According to the L.A. Daily Journal, a leading legal newspaper, the California Supreme Court may overturn the death sentence for Clifford Bolden, a gay man now on California’s death row.

A jury convicted Bolden of murder some 16 years ago in the death of Henry Michael Pedersen, 45, an unemployed accountant.

Prosecutors showed that Bolden stabbed Pedersen to death in 1986, after Pedersen took him home subsequent to meeting at the Pendulum, a gay bar in San Francisco’s Castro district.

Legendary drag queen and civil rights activist Jose Sarria, for whom the city of San Francisco recently named a street, sat on Bolden’s jury. Sarria drew acclaim in the 1950s for his drag shows at Finnochio’s. In 1961, he was the first openly gay man to run for public office.

During jury selection in murder cases, prosecutors and defense lawyers question prospective jurors to prevent bias.

Prosecutors in Bolden’s case knew Sarria was gay, but Bolden’s lawyers did not.

Sarria indicated to the lawyers during jury selection that he did not know Bolden (the accused) or Pederson (the victim).

But 16 years later, Bolden’s new defense lawyers argue that Sarria lied. The defense contends that Sarria, now 84, knew both the victim and the accused but didn’t disclose this to the attorneys. They are presenting their arguments to a judge this week that Sarria may have lied to get on the jury, so that he could sway jurors to convict Bolden and see that he got the death penalty.

Sarria admitted to Bolden’s defense lawyers in 2005 that he did, in fact, know of Bolden before the murder. Bolden’s roommate was a dancer at Finnochio’s, where Sarria performed. The dancer told Sarria that Bolden was his lover and his “shining star.”

But Sarria said he didn’t remember this until after the trial started and didn’t think it mattered.

Another juror testified that Sarria told her during the trial that not only did he know Pederson, but that Pederson got Sarria a job at the Emporium department store.

Sarria said she was mistaken.

Other jurors testified that Sarria supported the death penalty from the start and he was adamant about it.

The jury foreman refused to testify, indicating that after the Bolden trial, he became affiliated with “Sarria’s Coronation Court.”

It’s an uphill climb for Bolden, as defense lawyers have to prove that Sarria lied and that it somehow led to an unfair result. However, if a judge agrees, then it’s likely the California Supreme Court will overturn the death sentence and order a new trial, at least with regard to the death sentence.

Sending gays and lesbians to death

Last week, former Justice Department official Monica Goodling testified that, even though it was illegal to do so, she considered party status and conservative political views in selecting “immigration” judges.

Goodling attended Regent University School of Law, which Pat Robertson founded and whose focus is decidedly anti-gay. The law school publishes articles such as one suggesting that gay papers regularly contain child pornography and advertisements placed by pedophiles seeking children.

The Bush administration has hired 150 of Regent’s graduates to staff federal agencies.

Federal law allows gays and lesbians from other countries to seek asylum in this country when they would face death or torture in their home country. Increasingly, homophobic immigration judges have denied requests from gay and lesbian asylum seekers.

They base their denials upon such absurd notions that, even in the most repressive countries, there may be a village, a strip of land or a remote island where the asylum seeker might not be attacked.

The judge denies the petition; the government deports the seeker back to countries where the welcoming party consists of a firing squad.

The best revenge is living well

Jerry Falwell said in the ’80s that AIDS was “God’s revenge on gays” for our immorality.

But studies by the Williams Institute, a GLBT think tank at UCLA law school, and by other institutions, suggest that, as a group, gays and lesbians are hardly immoral: We adopt more children with special needs, such as kids with severe behavioral and physical disabilities. We adopt more children from mixed ethnic backgrounds. (Adoption providers find that too many white, straight people don’t want non-white babies.) And we’re more likely to give money to charity, work in the helping professions, serve in the military, volunteer for community service and to vote.

It’s no surprise, then, that evangelical leaders announced recently that they have to stop scapegoating gays and lesbians and challenged their flock to emulate us, by adopting so called “unadoptable” kids, for example.