No Parole; Stephen Moller Will Remain in Prison

Moller parole denied

The state parole board rejected parole Wednesday for Stephen Moller, convicted of killing Sean Kennedy. (more)

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No Parole; Stephen Moller Will Remain in Prison

Fred Cunningham

Stephen Moller's request for parole was denied Wednesday morning in Columbia. He'll be released in July.

By and Robert Kittle
Published: February 11, 2009

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Stephen Moller's request for parole was denied Wednesday morning in Columbia.

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.