Ohio: Convicted Murderer Attempts To Escape Execution Via "Gay Panic" Defense

Back in 1985, Robert Van Hook, pictured left, strangled and stabbed 25-year-old David Self to death in Cincinnati, before stealing some of his belongings and fleeing. He is currently scheduled to be executed on July 18.

Van Hook is now attempting to claim "gay panic" as a defense for his actions in order to save his life.

Prosecutors call the ploy “nonsense,” pointing out it fit into a well established pattern of behavior.

“This is a man who had cynically manipulated homosexuals for years. He posed as a gay [man]; he frequented bars that were gay and he preyed on vulnerable victims who were gay,” the Hamilton County prosecutor’s office said in a filing with the board.

Van Hook’s attorneys say their client was suffering from the effects of abuse he experienced as a child They add he was “troubled by increasing questions about his own sexual identity.”

Currently, two states have laws banning gay or trans panic defenses: Illinois and California.

Last month, James Miller of Texas, successfully used the strategy to avoid a prison.

Miller said he stabbed his neighbor, Daniel Spencer, after he had tried to kiss him.

Miller was sentenced to only ten years probation after being found guilty of criminally negligent homicide.

Think on that for a while...