Matthew Shepard

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Matthew Wayne Shepard (born December 1, 1976 in Casper , Wyoming , † October 12, 1998 in Fort Collins , Colorado ) was an American student at the University of Wyoming who was the victim of a willful homicide in October 1998 in Laramie, Wyoming has been. Six days after the crime, he died of the injuries inflicted on him.

The case caused quite a stir. Based on the statements of the perpetrators, international media reported that they had chosen their victim because of his homosexuality , which triggered both rallies by homosexual civil rights movements and counter- rallies by homophobic groups. The crime against Matthew Shepard led significantly to the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act , which was co-named after him , on the basis of which since the end of 2009 a so-called " hate crime " (German: "hate crime") has been subject to higher penalties in the USA becomes.

The murder

21-year-old Matt Shepard met Aaron James McKinney, age 22, and Russell Arthur Henderson, age 21, in a bar on college campus on October 6, 1998 . According to McKinney, Shepard asked her to bring him home in her pickup truck. As a result, Shepard was robbed, hit about 18 times with a .357 Magnum revolver - mostly on the head -, tied his shoelaces to a fence in a remote rural area, and left to his fate. The blood on Shepard's face was partially washed away by tears, which suggests that he must have been conscious after the crime. As the perpetrators' friends later testified under oath, Matthew pleaded in vain for his life. McKinney and Henderson found Shepard's address and, according to McKinney, intended to break into his home. However, when they parked the vehicle, they had an argument with two Hispanics . McKinney hit one of the Hispanics with the same gun he used to hit Shepard who suffered a skull fracture, and the man's friend hit him with a small baseball bat. Shortly before the police arrived, all 4 people fled in different directions. Sgt. Flint Waters was able to seize Henderson and discovered evidence in the vehicle that linked Henderson and McKinney to the murder of Shepard. Shepard was spotted 18 hours after the crime by two cyclists who had initially mistaken him for a scarecrow . He never awoke from his unconsciousness until his death on October 12, 1998 in Fort Collins, Colorado Hospital.

Arrest and trial

Police arrested McKinney and Henderson shortly afterwards. She found with them the bloody gun, the victim's shoes and Shepard's credit card. The two perpetrators tried unsuccessfully to get alibis through their friends .

During the trial, the two defendants told different stories in order to defend their actions. They often used the so-called gay panic defense : They argued that they felt threatened by Shepard's homosexuality. At another time, they testified that they were just trying to rob Shepard and never intended to kill him.

The prosecutor argued that McKinney and Henderson posed as homosexuals in order for Shepard to trust them. Henderson and McKinney's friends testified on oath that the two of them had intended to rob a homosexual.

To avoid the death penalty , Henderson confessed on April 5, 1999, and promised to testify against McKinney. Henderson was sentenced to two life sentences with no early release option. The jury at McKinney's trial found him guilty of first degree murder. When the death penalty was considered, Shepard's parents voted for a deal . Life in prison instead of the death penalty shows mercy for someone who has known no mercy. The result was that McKinney was sentenced to two life sentences with no possibility of early release.

Since McKinney and Henderson have been in prison, they have tried to base their actions on their understanding of the Bible ( fundamentalist hermeneutics ).

aftermath

The great media interest in Shepard's death brought heterosexism and heterosexist-motivated acts of violence to the fore in the public debate.

People in the entertainment industry have expressed concern in different ways. Actress Ellen DeGeneres held the Shepard Memorial Service in Washington, DC . There she said that her coming out shortly before this attack was meant to prevent such things from happening. The lesbian singer Melissa Etheridge wrote the song Scarecrow (Scarecrow) - referring to the mistaken assumption when Shepards was found that he was a scarecrow. The band Thursday dedicated the song M. Shepard to him . The American metal core band Trivium dedicated the song And Sadness will Sear to Matthew Shepard . The English pop pianist Elton John composed the song American Triangle (text: Bernie Taupin ) in memory of Shepard , which appeared on the album Songs from the West Coast . The fence that Shepard was tied to has since become the destination of numerous pilgrimages. Two films were made about the story: The Laramie Project (based on the play of the same name , with a select cast of actors including Christina Ricci , Steve Buscemi , Joshua Jackson , Clea DuVall , Ben Foster and Mark Webber ) and The Matthew Shepard Story ( The Matthew Shepard Story ). Both films won many awards. Matthew Shepard can also be seen in a short interview in the documentary "Dear Jesse".

