Hate Hate Crime

The three men charged with assaulting Micah Painter have been found guilty of a hate crime after a King County Superior Court trial. Vadim Samusenko could serve around 30 months in jail for two counts of second degree assault. David Kravchenko and Yevgeniy Savchak will serve somewhat less as accomplices. The curious defence of the three seemed to center on the "he was asking for it" stratagem, which was all the more questionable considering the attack took place outside of the Timberline on Pride weekend. Apparently the attackers passed on several thousand others who were similarly asking for it until they could find one alone.

From the Seattle Times:

The case against the three Russian-immigrant defendants was closely watched by gay-rights activists and the Russian-immigrant communities of Snohomish and Skagit counties. Samusenko's attorney, Tom Olmstead, had argued at closing that in light of the defendants' culture and upbringing, it was not particularly egregious for them to have been offended by Painter's apparent open display of his sexual orientation.

Olmstead argued that the derogatory slurs were almost to be expected and could have been ignored. The real fight, he argued, began when Painter responded to the verbal assault with his own confrontational hand gestures and words.

The Post Intelligencer is also reporting, and The Stranger has an awesome article on the case that explores the religious upbringing of the three convicts, but, unfortunately for us, The Stranger doesn't get around to putting its current issue online until Friday so no link.