Questioning Transphobia

There are many reports from various sources (Vivir Latino, Dallas Voice and others) about this horrific murder:

The suspect in the brutal slaying of a gay teenager in Puerto Rico was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder and four other counts, the prosecutor in the case told CNN.

Juan A. Martinez Matos was arrested late Monday in connection with the slaying of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, whose decapitated, dismembered and partially burned body was found Friday afternoon on a road in central Puerto Rico.

(Via CNN)

The usual media misgendering seems to be at play here, making it hard to unpick the reports, but several sources point out that:

Martinez Matos was “looking for women” in a red light district last Friday. He had already been turned down several times, but Lopez Mercado, wearing a blue dress and boots, agreed to get in his car.

District Attorney Jose J. Bermudez says that in his confession, Martinez Matos said that he thought Lopez Mercado was a woman.

(From 365gay.com via translation of a report in El Nuevo Dia)

Which makes me wonder if the victim may have been a transgender woman, despite the majority of the reports I’ve read referring to a “gay teen” and using male pronouns and a name which may well have been the name in hir legal documentation, but perhaps may not have been the name ze always went by. Regardless, it’s hard not to see it as a blatant and cynical attempt by the accused to lay the foundations for either a gay panic or trans panic defense at his trial.

But it seems the victim-blaming isn’t restricted to just the accused and the media. The local Police Department clearly also has its share of bigots:

The Puerto Rico Police Department has removed Investigator Angel Rodriguez from the case after Rodriguez made comments suggesting that Lopez was to blame for his own death, according to Edge.

“When these type of people get into this and go out into the streets like this, they know this can happen to them,” Rodriguez reportedly said in a statement to local media outlets.

(From EDGE United States via Dallas Voice)

As regards the hate crime aspect:

Puerto Rico Para Tod@s, the LGBT advocacy group [...] is calling on police to investigate the case as an anti-gay hate crime. Although Puerto Rico added sexual orientation to its hate crimes statute in 2002, Para Tod@s says the statute hasn’t been used to prosecute anti-gay violence. The FBI has announced it will take jurisdiction over the case if it’s determined that Lopez was killed because he was gay.

(From EDGE United States via Dallas Voice)

And if it’s determined that ze was killed because ze was trans? I wonder if the hate crime legislation takes account of that possibility.

Anyway. I’d like to close with the words of Bob McCranie, one of the organisers of a candlelight vigil planned for this Sunday:

“A teenager has been burnt and butchered in the streets, and all we can talk about is how many lies are in Sarah Palin’s book, and why Obama bowed to the Japanese prime minister. It is outrageous and unacceptable.”

(Via Dallas Voice)

Amen to that.

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Curtsey to Stefani for the heads up

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Cross-posted at Bird of Paradox

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, was passed by the U.S. Congress on October 22, 2009 and signed into law by President Barack Obama yesterday (October 28, 2009). It aims to expand the existing (1969) federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

Via The Equal Rights Trust

The Act makes three key provisions:

Section 4707 amends United States Code Title 18, section 249, to include actual or perceived gender, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity in the list of hate crimes punishable under federal law.

Section 4704 (a) provides for the Attorney General – at the request of a state or local law enforcement agency – to provide ‘technical, forensic, prosecutorial or any other form of assistance’ in the investigation or prosecution of a hate crime. Section 4704 (b) provides for the Attorney General to make grants for extraordinary expenses associated with the investigation or prosecution of a hate crime.

Section 4706 provides for the appropriation of additional personnel to assist state authorities or local law enforcement agencies to prevent and respond to violations of section 249.

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Cross-posted at Bird of Paradox

Via Associated Press:

NY man gets 25 years for transgender hate killing

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — An upstate New York man has been sentenced to the maximum 25 years in prison for the hate crime killing of a transgender woman.

Dwight DeLee was found guilty of manslaughter last month for shooting Lateisha (lah-TEE’-shuh) Green because of anti-gay bias. The 20-year-old construction laborer is just the second person in the nation convicted of a hate crime for killing a transgender victim. He was sentenced Tuesday in Syracuse by Judge William Walsh.

