March 24 — Nearly seven months ago, Matthew
Shepard was found comatose, lashed to a log
fence, his hands bound beneath
him, his head beaten in by 18
blows from the butt of a handgun.
He died five days later.
Now, jury selection is under way today
in the trial of Russell Henderson, one of
two high school dropouts charged in the
October beating death of the 21-year-old
University of Wyoming student.
Security was tight today at the
courthouse — extra police are on duty
and fences have been erected around the
building. Opening statements are scheduled for April 6.
Jim Osborn, who attended grade school with Shepard
and remained his friend, stopped by the courthouse on his
way to work to remember Shepard.
“The most important thing is: My friend is dead,” Osborn
said. “Matt was a person. He wasn’t just a gay man.
Nothing can bring him back.”
Prosecutors say they’ll seek the death penalty for
Henderson, 21, if he’s convicted on charges of first-degree
murder, aggravated robbery and kidnapping.
No Hate Crime Law in Wyoming
Authorities believe Henderson and Aaron James McKinney,
22, befriended Shepard in a downtown Laramie bar,
convinced him they were gay, offered him a ride and then
tortured and beat him, stealing $20 for cigarettes and gas.
Henderson’s girlfriend, Chasity Vera Pasley, has
pleaded guilty to helping cover up the crime and is awaiting
sentencing. McKinney’s girlfriend, Kristin LeAnn Price, will
be tried in May for allegedly helping dispose of Shepard’s
bloodied clothing.
McKinney’s trial is scheduled for August.
Shepard’s murder was a touchstone for anti-hate crimes
activists. Thousands attended candlelight vigils and rallies in
Wyoming, Colorado, California, New York and Maryland to
protest anti-gay violence.
“They didn’t just kill him — what they did affected the
entire gay community in the country and in the world,” says
Sue Anderson, executive director of Equality Colorado,
which reported 60 anti-gay incidents in Colorado last
year.
“It put fear and anger in a lot of people’s hearts.”
A Chilling Message
Only 21 states cover incidents motivated by the victim’s
sexual orientation. Ten states, including Wyoming, have no
hate crime laws.
In 1997, more than 1,000 anti-gay hate crimes were
reported to the FBI; 2,930 attacks on lesbians and gay men
were documented by the National Coalition of
Anti-Violence Programs — and last year, three incidents of
crimes based on sexual orientation were reported to
Wyoming’s state government reporting agency.
In January, gay rights activists lost their battle for
passage of bias crime legislation that would have provided
penalties for hate crimes in Wyoming.
Some advocates expect attorneys for the defendants to
use a strategy that will place some blame on Shepard’s
sexual orientation.
“There have been many situations where a gay person
has been attacked and the perpetrator says, ‘He made a
pass at me so I had to beat him up,’” says Rebecca Isaacs,
political director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force.
“But you can’t kill people, and no kind of homophobic
response is going to change the mentality that killing is
wrong.”
Recent Murders Shock the Nation
The trial comes in the wake of two recent killings that have
drawn national public attention to hate violence.
Earlier this month, the severed head of Henry Edward
Northington, 39, was left on a walkway leading to a popular
meeting place for gays in Richmond, Va. Police, who found
the rest of his body in the James River, said the gruesome
act was meant to serve as a message to the gay community.
No arrests have been made.
And in February, the charred remains of Billy Jack
Gaither, 39, were found in Sylacauga, Ala. Gaither was
beaten with an ax handle, thrown onto a stack of tires
soaked with gasoline and set afire. Authorities have arrested
two men, Steven Eric Mullins and Charles Monroe Butler, in
connection with Gaither’s death.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Attacks Upon Gays and Lesbians: 1997
Documented Incidents:
2,445
Victims:
2,930
Assault Crimes:
968
Required Hospital Treatment
243
Minor Injury:
505
Murders:
18
National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs
Hate Crimes Bill Under Review
Advocates believe the attack on Matthew Shepard shows a
need for federal approval of the Hate Crimes Prevention
Act, a bill re-introduced this year that would make federal
offenses of crimes based on the victim’s sex, disability or
sexual orientation. The current law only covers crimes
based on race, color, religion or national origin.
“Obviously, the James Byrd [Texas dragging death]
murder and the Matthew Shepard case have made an
incredible impact as to whether there should be federal
protection and attention to the issue of hate crimes,” said
Jeff Montgomery with the National Coalition of
Anti-Violence Programs, an umbrella organization for local
groups that monitor anti-gay violence.
Supporters say federal involvement could speed up
prosecutions and institute tougher sentencing penalties to
adult defendants who encourage minors to commit hate
crimes.
On Tuesday, Shepard’s mother asked Congress to
enact bias crime laws.
“They can help change the climate in this country,
where some people feel it is OK to target specific groups of
people and get away with it,” Judy Shepard said at a
Washington, D.C., news conference.
But opponents of the proposed legislation believe
federal intervention in most hate crimes cases will
undermine the role of the states in prosecuting and
investigating cases.
On Jan. 4, 1996, two neo-Nazis brutally
murdered Fred Mangione, a homosexual man, in Houston.
The assailants, who went there from Montana, belonged to
a white-supremacist group and bragged about hating
homosexuals. They stabbed Mangione 35 times. The
federal government is powerless to prosecute the killers
because federal law does not cover hate crimes based on
sexual orientation.
Now, jury selection is under way today
in the trial of Russell Henderson, one of
two high school dropouts charged in the
October beating death of the 21-year-old
University of Wyoming student.
Security was tight today at the
courthouse — extra police are on duty
and fences have been erected around the
building. Opening statements are scheduled for April 6.
Jim Osborn, who attended grade school with Shepard
and remained his friend, stopped by the courthouse on his
way to work to remember Shepard. 
