Was killing of Shepard really a hate crime?

Does it matter if the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard was a “hate crime” or not?

On Friday night ABC’s “20/20” will devote it’s full hour to determining if the brutal 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard was a crime motivated by hatred of homosexuals. I ask myself, where is this leading?

Russell Henderson has already tried to have his sentence reduced. He and Aaron McKinney are both serving the same sentence - two life terms in prison, to be served consecutively. That alone guarantees that they will never see life outside of a prison wall again.

It really doesn’t matter to me that they may have been high on drugs. They chose to take those drugs. At any point in time, they could have let Matthew go after they had his money. Instead, they drove Matthew out of town, beat him, burned him with cigarettes, kicked him in the groin (based on reports of bruising in that area of his body), and hit him no less than twenty times, mostly in the head, with the butt of a gun, until he lost consciousness.

They then left him to die alone on the Wyoming prairie in close to freezing temperatures. Matthew was found 18 hours later. He died 5 days later in a hospital, tied to life support.

These are the facts. Russell Henderson says he never struck Matthew Shepard. That may be true. He held Matthew while Aaron McKinney did the work. He stood by and watched another human being be beaten to death, and HE DID NOTHING TO STOP IT. He was also the one who tied Matthew’s hands behind him to the fence.

So you tell me. Should Henderson have gotten less time because he claims he never struck Matthew Shepard. Does that make him a model citizen? Should we pat him on that back and say, “We are so thankful that you only held and tied Matthew’s hands, but didn’t strike him. I’m so thankful that you aren’t a gay basher!”?

They deserve exactly what they got and I for one am deeply offended that ABC or any other network is giving them the time of day. As far as I’m concerned, prison was too good for them.

The hundreds of people who saw the Madison East High School production of “The Laramie Project” last weekend may find this week’s “20/20” broadcast of particular interest.

The ABC news show will devote its entire hour Friday to an investigative report that raises questions as to whether the murder six years ago of gay college student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyo., was really a hate crime. The play is based on the crime.

In their first interviews since being sentenced, the two men convicted of killing Shepard - Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson - claim Shepard’s sexual orientation had nothing to do with his murder.

The two men tell “20/20” co- anchor Elizabeth Vargas that they set out to rob someone that night, happened upon Shepard at a bar and later attacked him because they were in the midst of drug-induced rages. [...]

At the request of the State Journal, the advance copy was watched by John Quinlan, executive director of OutReach, the Madison community center for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people.

Quinlan said the show does not change his belief that Shepard’s murder was a hate crime. He bases this on several factors, he said, including the brutality of the beating, statements made to police by the killers and the “gay panic” defense used by McKinney at his trial.

“They were willing to use the gay panic defense when it would have helped to lessen their responsibility, but now that it would make them look less prejudiced in the eyes of the world, they’re suddenly saying that Matthew’s being gay had nothing to do with it. There is little credibility in that.”

Quinlan said that although it’s impossible to get inside the heads of the killers, their use of the gay panic defense turned the crime into a hate crime.

“A hate crime is a crime that doesn’t just affect the victim. It’s also the fear that resonates out from there,” he said. “It’s an act against a whole group of people. They engineered the means for it to be a hate crime. They used homophobia to try and justify their actions.”(source)

Further reading
Remembering Matthew - my photo album for him
The Matthew Shepard Foundation
Dennis Shepard's Statements to the Court - November 4, 1999