[...]

DeLee was acquitted of murder. The manslaughter conviction means he intended to injure, not kill, someone when he fired into a car where Green was sitting with her brother and a friend.

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Cross-posted at Bird of Paradox

TLDEF reports via Twitter that Dwight R. DeLee has been found guilty of first degree manslaughter as a hate crime.

More later.

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ETA: Associated Press has this to say (via)

NY man guilty of hate crime in transgender slaying
(AP) – 34 minutes ago

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A jury in upstate New York has convicted a man of a hate crime for killing a transgender woman.

Dwight DeLee was found guilty of manslaughter for the fatal shooting of 22-year-old Lateisha (lah-TEE’-shuh) Green outside a Syracuse house party in November because of anti-gay bias. The jury delivered its verdict after deliberating for about six hours over two days.

DeLee faces additional prison time because he was convicted of a hate crime. He becomes just the second person in the U.S. convicted of a hate crime that involved a transgender victim.

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Further ETA: First, it must be said that Teish’s family are on record as being satisfied with the verdict. I fully accept and respect their views on the matter, and send my condolences to the family.

In the statement released by her family, they say:

The jury convicted Dwight Delee of murdering Teish in cold blood. They found him guilty of targeting Teish simply because of her difference. And the jury has made it clear that any loss of life in our city and county because of anti-gay and anti-transgender bias is unacceptable and wrong. justice has been done.

(Via GLAAD, link here)

But I have to say that – personally – I’m disappointed that the legal process reduced the charge from second-degree murder to manslaughter in the first degree. In passing, the DA’s office is to be commended for proceeding with the hate crime charge, despite challenges by Mr Delee’s lawyers.

Also, although the case is notable for being the first hate crime conviction for the death of a trans person in New York, the current state of the legislation in NY includes real or perceived sexual orientation – but excludes gender identity. Meaning that Mr Delee was found guilty of a hate crime based on his perception of Lateisha Green’s sexual orientation – not her gender identity. And as we know, Mr Delee considered Teish to be a gay man, and not a trans woman.

In my opinion, this is a glaring omission in NY’s hate crime legislation, and one which I hope will be remedied as quickly as possible.

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Cross-posted at Bird of Paradox

In advance of the trial next week of Dwight R. DeLee for the murder of Lateisha Green, the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF) has produced an online Resource Kit. Although intended primarily for use by the media, it makes interesting reading for anyone with an interest in the case.

Due to this landmark case’s complexities and its significance for LGBT people, it is of utmost importance that media coverage of Lateisha’s tragic death be inclusive, accurate, and respectful of a community that is too often targeted for harassment and violence.

(Via)

The Resource Kit is in a total of four sections:

• The Lateisha Green Murder: Violence Against Transgender People Resource Kit (link here)
• The Lateisha Green Story (link here)
• Media Resources for Covering Hate Crimes (link here)
• Appendix: Hate Crime Laws (link here)

As regards the trial itself, TLDEF says it will be posting daily updates on its website (link to TLDEF website), as well as live Tweeting from the courtroom (link to TLDEF on Twitter). Finally, the Justice for Teish Green Facebook page will also be updated regularly (link here).

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Cross-posted at Bird of Paradox

Monday (July 13) sees the start of the trial of Dwight R. DeLee, who is charged with second-degree murder in connection with the shooting last November 14, 2008, of Latiesha “Teish” Green.

Ms Green and her brother, Mark Cannon, were shot with a rifle as they sat in a parked car. The bullet grazed the left arm of Mark Cannon, who was in the driver’s seat, and hit Ms Green in the chest.

From the start, Ms Green’s family pressed for her death to be treated as a hate crime, and the court case – which will be held in Syracuse, NY – will be tried as such, although the prosecution contends the victim was targeted because of sexual orientation. Ms Green’s sister, Shaconia Williams, said Ms Green called herself a transsexual woman.

Speaking in Cnylink Local News (link here), Roxanne Green, Teish’s mother, acknowledged that the spotlight has been hard for her at times.

