Hacking's lawyer sparks protests on domestic violence
Domestic violence group protests Hacking's defense
Incensed by comments made by Mark Hacking's defense attorney last month, a group of advocates against domestic violence crowded the Matheson Courthouse steps Friday to deliver a message: Violence is never an act of love.
Brandy Farmer, who heads the Utah Domestic Violence Council, said she was appalled by Gilbert Athay's post-sentencing remarks that Hacking murdered his wife, Lori, to alleviate her suffering.
Athay "should have known better than to say something like that," Farmer said. "It was to manipulate the public, manipulate the media, to manipulate the system for the parole hearings."
On June 7, after Hacking was sentenced to six years to life in prison, Athay told reporters in the courthouse rotunda,
"This was a killing, in Mark's words, of love." HBEAT
The defense attorney said Lori's discovery of her husband's lies about graduating from the University of Utah and being accepted into medical school in North Carolina was painful for them both.
After a two-hour "discussion," Lori went to bed and Hacking found his .22-caliber rifle.
"He loved Lori so much, he wanted to relieve her of the pain she was feeling," Athay explained, and the rifle appeared to be the solution.
Farmer said she was "flabbergasted" when she heard Athay's comments.
Eraldo Soares, Lori's father, said Hacking's actions were hardly out of love.
"If he really loved her, he would be honest and true to his marriage," said Soares, who has vowed to spend the rest of his life battling domestic violence.
Soares said he would like to see legislation - a "Lori's law" - that would require lengthy sentences for those found guilty of killing their partners.
In 2004, there were 23 domestic violence related deaths in the state, according to the Utah Domestic Violence Council. So far this year, there have been at least 10.
"It is important to realize that the perpetrators are the only ones who are at fault for taking a victim's life and sometimes their own," said Judy Kasten Bell, director of the council.
"It is never, ever, done in the name of love - to help to alleviate the pain of the victim."
lrosetta@sltrib.com http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2837809
can't wait 
