Sean Hannity Defends Vicious Killer; Is He Trying To Create A New Conservative Folk Hero?

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On Wednesday night’s episode of Fox News’ Hannity, host Sean Hannity held a panel discussion on Byron Smith, the Minnesota retiree who was convicted of 1st degree murder earlier this week. Smith killed two teenagers that broke into his house. After having his house burglarized before, and believing it was a neighbor, Smith set a trap in order to lure the burglar back to be killed. Smith moved his truck to make it appear that he wasn’t home. He then waited in his basement, armed and ready for a break-in. He even set up recording devices in the house to capture the event.

Smith ended up killing two teenagers that broke into his home. He shot the first one twice, injuring the young man before telling him ‘You’re dead’ and shooting him in the face. After wrapping the body in a tarp and moving it, he shot the boy’s accomplice, who came downstairs looking for him. The young woman fell down the stairs after being shot. At that point, Smith told her ‘You’re dying’ and then he shot her under the chin. He waited a day before telling his neighbor about the shooting and then informing the police.

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The recordings of the event show a much grizzlier affair than Smith’s defense tried to spin to the jury. It paints a picture of a disturbed man who wanted to find a way to justify killing somebody by setting up a scenario where his house could potentially be broken into. He not only waited in the basement, but he was armed and ready to stay up all night, as he had bottled water, a book to read and energy bars. The jury was able to see that the man was trying to fulfill a sick fantasy and find a way to make it legal.

Anyway, Hannity brought up the conviction on his show and wondered how it could be premeditated. Hannity’s argument was that the teens broke into his home. He also argued that the judge was biased in the case and didn’t provide the jurors all of the information necessary for a fair trial. Apparently, Hannity was referring to the judge throwing out the teens’ criminal records as inadmissible. After playing a recording of Smith calling the teens “vermin” and “not human,” Hannity said that he “didn’t like what the guy said, but they broke into his house!”

Below is video of the segment courtesy of Media Matters:

 

 

Hannity then let the panel discuss the shooting. Bernard McGurk, who is a frequent guest on Fox News shows and produces Don Imus’ show for Fox Business, made the crazy proclamation that Smith should be given the Medal of Freedom for what he did. Geraldo Rivera even took umbrage at that, stating that Smith had committed a coup de grace by executing his victims with head shots. This then created a great fracas on the set, with McGurk, Rivera and Hannity all standing up and shouting over each other. Hannity then tried to get Rivera to state whether he would have shot either of these two teens for breaking into his house. When Rivera said he wouldn’t have gone in for the kill if he would have wounded a burglar, Hannity suggested it is always easy to say you wouldn’t after the fact.

In typical Hannity fashion, he is misrepresenting this case completely to fit his ideology. The fact is, Smith was never in any danger. He shot both teens multiple times, executing both with head shots after they were injured. He baited the teens to enter his home and waited in anticipation. He set a trap and was successful in his pursuit. While the teens obviously committed a crime be breaking and entering the man’s home, there was no reason for them to be shot and killed when they posed absolutely no danger to this man. The jury saw through the man’s ruse and sent him away for life.

While Hannity and McGurk may think Smith is right for what he did and should even be seen as a hero, it appears that most of conservative media is staying far away from promoting this man and his case. Why? Because it rightly shows the extremes of ‘Stand Your Ground’ and the lengths that disturbed people may go to to justify killing people. Not only is this case a prime example of SYG gone wrong (for the record, Minnesota does not have a SYG law on the books, as the governor vetoed it in 2012) but we are now seeing other examples crop up. In Montana, a couple created a similar trap. They placed a purse in an open garage and set up a video recording system. When a teen went to grab the purse, the homeowner went to the garage entrance and blindly shot into the garage multiple times, killing the teen. The shooter is claiming SYG now.

Now that Hannity has abandoned Cliven Bundy, is Byron Smith potentially the new conservative folk hero that Hannity is going to try to get his viewers to rally around?

 


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