Reuters

March 22, 1999

First trial in gay student's Wyo. murder to open Wednesday

By Kerry Drake, REUTERS

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - The first of two men accused in the murder of a gay college student is scheduled to go on trial Wednesday in a case that has put the national spotlight on hate crimes.

Russell Henderson, 21, faces first-degree-murder charges in the torture killing last October of Matthew Shepard, who police say was lured from a Laramie, Wyo., bar, pistol-whipped, and then left lashed to a fence in near- freezing temperatures. He died five days later in a hospital.

Prosecutors have also charged Henderson and his friend Aaron McKinney with first-degree kidnapping and aggravated robbery. McKinney is scheduled to go on trial in August. Prosecutors have asked for the death penalty for both men, who are being held in a Wyoming jail.

Jury selection in the highly charged case is expected to take up to two weeks, with opening statements tentatively set for April 6. Jurors will be sequestered during the trial in the hope of shielding them from demonstrations in front of the courthouse in Laramie.

Antigay activists have said that they will be on hand to demonstrate, and gay activists are expected to attend the trial along with Shepard's mother, Judy.

The population in Albany County, from among which jurors will be selected, is fairly young because it is home to the University of Wyoming, said Philip Anthony of DecisionQuest, which advises attorneys on juries and is based in Los Angeles. Shepard, who was 21, was a student at the university. Because the community of Albany County is small - 30,000 - special

pressure will be on jurors, who will not be able to go home after the trial and disappear, Anthony said. Jurors "are going to eventually have to go back to their community and justify their verdict," he said.

He also said that a good deal of the questioning of prospective jurors in the Shepard murder will focus on their attitudes toward homosexuals. Potential jurors will be asked if they are open-minded about gays.

Wyoming recently rejected attempts to pass a bias-crime law - for the fifth time in recent years - that would have made discrimination against gays and lesbians illegal. The latest attempt in February failed to pass the Wyoming legislature by a 30-30 vote after three days of debate.

McKinney's girlfriend, Kristen Price, told police that McKinney became enraged after Shepard flirted with him. But McKinney has denied that Shepard made any advances.

Price and Henderson's girlfriend, Chasity Pasley, were charged as accessories after the fact for allegedly destroying bloody clothes and providing the two men with false alibis. Pasley has pleaded guilty, and will be sentenced later this year. Price's trial is set for May.

Gay-rights groups have expressed concern over the possible use of a "gay-panic" defense, in which a straight man claims he was driven to violence by an unwanted advance.

"There is some suspicion that might happen," a spokeswoman for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation, Cathy Renna, said.