Trial in Wyo. Gay Slaying To Begin

.c The Associated Press

3/24/99

By ROBERT W. BLACK

LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) -- Police patrols have been stepped up and makeshift fences have been erected at the sandstone courthouse for the trial of one of two men accused of murdering gay college student Matthew Shepard.

Jury selection was to start today in the trial of Russell Henderson, 21, accused of pistol-whipping Shepard, lashing him to a fence in Wyoming's high plains and then leaving him to die last fall.

Opening statements are scheduled for April 6.

Henderson and his co-defendant, Aaron McKinney, 21, both face the death penalty if convicted in a case that has become a central focus for gay rights activists and others seeking stronger bias crime legislation.

On Tuesday, Shepard's mother asked Congress and state legislatures to enact bias crime laws to deter future acts of violence.

``There is no guarantee that these laws will stop hate crimes from happening. But they can reduce them,'' Judy Shepard said at a news conference in Washington, D.C. ``They can help change the climate in this country, where some people feel it is okay to target specific groups of people and get away with it.''

Mrs. Shepard declined to discuss the trial, saying only that she and her husband ``want to allow justice to run its course.''

Authorities said Henderson and McKinney, both high-school dropouts, posed as homosexuals and lured the 5-foot-2, 105-pound Shepard out of a bar last October and then kidnapped and beat him. The political science major at the University of Wyoming died five days later at a hospital.

McKinney is scheduled to stand trial in August.

After the attack, Laramie found itself portrayed as a backwards, homophobic outpost of Wild West-style violence and small-mindedness.

Betty Hoover, a jury consultant based in Raleigh, N.C., said jurors may be eager to show that the people of Laramie, population 26,000, are progressive, law-abiding folks.

``If you've got a small town where nothing like this has ever happened, then they are definitely going to do their best to portray that they care,'' she said. ``They don't want the world to think that's the type of thing that happens in their town.''

City spokesman Randy Vickers said police have set up fences to keep news reporters and demonstrators at bay, and access to the Albany County Courthouse has been limited to one door, where two metal detectors have been installed.

The trial is expected to last five weeks.

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