“It’s bad enough to live with families that don’t approve,” said Roxanne Green. “I never expected a gay son and I have two. It needs to stop. They hurt and I hurt. I have a boy living with me now because he can’t go home. For these kids to fear school! Teish had to go to school late and leave school early. That was the school’s idea of helping! It made Teish angry. She wanted to go when everyone else did.”

[...]

“I relive a lot of things,” she said. “[She] really took something precious. I lost a mother when I was nine and that hurt. Losing a child is a whole different hurt.”

But Mary Alice Smothers [of the Wyoming St. P.E.A.C.E. office] doesn’t see this as different from other fights over the years.

“It’s always about the youth,” she said. “It’s always about empowering them to be able to speak and have their voice. We let adultism get in the way. They know where they want to go. As parents, we know we raised them on the right track and we have to let them.”

Gina Morvay has created a Facebook page to act as both a memorial for Ms Green and a clearing house for information about the trial. Here’s the link.

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Cross-posted at Bird of Paradox

Via the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (link here), this report demonstrates only too well that transphobia and hate crimes know no age limits:

A group of teens beat a transgender person and threatened to kill her Saturday on Rainier Avenue, according to Seattle police.

[...]

A teenage boy was arrested and booked into the Youth Service Center for investigation of robbery and felony malicious harassment, the state’s hate crime law, according to police.

The teen told police he and his “homies” did not bother the victim until she solicited him for sex.

The usual assumption that all and any trans women are sex workers. This allegation doesn’t appear to have been proved anywhere but is still included in the police report as well as the media’s coverage.

The assault happened about 4:40 p.m. Saturday. When police arrived, several witnessed flagged them down, saying the suspects fled on a Metro bus.

Police stopped the coach near Rainier and South Andover Street. When the bus stopped, the teen who was arrested fled and was identified by a witness, police said.

Good that the police took prompt action. Bad that Officer Wayne Johnson’s report misgendered her so comprehensively:

The victim, in her 30s, told police “that as soon as the suspects got to him [sic], they started hitting and kicking him [sic] at the same time one of the (suspects) was attempting to take his [sic] backpack,” according to a police report.

The victim held onto her backpack and briefly got away. But she told police they charged again, knocking her to the ground. She said she heard a homophobic term said when she was being beaten, and one of the boys stated they were going to kill her.

“He [sic] also stated that he [sic] sometimes wears a skirt and he [sic] stated that he [sic] believes he [sic] was attacked because of this,” according to the heavily redacted report.

The victim did not suffer life-threatening injuries and declined medical attention at the scene.

The boy arrested, either 13 or 14, “was uncooperative in providing information regarding the identities of the other suspects involved in the incident,” Officer Wayne Johnson wrote in his report.

Is it really a surprise that cis society is inculcating its children to be as transphobic as its parents, when authority figures such as the police are sending out such mixed messages? From Officer Johnson’s report, it’s hard not to conclude that he holds views every bit as transphobic as the youths who carried out the attack.

And, when the law enforcement officers themselves insist on misgendering us in their official reports, what recourse to law do we as individuals really have, in a world where transphobic violence is obviously spiralling out of control? This year alone we’ve already seen reports of transphobic hate crimes being carried out directly by the police (Honduras, Idaho, U.S), as well as other cases where our attackers are left free to roam the streets by the authorities (Turkey).

If we can’t trust the authorities who are empowered to protect us; if they themselves make it so obvious that they have as much hate for us as our attackers, then who can we trust to defend us?

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Curtsey to Stefani for the heads-up

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Cross-posted at Bird of Paradox

Last November 14, 2008, less than a week before the International Transgender Day of Remembrance, a cis man, Dwight R. DeLee, shot Teisha Cannon as she sat in a car with her brother Mark. Police charged Mr DeLee, of Syracuse, with second-degree murder in connection with the shooting.

Via the Post-Standard of November 17, 2008:

“There was no previous argument between these individuals, there was no previous fight, there was no bad blood,” [Syracuse police Chief Gary Miguel] said. “Our suspect took a rifle and shot and killed this person, also wounding [her] brother, for the sole reason he didn’t care for the sexual preference of our victim. Isn’t that sad? Isn’t that a sad situation that that’s the sole reason why?”