Both Shepard's funeral as well as the trials of his attackers the leader of the protesting Westboro Baptist Church , Fred Phelps and his followers. They shouted their slogans like Matt Shepard rots in hell , AIDS kills homos and God hates homos . Until his death Phelps searched for a town that would allow him to erect a memorial, the Shepard's picture with the signature, “Matthew Shepard, went into hell on October 12, 1998, in defiance of God's warning: 'You should not be with man lie like with a woman; it is an abomination. ' ( Leviticus 18:22) ” shows.

Dennis and Judy Shepard, Matthew's parents, founded the Matthew Shepard Foundation in December 1998 , which aims to replace hatred with understanding, compassion and acceptance. This is done through various educational, social and legal initiatives, as well as by telling Matthew's story. The main focus is on three areas: eliminating hatred in society, first for LGBT youth, and ensuring equal rights for all American lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Judy Shepard was awarded the Walter Cronkite Faith & Freedom Award in 2008 , which is given to people whose actions embody the values ​​of courtesy, tolerance and diversity.

In the episode "Unter Warmduschern" ( Tommy's Not Gay ) of the sitcom Titus , which first aired in November 2001, which deals with the abuse of a homosexual because of his homosexuality, the main actor Christopher Titus tells during a serious interlude and as part of the breakthrough fourth wall addressed to the audience briefly about the killing of Matthew Shepard and reversed the hilarious mood that had built up up to that point and thus counteracted the up to then clichéd portrayal of gays towards a fair and serious argument.

New aspects of the case

In 2004, several years after the conviction, McKinney's friend Kristen Price reported another version of the story and motives. Testifying that the attack was solely related to drugs and money, she added, “I don't think it was a hate crime . I never believed it. "

McKinney and Henderson first testified that they were not guilty and that they were with their friends at the time of the crime. After the friends did not confirm these statements, they tried to use a "gay panic defense" and stated that they attacked Shepard for making advances on them. In November 2005, they reported a third variant in a 20/20 interview with ABC News . In this version, the murder was motivated not by homophobia, but by a methamphetamine- induced tantrum. The murder was the result of serious drug abuse, an attempted robbery and the victim being beaten too far. Both would have said this to their defenders earlier, but the defenders would have opted for the unsuccessful "gay panic defense".

ABC News interviewed friends of McKinney's who said he had never disparaged homosexuals. One of them said of him: “I know he's bisexual. I have no doubt he is bisexual. ”And said he was one of his sexual partners. McKinney said in media interviews that he chose Shepard as the victim of a robbery because he did not see him as a threat.

Former Laramie Police Chief Dave O'Malley had also been interviewed by ABC and later criticized the report. He said the ABC reporters were not neutral and that the drug and anti-gay motives were not mutually exclusive.

In 2013, the journalist Stephen Jimenez published the book The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard , in which he came to the conclusion that the murder of Shepard was not a hate crime based on homophobia , but occurred in connection with drug trafficking. For the book, the author interviewed people from Shepard's circle of friends, friends of the two murderers and the murderers themselves. According to Jimenez, Shepard used methamphetamine and had a sexual relationship with McKinney. He suspects that Matthew Shepard was murdered because he came into possession of a large quantity of the drug. Critics of the book complain that Jimenez sometimes refers to anonymous sources, does not give any information about the relationship between the sources and Shepard, and his conclusions often only seem to correspond to his personal opinion.

Hate Crime Laws

In response to the crime, attempts were made in the Wyoming Parliament to add the term "sexual orientation" to the state's hate crime law. However, the law narrowly failed. At the federal level, then-President Bill Clinton again advocated such a law. However, since the Republicans regained a majority in Congress a few years earlier, the 1999 and 2000 votes failed. The project was not pursued further under the Bush administration .

