Motivations behind the Killing of Matthew Shepard

From Cyberlaw

On October 7, 1998, on a prairie in southern Wyoming, a bicyclist discovered Matthew Shepard’s body:

:A scarecrow?

A boy . . . broken, bloody, tied to a buck fence to die . . . with the “constant Wyoming wind as his companion.”

His face, covered in blood. Only one clean spot found “where tears had run down.”

According to coroner Patrick Allen, Shepard suffered at least half a dozen fractures and was struck at least twenty times.

At 12:53 a.m. on October 12, 1998, Matthew died in a Colorado hospital:

He suffered severe brain stem damage, which affected his body’s ability to regulate heart rate, body temperature and other vital signs. Doctors could not operate due to the severity of his injuries. Matthew never regained consciousness and remained on full life support until his condition deteriorated.

Meanwhile, outside:

Gay Man Dies From Attack, Fanning Outrage and Debate ~New York Times, October 13, 1998.

Wyoming District Attorney Cal Rerucha charged Aaron McKinney, 22, and Russell Henderson, 21, with attempted first degree murder, kidnapping, and aggravated robbery. Physical evidence linked the two to the killing:

Matthew’s shoes, coat and credit card were all found in McKinney’s pickup truck. His wallet was also found at McKinney’s home, wrapped in a dirty diaper in a garbage pail.

In April 1999, Henderson pleaded guilty to felony murder, robbery and kidnapping. During his hearing, Henderson blamed McKinney for the murder, saying that it was his idea to rob and beat Shepard. He received two consecutive life sentences to be served back to back.

Meanwhile, outside, angels remorse . . .

. . . and Fred Phelps and his supporters protest:

Matt Shepard rots in Hell

God Hates Fags

A petition to build a monument with a bronze plaque bearing Shepard’s picture and the words: “MATTHEW SHEPARD, Entered Hell October 12, 1998, in Defiance of God’s Warning: ‘Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.’ Leviticus 18:22.”

On November 3, 1999 a jury convicted McKinney of first-degree felony murder, second-degree murder, and aggravated robbery and kidnapping. McKinney, like Henderson, received two consecutive life sentences to be served back to back.

WHY DID HENDERSON AND MCKINNEY KILL MATTHEW?

(I remember first hearing about Matthew’s death on Good Morning America. The show speculated that Matthew’s sexual orientation played a large factor in his death. Other media sources and interest groups accused McKinney and Henderson of committing an anti-gay hate crime. As a struggling, awkward gay high school student, the story deeply touched me. The thought that hatred toward gays and lesbians could drive people to kill scared me and filled me with dread.
Later, I discussed Matthew’s tragedy with my mom. She said, “Well, they are saying that he made a pass at the two . . . I don’t know . . . and that he acted very openly gay at the bar . . . .”)

After his arrest, Aaron McKinney confessed to the killing. The jury listened to the taped confession during the trial:

“I hit him [Shepard] … and he kept throwing himself all over me,” … “we had really no intention of hurting this guy. It was to take him out and scare him and take his wallet and leave.”

Henderson’s testimony during his plea hearing also focused on the robbery aspect of the crime:

At the Fireside bar, McKinney noticed Matthew. “Aaron had mentioned to me that he wanted to take him out and rob him . . . I disagreed with this.”

In 2004, 20/20’s Elizabeth Vargas interviewed the two killers about the 1998 murder. Both Henderson and McKinney say that DRUGS and MONEY motivated their killing, not hatred toward gays.

“I would say it wasn’t a hate crime. All I wanted to do was beat him up and rob him.”

~McKinney, 2004.

DRUGS and MONEY

Aaron reported to 20/20 that by the age of 18, he had a serious methamphetamine habit. Ryan Bopp, one of Aaron’s friends and drug associates, said that he and Aaron had been on a drug binge in the week leading up to the attack.

On the night of October 6, 1998, Aaron set out to rob a drug dealer of $10,000 worth of methamphetamine. After several attempts, he was not able to carry out his plan. Russell Henderson thought that if he could keep Aaron drinking, he’d forget his robbery plans. When Aaron saw Matthew Shepard at the bar, he said he saw an “easy mark.” McKinney recalls, Shepard “was too drunk to go home. And then he asked me if I’d give him a ride. So I thought, yeah, sure, what the hell.”

