Lecture #4: Hate Crimes

Matthew Shepard• A 21 year old college student

at University of Wyoming• He was openly gay• Oct. 6, 1998 he hitched a ride

home from a bar with Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson

• Instead, he was taken to a remote area and was robbed, pistol-whipped, tortured and left tied to a fence

Matthew Shepard• Shepard was discovered 18

hours later– Still alive but in a coma

• Injuries included: – skull fractures to the back of the

head and ears– Brainstem damage– Facial lacerations or cuts– Coma from brain damage

• Pronounced dead on Oct. 12

Matthew Shepard• Both Aaron McKinney and

Russell Henderson were convicted and are serving two consecutive life sentences– Not charged with a hate crime

because one did not exist in Wyoming yet

• His case, along with James Byrd Jr’s would encourage a national hate crime law and tracking network.

Matthew Shepard

• The Shepard case drew nationwide attention for its brutality but also it shined a light on an area in America that is still uncomfortable for most. – LGBTQ hate crimes

• While he was still in a coma, Fred Phelps from the Westboro Baptist Church led a protest that included the message “Fag Matt in Hell” and “No Tears for Queers”

James Byrd Jr.• June 7, 1998• Picked up by three white

men after he was attempting to hitchhike back into town

• Beaten severely, urinated on and then chained by his ankles to the truck and dragged for three miles (equal distance as M-A to Stanford)

James Byrd Jr.• Due to hard asphalt surface Byrd’s remains were scattered over the length of roadway (over 80 different places)

• Died after his head and right arm were severed – Autopsy suggested Byrd

remained alive through much of the dragging

• His lower torso was dumped in an old slave cemetery and the three men attended a BBQ later on

James Byrd Jr.• The trial and ensuing media

attention divided the small town of Jasper, TX

• All three men were convicted and the main culprit, John King expressed pride and no remorse or guilt

• In 2004, two teenagers were arrested after they wrote racial slurs and damaged James Byrd Jr’s gravestone

Hate Crime Statistics

• Nationwide 6,628 hate crime incidents– 1,092 in California alone

• 47.3% race related• 20% religion• 19.3% sexual orientation• 12.8% ethnicity/national

origin

Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act

• Passed on Oct. 22, 2009• Expanded the original 1969 hate-crime law to

include crimes motivated by sexual orientation and gender identity

• Establishes annual funding for the FBI to record and track all hate crimes including those against LGBTQ

• Allows the federal gov’t to more easily investigate hate crimes, even if the local authorities choose not to.

Southern Poverty Law Center

• Hate crimes are often still voluntary and therefore total incidents could be as high as 50,000

• Based on numbers: – Everyday 8 blacks, 3 LGBTQ, and 1 Latino are

subjected to hate violence

Transgender-student bill

• August 2013 – Gov. Jerry Brown (CA) signed into law a bill that allows transgender students access/choice in which bathroom and locker room to get dressed in. – Before this, schools either had separate facilities

or they were forced to use same sex bathrooms, despite not identifying as that sex.

But how is that fair to me…?

• While a law to benefit only a minority population might feel unfair to the majority, consider the following statistics:

• Until 1967 interracial marriage was illegal throughout most of the American south. – Only 20% of ALL Americans believe interracial marriage was

acceptable. Today that number is close to 90%• 1890s Most doctors believed ‘men’ to be intellectually

superior to ‘women’ due to the size of their skulls. – In addition, it was believed women were susceptible to fits of

insanity during their menstrual cycle