Possible Justice

This post is a follow up to an earlier post about a gay bashing incident that took place on October 29th in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia. The incident ended with the young man, Lucas Dawson, stabbing one of his attackers in the chest which proved to be a fatal wound. The attacker died shortly after the attack. After the incident occurred, Dawson was placed in jail on $30,000 bail and was initially being charged with voluntary manslaughter. In an article on KYW's (a Philadelphia based news station) website, they stated that Judge Gerard Kosinski decided to drop the charges against Dawson because he was attacked by several men and he tried to retreat, but was chased down. I'm glad the judge decided against the charges as this clearly was a case of self defense. The article also goes on to state that the assistant district attorney who has been assigned to the case is planning to review the judges decision and possibly try to reopen the case. She says her reasoning for reviewing the case is because Dawson had stabbed his attacker several times, though his own injuries were minimal and may not have warranted such a violent counter attack.

I hope Gerard's decision stays and that Dawson can get back to living his life. I wonder how the assistant DA would handle a situation where she was being attacked by a group of boys at night and feared for her life? He will have to live with this incident and his decision to defend himself the way he did for the rest of his life. I think that's enough of a consequence!