Matthew Shepard
Matthew Shepard born 1 December 1976 (d. 1998)Matthew Wayne Shepard was an American student at the University of Wyoming.
Shortly after midnight on October 7, 1998, 21-year-old Shepard met Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson in a bar. According to McKinney, Shepard asked them for a ride home. Subsequently, Matthew was robbed, severely beaten, tied to a fence and left to die. McKinney and Henderson also found out his address, intending to burglarise his home. Shepard was discovered by a cyclist 18 hours later, still alive but unconscious. At first he mistakenly thought that Matthew's broken body was a scarecrow.
Matthew Shepard suffered a fracture from the back of his head to the front of his right ear. He had severe brain damage. There were also about a dozen small lacerations around his head, face and neck. He had been beaten with a handgun. His injuries were deemed too severe for doctors to operate. Matthew never regained consciousness and remained on full life support. He was pronounced dead at 12:53 a.m. on October 12 at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins.
Police arrested McKinney and Henderson shortly thereafter, finding the bloody gun as well as the victim's shoes and wallet in their truck. The two men had attempted to get their girlfriends to provide alibis.
After the attack, the prosecutor told reporters that Shepard's friends had been vocal about Matthew Shepard's sexuality: 'They were calling the County Attorney's office, they were calling the media and indicating Matthew Shepard is gay and we don't want the fact that he is gay to go unnoticed.'
During court cases both of the defendants used varying stories to defend their actions. They attempted to use the 'gay panic defence', arguing that they were driven to temporary insanity by Shepard's alleged sexual advances toward them. At another point they stated that they had only wanted to rob him and never intended to kill him.
The prosecutor in the case charged that McKinney and Henderson pretended to be gay in order to gain Matthew's trust to rob him. During the trial, Chastity Pasley and Kristen Price (the pair's then-girlfriends) testified under oath that Henderson and McKinney both plotted beforehand to rob a gay man. McKinney and Henderson then went to the Fireside Lounge, a gay hangout, and selected Matthew as their target. After befriending him, they took him to a remote area of Laramie where they robbed him, viciously beat him and left him for dead.
Henderson and McKinney were not charged with a hate crime - laws at the time did not support such a charge. Many people think the case should have been dealt with as a hate crime, particularly those who believe that Matthew Shepard was targeted on the basis of his sexual orientation. Attempts were made made to change the law subsequently for years without success.
The convicted murderers are currently serving two life sentences without parole in Wyoming State Penitentiary.
The homophobic murder of Matthew Shepard - and the inability of the law to recognise the attack as a hate crime has made him a modern gay martyr and come to symbolise the inhumane, brutal and discriminatory treatment faced by gay people. Several films and a play have been made about the events of that night and artists as diverse as Melissa Etheridge, Elton John, Tori Amos, Cyndi Lauper, Trivium and others have written and dedicated songs to Matthew Shepard. A foundation has been set up in his name, and his parents Judy and Dennis have dedicated their lives to gay rights and campaigning for tolerance.
In 2009, after years of campaigning and controversy, the Matthew Shepard Act was passesd into law as an amendment to US hate crimes legislation.
Matthew Shepard Foundation
Labels: Death by homicide
posted by Peter Jacobs at 12:01 am
5 Comments:
Much of what has been posted has been refuted. An extensive report on ABC's "20/20" revealed that the Shepherd murder was actually a drug deal gone bad, and not a hate crime at all. Although as a gay man I prefer the "martyr angle", the truth is ultimately more important.
In reference to the comment left by 'Bill' above.
I covered Matthew's story as at the time I was working for a wire service. I can tell you with absolutely clarity & authority as an investigative journalist that the comments above are not only false but misleading. The commentator is misinformed.
I have also had the honour of interviewing Judy Shepard, who sat through the trial proceedings of the two men who murdered her oldest son, and I can tell you that between my background fact checking and Judy's relating the facts of the trial, Matthew's death was a hate crime period.
Judy just recently published a book entitled 'The Meaning Of Matthew,' which details Matthew's tragic death but also the long fight Judy embarked upon to 'erase hate' from American society.
That, is the truth, and the facts cannot be disputed. ABCNews has since disavowed a great deal of the so-called 'material facts' that were broadcast in that segment.
Respectfully submitted,
Brody Levesque
Journalist
Washington DC
theroadtraveler@gmail.com
http://brodylevesque.blogspot.com
Brody, I just stumbled across your comment here and while I respect your partisanship and representation of a perspective, let me assure you that the facts, as you have suppossed them, can definitely be disputed. It's better that they are. It's better to have ongoing interpreation and consideration. As a journalist, you should be less an advocate and more of a journalist.
Bill, what you're saying is simply false. Even the abc report your reference, which I can provide here by the way (http://abcnews.go.com/2020/comments?type=story&id=277685#.TxUnxiPwO-U) doesn't even claim that the situation was a "drug deal." The only new information is that Matthew was a flawed individual who had drug problems and may have been HIV positive. But even the murderers themselves didn't claim there was any "drug deal" at the time. They kidnapped and murdered Matthew. The only difference now is they claim that the murder was induced by meth. Sounds kind of familiar right? Remember the twinkie defense? Also, that the murderers are now backing out of the gay panic defense now that it isn't useful to them. But otherwise nothing has changed.
ravenswoodjack, please see my previous comment addressing Bill's. Further, I don't see any sign that Brody lacks any integrity as a reporter. I read the ABC report, and there's nothing in that report that proves Matthew's murder wasn't a hate crime. In fact, if you want to criticize anyone's journalistic integrity, I would criticize ABC's as they strive to demonize and blame a murder victim for his death relying mostly on the word of his killers and unrelated personal facts that only serve to mitigate the crime. It reminds me of the type of victim-blaming rape victims are often subjected to: oh, she was promiscuous, she frequented bars, she had y lifestyle or did z drug, she knew her rapist, she dated him once, so clearly she was asking for it. That's the kind of crap that report spews. (For example, what does him allegedly being HIV positive have ANYTHING to do with his murder?) Nothing in the report disproves any hatred on the killers' part (aside from their own testimony). What's sickening is that a man who commented on that report even goes as far as saying that DRUGS are what killed Matthew! Mckinney and Henderson are what killed Matthew. And the brutality of the beating, the way they hung him up on a fence, skulked out at a gay bar for a victim (and decided a gay man was an "easy target"), and later beat two other gay men doesn't point to the lack of hate in the crime either.
Post a Comment
<< Home