James Miller, right, avoided charges of murder and manslaughter this week when an Austin jury instead convicted him of criminally negligent homicide for stabbing Daniel Spencer, left, to death in 2015. Spencer was gay, and in his trial, Miller claimed he killed Spencer in self defense when Spencer made a pass at him.
A jury this week bypassed the prosecution’s efforts to get a conviction on charges of either murder or manslaughter and instead convicted James Miller of Austin of criminally negligent homicide after he claimed he killed his neighbor, Daniel Spencer, in 2015 because Spencer made a pass at him, according to a report by Bil Browning at LGBTQ Nation.
The jury sentenced Miller to 10 years of probation. The judge tacked six months of jail time, 100 hours of community service and restitution of $11,000 to the victim’s family onto the sentence. The judge also ordered Miller to use a portable alcohol monitoring device for at least a year.
The two men were drinking and playing music together at Spencer’s home in East Austin, Miller claimed, and when he rejected Spencer’s advances, Spencer got angry and moved toward him aggressively, “brandishing” a drinking glass at him, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
Miller — who was eight inches shorter and 35 years older than Spencer — said he was afraid Spencer was going to hurt him. So he pulled a knife and stabbed Spencer twice.
Miller, a former Austin police employee, turned himself in after killing Spencer.
While prosecutors argued in court that blood evidence at the scene disputed Miller’s claims, the jurry apparently gave more weight to defense attorneys’ arguments that because such violence was so “uncharacteristic” of their client, it had to have been self defense for him to react that way.
Both California and Illinois have banned use of the gay panic defense in trials, and the American Bar Association has called on all other states to do the same.
You’ve got the IDs on their photos reversed. Miller is the killer, but he’s the older guy in the right-hand photo. Spencer, the younger man, is on the left.
The caption in the pictures is in reverse order. Miller is right and Spencer is left
So, does that mean that a lesbian can kill a guy if he makes a pass at her? Or is this just something straight males can get away with?
Hi Dallasvoice. Daniel was my friend and coworker. Here’s the thing. Daniel wasn’t gay! So the fact that the murderer used this defense and got away with it is just abhorrent. Each and every U.S. citizen, whether heterosexual or homosexual, should be out raged at this verdict and do everything to help change laws so this doesn’t happen to one of their friends or loved ones. So please correct your story because there is nothing in daniel’s life that ever pointed to him being gay. This was literally a defense tactic by a skeezy lawyer and the crap Austin jury should be SHAMED for their injustice to the victim and his family. Thank you.
I think that you have the situation mixed up a little. The white man on the left was the victim. The claim is that the murderer was both shorter and older than the homosexual predator. “Miller — who was eight inches shorter and 35 years older than Spencer — said he was afraid Spencer was going to hurt him. So he pulled a knife and stabbed Spencer twice.”…so in the picture above, it reads, “James Miller, left, avoided charges of murder and manslaughter this week when an Austin jury instead convicted him of criminally negligent homicide for stabbing Daniel Spencer, right, to death in 2015. Spencer was gay, and in his trial, Miller claimed he killed Spencer in self defense when Spencer made a pass at him.”.
Now, the entire story changes. It should read, “James Miller, right, avoided charges of murder and manslaughter this week when an Austin jury instead convicted him of criminally negligent homicide for stabbing Daniel Spencer, left, to death in 2015. Spencer was gay, and in his trial, Miller claimed he killed Spencer in self defense when Spencer made a pass at him.
A simple correction would be to switch the words, “left” and “right”. This was not a white on black -and- straight on gay crime, but a good old fashioned, “No means no” story with an unfortunate ending.
It’s unfortunate that some gay men feel that they are in a moral “no man’s land” where they can do no wrong. If this were a man being sexually aggressive to a woman, being weaker, shorter, and far older, the jury would have sent the victim home with nothing. Why? There is the assumption that a woman’s nether region is a clear brook, a road less traveled, and worthy of having its pristine dignity preserved at all cost.
Typically, it’s more like a drainage ditch flowing alongside Grand Central Station before disappearing into the sewer or metrosexual women’s lib. Nonetheless, this was not a woman, but an elderly black man, protecting his manhood.
Should he have to live with memories that he did not ask for or approve of? What this man wanted to do to him was not even natural. He should have been given the same dignity that we would have given a woman at the very least.
Hey chuck,
Did you know Daniel? That’s odd that you seem to know him so well when in fact, you are just spouting off garbage.
I’ve known Daniel for 10 years, and he was the kindest person I’ve ever met. And here is fact, he wasn’t gay.
He invited the killer to play some music, which I find it odd that he shows up with a 6”
Knife to a music playing session.
The most lethal stab was from the back, ultimately made when Daniel wasn’t even aware/ready.
It’s kind of weird to claim self defense when you have no bruises or cuts on your body, and admit on the stand, Daniel didn’t even make contact.
So, you don’t know the story. This is a vicious murder, with a terrible ending in many ways.
Daniel never met a person he didn’t like and the one thing he is guilty of is being too trusting.
Austin has let free a unapologetic murderer.
I can’t tell who is Miller and who is Spencer, because your names and photo captions are all screwed up. I’m assuming Miller is the crusty looking black guy with jail stripes and mugshot white background on the right and not the starry-eyed white guy on the left with the suburban background, but your photo caption says the exact opposite. I’m basing this off the remark in the article that Miller is 35 years old, and from my personal life knowledge it doesn’t appear that the man on the left in the photos is 35 years older than the man to the right of him, but I could be wrong. With plastic surgery and beauty products, you never really know these days, and some gay men do appear to be rather youthful-looking compared to their true age.
You’ve inverted the identities on your photos. Sort of a silly mistake given the descriptions stated in your own article, don’t you think?
The caption has been corrected. Thanks