By MEAD GRUVER | Associated Press
LARAMIE, Wyo. — When two roofing workers beat a young gay man and left him to die in Wyoming, the gruesome crime quickly reverberated around the U.S. and turned the college student into a powerful symbol of the quest for acceptance and equal rights.
Two decades after Matthew Shepard was bludgeoned, tied to a rail fence and left to die on the cold high prairie, the emotions stirred up by his slaying linger in Wyoming, which still struggles with its tarnished identity and resists changes sought by the LGBTQ community.
Wyoming remains “deeply defensive” about the idea that Shepard was targeted because he was gay, said Sara Burlingame, executive director of the Cheyenne-based LGBTQ advocacy group Wyoming Equality. As recently as Tuesday, days before the anniversary of Shepard’s death, about 200 people attended a forum in Laramie questioning the prevailing view that he was murdered because of his sexual orientation.
Wyoming remains hesitant to adopt policies to counter anti-gay bias and violence. It is among just five states — along with Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana and South Carolina — that have not passed laws focused on crimes motivated by the victim’s identity, such as their sexual orientation.
One of the convicted killers, Russell Henderson, now 41, said the U.S. should have laws that protect everyone, no matter who they are.
“As tragic as it is, and as unfortunate as it is, and as hard as it is for Matthew’s family, and for my family, for all of us, to go through, it opened up all of us to be better people and really think about who we are,” Henderson said of Shepard’s death in a prison interview Tuesday with The Associated Press.
Still, he insisted, neither he nor Aaron McKinney was motivated by anti-gay hatred when they offered Shepard a ride home from a bar. Instead, he said, they were out to rob him of money and possibly drugs when they drove him to the edge of town on the night of Oct. 6, 1998.
McKinney and Henderson are each serving two consecutive life sentences.
Henderson described himself as a follower of others, including the more charismatic McKinney, and said he was afraid to lose face by doing more to prevent the crime or just going home.
As Henderson drove, McKinney began pistol-whipping Shepard and took his wallet. Henderson tied Shepard to the fence after McKinney told him to do it, he said. Then they left Shepard in the frigid darkness.
The next day, a mountain biker found him, at first mistaking him for a scarecrow. Shepard died less than a week later, on Oct. 12, 1998, at age 21. His parents, Dennis and Judy Shepard, declined to comment for this story.
The killers’ girlfriends — Chasity Vera Pasley, 20, and Kristen Leann Price, 18 — were charged with being accessories after the fact. Police said the women helped dump bloody clothing and initially lied about their whereabouts. Pasley, Henderson’s girlfriend, was sentenced to 18 months, of which she served 6 months. Price was sentenced to 180 days, of which she served 60 days. At the time of the killing, McKinney and Price were parents of an infant son.
Henderson’s remarks about the motivation for the beating don’t change the facts of the case, which include McKinney’s confession to police, said Jason Marsden, executive director of the Denver-based Matthew Shepard Foundation.
McKinney repeatedly used homosexual slurs in his confession, Marsden said. McKinney’s lawyers also wanted to argue that Shepard caused McKinney to explode in a rage by putting his hand on McKinney’s leg. The judge prohibited the “gay panic” defense.
Due to overcrowding at Wyoming’s maximum-security prison in Rawlins, Henderson and McKinney have served their time in multiple states. McKinney is now in a Mississippi prison and not agreeing to interview requests, according to the Wyoming Department of Corrections.
Henderson, who pleaded guilty to avoid a possible death sentence, is serving his time at a medium-security prison in Torrington, a quiet farming-and-ranching town a few miles from the Nebraska line. He helps imprisoned hospice patients and trains shelter dogs so they can be adopted.
“I think about Matthew every single day of my life. I think about him and every single one of those days that I’ve had that he hasn’t had, his family hasn’t had, his friends haven’t had. I’m so, so ashamed I was ever part of this,” Henderson said.
One gay rights activist argues that Henderson has paid his dues for what he described as being “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“I think he has atoned. I think he has a contribution to make to society,” said Malcolm Lazin, executive director of the Philadelphia-based LGBT group Equality Forum and a former federal prosecutor.
Marsden pointed out that only Wyoming’s governor could commute Henderson’s sentence, a prospect that he called “super unlikely.” Burlingame of the Wyoming Equality group said she believes in redemption but doubts Henderson has really atoned for the crime.
She said her organization will continue its “unapologetic advocacy,” reaching out to churches, businesses, legislators and regular citizens about their policies and attitudes.
“For the last 20 years, the work of Wyoming Equality has really been this race, that we want to get to every LGBT person out there,” Burlingame said. “But we’re also trying to get to the next Aarons and the next Russells.”
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Associated Press Writer Brady McCombs contributed to this report.
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Where Matthew Shepard was left, near the intersection of Pilot Peak and Snowy View roads, Laramie, Wyo.