All three climbed into the front seat of Aaron’s pickup. Aaron remembers that at one point Shepard reached over and grabbed his leg. In response, Aaron hit him with his pistol. “I was getting ready to pull it on him anyway.” Aaron took Shepard’s wallet, but continued to beat him. “Sometimes when you have that kind of rage going through you, there’s no stopping it. I’ve attacked my best friends coming off of meth binges.” At a secluded spot in the outskirts of Laramie, Henderson tied Shepard to a fence and McKinney struck Matthew again and again.

But in 1998 and 1999 . . .

Kristen Price, McKinney’s girlfriend, tells the Denver Post: “I guess they [the bar patrons] knew that Matt Shepard was gay, and maybe it got around that Aaron was gay or something. Later on, Aaron did say he told him he was gay just to rob him, because he wanted to take his money for embarrassing him . . . It wasn’t meant to be a hate crime. They just wanted to rob him.”

In 1999 ...

Price testifies at her boyfriend’s trial: McKinney told me that “a gay guy had been hitting on him [in the Fireside Lounge bar]. . . . They [McKinney and Henderson] decided in the bathroom to pretend they were gay, get him in the truck and rob him.” She says that she saw no signs of drug abuse that night.

In 2004 . . .

Price tells 20/20 that at the time of the crime she thought things would go easier for McKinney if his violence was seen as a panic reaction to an unwanted gay sexual advance. She admits that her initial statements were not true and that McKinney’s motive was drugs and money. “I don’t think it was a hate crime at all. I never did.”

Back to 1999 . . .

Defense counsel for McKinney argues to the jury that Shepard’s unwanted sexual advances, in combination with the defendant’s alcohol and drug abuse, triggered a rage. The media coins the theory the “gay panic defense.” The gatekeeper rejects the defense as both prejudicial and irrelevant.

The jury never adequately addressed the killer’s state of mind. They found “no premeditation,” but offered no substantive conclusions about the killer’s motives.

"Meanwhile, outside, the public fills the Law Lord’s silence with accusations of HATRED:

Gay and Lesbian advocacy groups and the media point to Matthew’s death as a vivid essay example of the consequences of intolerance and disrespect. Memorial services, plays, and films erupt in the shadow of the killing.

Matthew’s parents establish the “Matthew Shepard Foundation” -www.matthewshepard.org – to combat intolerance:

Our vision: To educate and enlighten others on the importance of diversity, understanding, compassion, acceptance and respect. Everyone must participate in developing solutions to problems that are rooted in ignorance and hatred.

A friend of Shepard’s comments, “I know in the core of my heart it happened because he revealed he was gay. And its chilling. They targeted him because he was gay.”

In response to the attack, Attorney General Janet Reno urges Congress to expand federal hate crime laws to include offenses based on sexual orientation.

Throughout the country, theaters perform “The Laramie Project,” a play that compiles over 200 interviews of Laramie inhabitants and chronicles their reaction to the murder.

(Matthew’s death resonated in my own life as a possible, terrifying prophecy. Could I also fall victim to such hatred? The evidence surrounding Matthew’s death remains murky. Though all agree that Henderson and McKinney killed Matthew, many dispute the killer’s motivations. The 20/20 interview offers a unique thought experiment: What happens to Matthew’s story if we subtract the hate motive? Perhaps nothing. The killing provided an impetus for discussion and action. It unearthed hatred – either as evidenced by the killing itself or by some responses (“God Hates Fags”) – and elicited calls for compassion, toleration, and acceptance. The actual “truth” of what happened in Wyoming in 1998 will fail to resolve the much deeper philosophical and moral question that faces America: Are gay relationships moral or immoral? A jury will never sufficiently reach a verdict on the question.)

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nesson here: You draw me in with empathy for a boy scared by a horrifying story that shows hatred for his gayness. the wider world is full of folk who will kill you out of hatred for your kind. fear. fear is the mindkiller. i feel as you tell the tale in shifting point of view evidence of your ability to find the other state of mind. i feel myself shift in response to you. i find myself in the meth heads of frustrated guys who see weakness in the effeminate homosexual and want to rob him. i feel the homophobia that has the killers pretending gayness, approaching fire and then reacting with a pistol swing that lashes out at hatred of self. yes, it is truth and reconciliation that we need. yes, fear is real; understanding is real. reality is knot.