After the 2006 congressional election , in which the Democrats regained a majority in both houses, efforts were resumed. In May 2007, the Matthew Shepard Act passed the House of Representatives with votes from both parties and, in a similar form, the Senate in September. Fearing a Bush veto, the law was linked to the Department of Defense Authorization bill . In December 2007, however, a final version had not yet been drawn up. Still, House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi intended to get the bill through in 2008. On the White House website, Barack Obama's administration made the signing of the Matthew Shepard Act a priority of its civil rights policy. Finally, on October 28, 2009, President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Commemoration

On October 26, 2018, after a memorial service held by Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde and Bishop Gene Robinson , the coffin containing the remains of Matthew Shepard was reburied in the crypt of Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC .

literature

  • Beth Loffreda: Losing Matt Shepard: life and politics in the aftermath of anti-gay murder , Columbia University Press, New York 2000, ISBN 0-231-11859-7
  • Leigh Fondakowski, Moises Kaufman: The Laramie project , Vintage Books, New York 2001, ISBN 0-375-72719-1
  • Dee Garceau, Matthew Basso, Laura McCall: Across the Great Divide: cultures of manhood in the American West , Routledge, New York 2001, ISBN 0-415-92471-5
  • Mary E. Swigonski, Robin S. Mama, Kelly Ward: From Hate Crimes to Human Rights: A Tribute to Matthew Shepard , Routledge, New York 2001, ISBN 1-56023-256-0
  • Shannon Campbell, Laura Castaneda: News and Sexuality: Media Portraits of Diversity , Sage Publications, Inc, Thousand Oaks, Calif 2005, ISBN 1-4129-0998-8
  • Patrick Hinds, Romaine Patterson: The Whole World Was Watching: Living in the Light of Matthew Shepard , Advocate Books, 2005, ISBN 1-55583-901-0
  • Frank Stern: The Matthew Shepard Case. Wyoming hell . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung v. October 10, 2008.
  • Judy Shepard: The Meaning of Matthew: My Son's Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed , Hudson Street Press, 2009, ISBN 1-59463-057-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d ABC News: New Details Emerge in Matthew Shepard Murder
  2. ↑ David A. Neiwert: Death on the Fourth of July: the story of a killing, a trial, and hate crime in America . Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2004, ISBN 1-4039-6501-3 , p. 105.
  3. ^ Anthony Joseph and Paul Cortese: Opposing hate speech . Praeger Publishers, Westport (Conn.) 2006, ISBN 0-275-98427-3 , p. 128 .
  4. ↑ Emily Bazelon : Monument From Hell: Make room for a Matthew Shepard hate monument in a town square near you . In: Slate , November 11, 2003.
  5. ↑ Tony Grew: Mum of murdered gay man honored with Cronkite award , pinknews.co.uk, October 24, 2008
  6. ↑ imfernsehen GmbH & Co KG: Titus Season 3, Episode 3: Among warm showerers. Retrieved March 17, 2020 .
  7. ^ Laramie Boomerang Online: Former police chief angry about 20/20 . (No longer available online.)
  8. ↑ Stephen Jimenez: The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard , Steerforth Press, 2013.
  9. ↑ Aaron Hicklin: Have We Got Matthew Shepard All Wrong? The Advocate, September 13, 2013, accessed September 18, 2013 .
  10. ↑ Kenneth S. Stern: What If Matthew Shepard's Murder Wasn't an Anti-Gay Hate Crime? The Jewish Daily Forward, September 9, 2013, accessed September 18, 2013 .
  11. ↑ Debunking Stephen Jimenez's Effort To De-Gay Matthew Shepard's Murder | Equality Matters. Retrieved October 14, 2018 .
  12. ↑ 'The Book Of Matt' Doesn't Prove Anything, Other Than The Size Of Stephen Jimenez's Ego . ( thinkprogress.org [accessed October 14, 2018]).
  13. ^ The White House The Agenda Civil Rights (archived) . Retrieved March 23, 2017. 
  14. ^ Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention (archived) . Retrieved March 23, 2017. 
  15. ↑ Obama signs Matthew Shepard Act , queer.de, October 29, 2009
  16. ↑ Kerstin Söderblom: Tied up like a scarecrow: Matthew Shepard . In: HuK-Info204 (December 2018 to March 2019), p. 54f.
personal data
SURNAME Shepard, Matthew
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Shepard, Matthew Wayne (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American victim of anti-gay hate crime
DATE OF BIRTH 1st December 1976
PLACE OF BIRTH Casper , Wyoming , USA
DATE OF DEATH October 12, 1998
Place of death Fort Collins , Colorado , USA