The Nation - News from Dec. 23, 1988

A Dallas judge apologized for a “poor choice of words” in saying he gave a killer a lighter sentence because the victims were “queers.” State District Judge Jack Hampton, whose remarks prompted outrage from gay and civil liberties organizations and demands for his removal from the bench, made the apology at the Dallas County Courthouse. Hampton told the Dallas Times Herald last week that he sentenced 18-year-old Richard Lee Bednarski to 30 years in prison instead of the maximum life sentence on Nov. 28 in part because Bednarski’s two victims were homosexuals. “These two guys that got killed wouldn’t have been killed if they hadn’t been cruising the streets picking up teen-age boys,” Hampton said in the interview.