a distinct possibility],” he said. “In doing so, the defendant was going against the advice of his defense attorney.”
Magats said that he had not heard of the term “gay-panic defense” until last week, but added that “a common defense strategy is, for lack of a better term, to ‘dirty up’ the victim, and make the victim seem to be something less—in this case, to make the victim [look like a sexual predator].”
“There can be no appeal of this case after a finding of not guilty,” Magats added.