Condemned Ohio man blames killing on 'homosexual panic'

[DonViejo]

Source: 10 TV News.



PUBLISHED: 05/24/18 07:12 AM EDT UPDATED: 05/24/18 03:15 PM EDT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A condemned killer is asking the Ohio Parole Board for mercy, saying he experienced a "homosexual panic" of self-revulsion before killing a man he picked up at a bar more than 30 years ago.

Death row inmate Robert Van Hook was sentenced to die for fatally strangling and stabbing David Self in Cincinnati in 1985. Van Hook fled to Florida afterward, where he was arrested and confessed.

At the time of the killing, Van Hook was suffering from long-term effects of untreated mental, physical and sexual abuse as a child and was depressed that his life seemed to be falling apart, his attorneys argue.

He also was "troubled by increasing questions about his own sexual identity," his federal public defenders said in a May 17 filing with the parole board.

Read more: https://www.10tv.com/article/condemned-ohio-man-blames-killing-homosexual-panic

[Aristus]

1. "It was HIS fault, Your Honor!

His fault for being gay within twenty feet of me!"



I'm sorry he's being executed, but he has only one person to blame for that, and it isn't his victim...

[ProudLib72]

2. Doesn't sound like an expression of remorse

Isn't that usually what convicts do, plead remorse? And after thirty years all he has learned is that he is a victim.

[keithbvadu2]

3. "a man he picked up at a bar"

That pretty much makes him an active/willing participant.

[msongs]

4. AND he is still guilty of murder. changes nothing. nt

[magicarpet]

5. Didn't he eat Twinkies and Ring Dings that same day....

.... there is defense ploy number two. He was on a high carb and low protein diet - and all that sugar made him insane.

[Midnight Writer]

6. Gee, I guess I haven't taken full advantage of my "commitment anxiety".