Matthew Shepard
Matthew Shepard was an American teenager born on December 1st 1976 attending the University in Wyoming when he was the victim of a gay bashing on October 6th 1998. He attended public school in Wyoming and was elected to be a peer counsellor by the other students at his high school. At the University of Wyoming he was studying political science, foreign relations and languages as he had a great passion for equality and politics. Though he was well liked by those who knew him, he was picked on by some at his high school for having a small stature and a lack of athleticism. During a class trip to Morroco in 1995, he was beaten and raped which caused him to experience panic attacks and depression. Because of this, he was hospitalised multiple times for clinical depression and suicidal ideation. He was described by his friends and family as an optimistic, open and loving person who was friendly towards everyone that he met and open to new challenges.
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After beating and robbing Matthew Shepard, McKinney and Henderson went back to town and got into a fight with two other males where the police were called. The police officer found Shepard's shoes and credit cars on the boys as well as the bloody gun they had used to beat Matthew. The two boys were formally arrested when Matthew Shepard was discovered, and were charged with attempted murder, kidnapping and aggravated robbery; after Matthew died the charge was upgraded to first degree murder. Their girlfriends were also charged with being accessories after the fact, as the boys asked the girls to provide them alibi's and dispose of evidence. To avoid the death penalty, Henderson testified against McKinney at his trial and pleaded guilty to kidnapping and murder and received two life sentences. Henderson admitted that he pretended to be gay in order to lure Shepard out to his truck so that they could rob him and attacked him when Shepard attempted to put his hand on McKinney's knee. During McKinney's trial, his lawyer attempted to put forward a gay panic defence, saying that McKinney was temporarily driven to insanity as a response to Shepard's alleged advances. This defence was rejected by the judge and so McKinney took up the defence that they only intended to rob him and not to kill him. McKinney was found guilty of felony murder and also received two life sentences without the possibility of parole.
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Murder and TrialOn October 6th 1998, Matthew Shepard met Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson at a bar called the Fireside Lounge in Wyoming, where the two men promised to give Shepard a ride home. Instead, they drove him to a remote location and proceeded to rob, beat and torture him over a series of hours before tying him to a post and leaving him to die. It was reported that McKinney and Henderson beat him so badly that his face was completely covered in blood. Shepard was discovered almost a day later by a man who initially mistook him for a scarecrow, he was in a coma but was still alive. He had suffered fractures to the back of his head which resulted in severe brainstem damage, there were also over a dozen wounds to the head, face and neck. Doctors declared that his injuries were too severe to operate on and put Shepard on life support, where he never regained consciousness and died on October 12 1998 surrounded by his family. This led to the Angel Action being founded in April 1999
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AftermathMatthew's funeral was attended by over 1000 people, including members of the Westboro Baptist Church who went to Shepard's funeral baring homophobic signs with slogans written on them such as "Matt in Hell" and "AIDS cures fags". The Church also made appearances at the trials of McKinney and Henderson with anti gay protests outside the courthouse. Friends of Matthew organised a group of people to dress up like angels and surround the Westboro Baptist Church and blocked the protesters. Shepard's murder sparked a lot of outrage for the lack of legislation addressing hate crimes. The federal law at the time in Wyoming did not consider a crime committed on the basis of sexual orientation as a hate crime. Shepard's friends were contacting the media and members of parliament saying that he was attacked because he was gay and wanted to make that fact clear to everyone. The crime attracted a lot of public attention long after the trial was concluded, with the story being featured on television shows such as 20/20 and countless magazine articles covering the crime. His mother Judy Shepard has since become a well known advocate for LGBT rights relating to gay youth, and was the main force behind the Matthew Shepard Foundation.
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