Moller was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for killing 20-year-old Sean Kennedy in May 2007. Moller was sentenced to five years in prison that was suspended to three years. He’ll also have to serve three years probation.
At the parole hearing, Elke Kennedy, Sean’s mother, told the parole board, “What the loss of my youngest son Sean has done to me and my family—the hurt, no more birthdays, the Christmases and all the things that we are missing out of his life—has really turned my family upside down.“
The vote of the three-member panel was unanimous based on the nature and seriousness of the crime.
Moller is due to finish his sentence in July.
He pleaded guilty to punching Sean Kennedy outside a Greenville County bar. Kennedy fell and struck his head after the incident at Brews Bar.
Mrs. Kennedy says the case shows the need to change South Carolina law, which she’s lobbying to do. “We have a murder law that is 25 years-to-life and then we have involuntary manslaughter 0-5 (years),“ she says. “That means there’s no voluntary manslaughter, there’s no second-degree murder that could’ve applied in this particular case. So we have to first fill this gap.“
She says the state also needs to start identifying and documenting bias-based
crime. Kennedy was attacked because he was gay, his mother says.
Moller began
serving his sentence at Ridgeland Correction in November of 2007.
‘It’s a little justice,’ mother says
By REBECCA ARMENDARIZ, Washington Blade
Stephen Moller, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of 20-year-old Sean Kennedy in 2007, was denied parole in a Columbia, S.C., court today.
Kennedy died after Moller punched him outside a Greenville County bar in May 2007. Moller began serving his sentence in November 2007, and will finish in July of this year.
"It's a little justice. I feel like we have a small victory," said Elke Kennedy, Sean's mother, in an interview with the Blade after the ruling.
"It's a little bit of a relief that this is over," she said. "It's been a very difficult couple of weeks leading up to this parole hearing."
Early last month, Elke Kennedy began a letter-writing campaign aimed at blocking early parole for Moller. Opponents of Moller’s early parole submitted about 415 letters to the Department of Probation Pardon and Parole Services in Columbia, S.C., and Elke brought copies of the letters with her to today’s hearing.
Elke Kennedy said the letter campaign made a difference.
"I believe without the letters, and the community speaking out, it might not have gone the way it did," she said.
The South Carolina Parole Board denied parole for Stephen Andrew Moller Wednesday morning.
Moller was convicted of involuntary manslaughter last year. Police say in May 2007, Moller hit 20-year-old Sean Kennedy outside a greenville bar. Kennedy died later that night.
Kennedy was openly gay and authorities say Moller used an anti-gay slur during the incident.
Moller's prison sentence is expected to end this July.
Kennedy's mother says state murder laws need to be expanded to include second degree murder which is something South Carolina does not have.
"We need to implement the second degree murder charge we need to implement a voluntary manslaughter charge that will fill in the 25 year gap," Kennedy said.
The gap kennedy's mother refers to is the difference in prison time between murder and involuntary manslaughter.
Kennedy's family also wants hate crime legislation, but right now South Carolina is one of a handful of states that do not recognize those types of crimes.
A candlelight vigil was held Tuesday night to celebrate Kennedy's life and protest the state's lack of hate crime laws.