[...]

From the outset, Cannon’s family said his death should be treated as a hate crime.

Via the Post-Standard of June 4, 2008:

County Judge William Walsh today upheld the constitutionality of the state’s hate crime law in the murder prosecution of Dwight DeLee.

DeLee is charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime in the Nov. 14 shooting death of Moses Cannon. Cannon was described by [her] family as a transsexual who went by the name Latiesha “Teish” Green. The prosecution contends the victim was targeted because of sexual orientation.

Defense lawyer Clarence Johnson had asked Walsh to find the hate crime law unconstitutionally vague and general and unconstitutional in its specific application to DeLee.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Matthew Doran defended the statute and the prosecution of DeLee in court this morning.

After listening to the legal arguments, Walsh sided with the prosecution and allowed the case to go forward as a hate crime murder prosecution.

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Cross-posted at Bird of Paradox

The following verdicts were returned:

• Count 1: First degree murder – guilty
• Count 2: Bias motivated crime – guilty
• Count 3: Aggravated motor vehicle theft (1st degree) – guilty
• Count 4: ID theft – guilty

Sentencing for the first count: mandatory life without parole.
Sentencing on the remaining three counts will take place on May 8th at 3PM MST.

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(Cross-posted at Bird of Paradox)

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This morning’s session has focused on Judge Kopcow’s instructions to the jury, and a brief summing up of the cases for the defense, and for the prosecution.

Wednesday morning, April 22

• Judge Kopcow read the jury instructions to the jury
• Instruction 6 related to circumstantial evidence
• Instruction 14 related to culpability due to mental state. (Autumn Sandeen noted: This will come into play esp. with the bias crime charge – via http://twitter.com/justiceforangie)
• Instruction 15 covered elements for the count of first degree murder (F1 felony)
• Instruction 16 – on the four lesser included homicide charges
• Instruction 17 discussed second degree murder (F2 and F3 felonies). An F2 felony would be premeditated, whereas an F3 felony would apply if the jury decided that Angie had been murdered in the “heat of passion” – the trans panic defense
• Instruction 18 – the conditions required to meet the definition of bias motivated crime
• Instruction 20 – identity theft
• Instruction 21 concerned vehicle theft (Andrade was charged with stealing Angie’s PT Cruiser)
• Instruction 22 defined other terms specific to the trial and included “sexual orientation” – a catchall term which includes “transgender status”
• Prosecution’s closing statement. DA Rob Miller said that the case is about intent – Andrade’s intent – and added that some elements indicated a bias motivated crime, and others described first degree murder. DA Miller believed that neither manslaughter nor criminally negligent homicide would be appropriate verdicts.
   
  DA Miller believed that Angie Zapata was not murdered in the heat of the moment, and that Andrade had enough time to do what a reasonable person would have done, namely, to walk away and get out of that situation. Andrade should be found guilty on all charges.
• Annette Kundelius, the Defense Attorney, presented the closing argument, saying that what happened was nothing to do with sexual orientation (ie Angie’s gender identity) but because Andrade had been deceived and therefore did not commit a felony (F1, F2 or F3). Finding out that Angie had male genitalia was “sufficient provocation” (to commit manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide) and Andrade “just reacted”
• DA Miller’s rebuttal: An attack to the head and face with multiple blows indicates intent, not deception – “Is she supposed to wear a sign that she’s transgender?”
• Judge Kopcow issued Instruction 24 on the process of jury deliberation and how to complete the paperwork for the verdict
• The jury retired to deliberate

The possible convictions are: 1st degree murder; 2nd degree murder; 2nd degree murder/heat of passion/manslaughter; criminally negligent homicide.

Andrade has three prior felony convictions, with another two pending (for rioting in jail, and misdemeanor assault), spanning 12 years.

Angie Zapata’s family will issue a formal statement half-an-hour after the verdict is made known.

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(Cross-posted at Bird of Paradox)