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In The Book of Matt, Jimenez examines the laudable, if premature, effort on the part of two of Shepards friends to alert the media to what they believed to be a crime of hate. At the time, Shepard was still fighting for his life. By the time he died, five days later, the question had been firmly settled, as news reporters and gay organizations like GLAAD rushed in. As JoAnn Wypijewski wrote in a brilliant 1999 piece for Harpers Magazine, Press crews who had never before and have not since lingered over gruesome murders of homosexuals came out in force, reporting their brush with a bigotry so poisonous it could scarcely be imagined.
Add to that a president who needed to expiate his sins against the LGBT community, still recoiling from the double whammy of DOMA and dont ask, dont tell, and Shepards posthumous status as gay martyr was sealed. The defendants didnt aid themselves by claiming theyd lured Shepard into their car and then flipped out when he came on to them.
But in what circumstances does someone slam a seven-inch gun barrel into their victims head so violently as to crush his brain stem? Thats not just flipping out, thats psychotic literally psychotic, to anyone familiar with the long-term effects of methamphetamine. In court, both the prosecutor and the plaintiffs had compelling reasons to ignore this thread, but for Jimenez it is the central context for understanding not only the brutality of the crime but the milieu in which both Shepard and McKinney lived and operated.
By several accounts, McKinney had been on a meth bender for five days prior to the murder, and spent much of October 6 trying to find more drugs. By the evening he was so wound up that he attacked three other men in addition to Shepard. Even Cal Rerucha, the prosecutor who had pushed for the death sentence for McKinney and Henderson, would later concede on ABCs 20/20 that it was a murder that was driven by drugs.
They figured they had better odds of not being convicted by trying a gay panic defense than by admitting it was a drug deal
Not then idiot. They didn't have hate crimes there then. This case was used to create then. Back then they were hoping to get a reduction by alleging gay panic
Not then idiot. They didn't have hate crimes there then. This case was used to create then. Back then they were hoping to get a reduction by alleging gay panic
Wow... no, seriously, these had to be the dumbest criminals ever, then.
The only reason these fools didn't get the DP is because Matt's family begged that they didn't.
Can't see how they'd have gotten less by saying it was a drug deal gone bad.
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They tried a defense strategy that was then available.... Had they just admitted drug deal gone bad, they will be convicted of murder. At least with the gay panic defense they might have gotten it reduced to manslaughter... It failed for them. Nobody doubts they murdered him. Too bad they didn't get the death penalty. The issue here is the fraud being perpetrated about the reason why they killed him. Liberals do this with so many issues, pursuing an agenda by either twisting facts or outright lying. They are doing it with man made global warming, with trayvon martin, gender pay gap, etc...
What does it say about one's cause if you need to commit fraud to achieve one's goals?
Not then idiot. They didn't have hate crimes there then. This case was used to create then. Back then they were hoping to get a reduction by alleging gay panic
Um...yes they did.
But it's nice to see that the OP reads the Advocate. It's a good magazine.
Not then idiot. They didn't have hate crimes there then. This case was used to create then. Back then they were hoping to get a reduction by alleging gay panic
Um...yes they did.
But it's nice to see that the OP reads the Advocate. It's a good magazine.
45 states and the District of Columbia have statutes criminalizing various types of bias-motivated violence or intimidation (the exceptions are Arkansas, Georgia, whose hate crime statute was struck down by the Georgia Supreme Court in 2004,[4] Indiana, South Carolina, and Wyoming).
Not then idiot. They didn't have hate crimes there then. This case was used to create then. Back then they were hoping to get a reduction by alleging gay panic
Wow... no, seriously, these had to be the dumbest criminals ever, then.
The only reason these fools didn't get the DP is because Matt's family begged that they didn't.
Can't see how they'd have gotten less by saying it was a drug deal gone bad.
They tried a defense strategy that was then available.... Had they just admitted drug deal gone bad, they will be convicted of murder. At least with the gay panic defense they might have gotten it reduced to manslaughter... It failed for them. Nobody doubts they murdered him. Too bad they didn't get the death penalty. The issue here is the fraud being perpetrated about the reason why they killed him. Liberals do this with so many issues, pursuing an agenda by either twisting facts or outright lying. They are doing it with man made global warming, with trayvon martin, gender pay gap, etc...
What does it say about one's cause if you need to commit fraud to achieve one's goals?
