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Private Calvin Glover: Guilty of Premeditated Murder

Homophobe Slew Gay Barracks Mate While he Slept

Hillary Clinton: 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' a Bad Policy

By Jack Nichols

Ft. Campbell, Kentucky�Private Calvin Glover, 18 and weeping, was convicted during his court martial on Wednesday of deliberately murdering a fellow soldier, Pfc. Barry Winchell, 21, while the gay soldier slept. He was sentenced Thursday morning to life imprisonment with the possibility of a parole.

Pvt. Glover had admitted to savagely bashing Winchell with a baseball bat, following an earlier fist fight between the two which Winchell had handily won.

Murdered Private Barry Winchell (left) and New York Senate candidate and First Lady Hillary Clinton

In the wake of a case that has spotlighted the U.S. military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy inaugurated in 1993 following President Clinton's unsuccessful attempt to eliminate official Armed Services bias, Hillary Clinton, the President's wife, a declared candidate in New York's current Senate race, promised she would work to overturn the failed policy.

"Gays and lesbians already serve with distinction in our nation's armed forces and should not face discrimination," said Mrs. Clinton, "Fitness to serve should be based on an individual's conduct, not their sexual orientation."

Testimony at the court martial indicated that Pfc. Winchell had endured months of harassment by almost all his fellow soldiers and that his platoon sergeant, Michael Kleifgen, had earlier testified that Winchell had been called a "faggot" a "queer" and a "homo" on a daily basis. "A lot of times," said the sergeant, "he was walking around in the dumps."

Sergeant Kleifgen excused his own non-action on Winchell's behalf, saying he'd been hampered by the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue" policy and felt that he couldn't intervene. The end result became Glover's cowardly assault on the young gay male as he lay sleeping.

Glover attempted to excuse himself, saying that he'd been goaded into the murder by another soldier, Specialist Justin Fisher, 25, of Lincoln, Nebraska, who had provided him with the baseball bat and had told him what to do with it.

Prior to the Wednesday court marshal, Pvt. Glover, hoping for leniency, changed his plea from "innocent" to "guilty of unpremeditated murder", looking for a reduced sentence.

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"I was just so drunk," wept Glover, addressing the court, "I had no intent for him to die."

A military policeman, however, testified that Glover had accompanied Winchell's battered body to the ambulance and had shouted "Let him die! Let him die!" Witnesses also testified that following Glover's embarrassing loss to the gay man in a fist fight, the loser had promised to kill Winchell, saying "It ain't over."

But as he awaited sentencing, Glover admitted: "If I had acted as half the man, even half the soldier as Barry was, he'd be with us right now�I have to apologize to Barry's parents. I'm deeply sorry for the pain I've brought your family. This is something that I'll have to remember for the rest of my life."

Glover says he's found God during his first five months in jail.