Search

ARCHIVES
CONTACT US
WORLD NEWS

Even when we win, we lose

A year has passed since the homophobia driven murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyo., and sentences have been delivered for the four involved. Arguments hinged on why Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson killed Shepard: whether "gay panic" or a cold-blooded mentality fueled their rage. Our justice system is regressing, wallowing in rhetoric over reasons for murder.

Aaron McKinney received a sentence of two consecutive life terms, as did his accomplice, Russell Henderson on November 4, from District Judge Jeffrey Donnell. Additionally, McKinney's girlfriend, Kristen Price, was sentenced to 180 days in jail while Henderson's girlfriend Chasity Pasley will serve 15 months to two years, having pled guilty to an accessory charge.

Considering the facts in the case, most would have made the assumption that McKinney and Henderson would receive the death sentence. However, Matthew's parents, Judy and Dennis Shepard, decided not to press for the death sentence. Dennis Shepard, during the sentencing, said, "I would like nothing better than to see you die, Mr. McKinney. However, this is the time to begin the healing process. To show mercy to someone who refused to show any mercy. To use this as the first step in my closure about losing Matt."

What the Shepards have done is powerful. They came forward to say that another murder will not help. Obviously, many gay activist organizations would liked to have seen McKinney and Henderson die in the electric chair. Emotions run high in politically charged topics like hate crimes. Nevertheless, two things must be remembered.

First, the death penalty isn't effective as a deterrent. States in this country with the death penalty have higher crime rates, capital criminals rate life without parole as more frightening than the death penalty, and beyond that, the death penalty costs taxpayers far more than life without parole. If activists are truly concerned, they will push for life without parole for hate criminals. This is better for the community and allows criminals to make amends with the families and God.

Secondly, sentences for convicted murderers might come closer to reaching a standard. In the United States, there are more excuses drummed up by ingenious defense attorneys every year than a TI-83 calculator can compute. From the famed "Sugar Daddy" defense in which a woman's hypoglycemic reaction allegedly drove her to murder her husband to the "gay panic" defense that points to buried male defense mechanisms driving them to act violently against homosexuals; the law is being tainted. In each of the previous examples, the defendants have come away clean.

American legal processes need an upheaval. Initially, courtrooms were designed to seek the truth. If a man was guilty and his attorney realized as much, he would not trump up temporary insanity pleas to save him. Today, the goal is to get everyone off because they pay the bills. Temporary insanity is, in my humble opinion, totally invalid. I'm diabetic, but a hypoglycemic episode would never drive me to kill. I'm also a man, and, to my chagrin, I have been approached by a gay man. I simply said I wasn't gay and went on my way. I didn't pistol whip the guy and leave him strapped to a post to die.

Drugs, alcohol, stress, emotions and differences can drive us all to do stupid things. However, control is paramount in a democracy. When guns are easily bought and sold and there is little keeping one person from reaching another, bad things can happen. What the legal system needs to realize though, is that if the trigger is pulled or the blunt instrument hurled, it is not because of "temporary insanity." The murderer has made a choice, valuing the death of the victim as greater than his freedom.

Temporary insanity pleas should be outlawed everywhere in the United States. In Wyoming, thankfully, temporary insanity and diminished-capacity defenses are outlawed. Americans must learn to control their aggressions and better deal with the differences that any republic will breed. Placing all murderers in prison for life will better society and strengthen the legal system. We should not allow any crime, hate crime or otherwise, to go undisciplined because of legal games.