Gay Panic Defense is No Longer Legal in NY But It was in 2013} Used On A Murder of A Trans Woman

For me to wound you or kill you and then turn around and tell the jury or the judge that it was your fault because you are gay, is a slap in the face of anything decent and fair. These killers got away with murder by having their sentences drastically reduced because you are gay and have awakened the killer gay inside me. On the murder of Matthew Shepard that was part of one of the defendants in the case.  Adam

             

                 

Islan Nettles and a friend were walking home in New York City just after midnight on August 17, 2013, when she ran into James Dixon and a group of young men. The two began flirting — Dixon told police he didn’t remember that — before one of Dixon’s buddies shouted, “That’s a man.” Nettles, 21, was a trans woman. A scuffle ensued — Dixon newly claimed in an interview with VICE News that he “fell” —  and Dixon punched Nettles, then drove her head into the pavement. She was in a coma for three days before being taken off life support. The killing became a high-profile case involving a “gay and trans panic defense,” a legal strategy that, in part, blames the victim’s sexual orientation for the crime. New York just banned it last month, but it remains legal in 42 states. “Lawmakers have to understand that this is a defense that devalues the lives of LGBTQ+ people,” Seth Rosen, director of development of the National LGBT Bar Association, told VICE News. “It only promotes stigma.” Watch our segment, which originally aired on VICE News Tonight on HBO.