The first two men ever charged with anti-gay hate crimes by the federal government have been acquitted by a jury in Kentucky but found guilty on kidnapping charges. Anthony Ray Jenkins and his cousin David Jason Jenkins allegedly used anti-gay slurs against 29-year-old Kevin Pennington when they assaulted him in a state park last year. Their attorneys successfully argued the attack was motivated by a drug deal gone bad.
Willis Coffey, a lawyer for Anthony Jenkins, argued that Pennington was pushing the idea that he was attacked for being gay to further his own political agenda, according to the Associated Press. He also attacked President Barack Obama, an unpopular figure in the state and said Congress gave into the gay lobby when it passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
“If the government and President Obama want to bow to the special interest groups, that’s their business, but they picked the wrong case,” Coffey told jurors.
