Killer Of Transwoman Gets Just Five Years For The Crime

by: Autumn Sandeen

Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 04:00:00 AM EDT

I suppose I should feel grateful any sentence was imposed at all.

Since a panic defense was raised, I suppose Kathy, our transgender peers, and I should feel grateful that Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart didn't, in this bench trial, acquit the now convicted killer.

Inside his car, Oates discovered that King, a biological male who dressed like a woman, had a penis.

He then shot King twice near Bott and Kerbaugh streets in Nicetown about 6 a.m.

Oates was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and weapons offenses in August by Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart after a nonjury trial. The judge yesterday also sentenced Oates, an Olney man who had no prior record, to five years' probation following his prison sentence.

The judge had acquitted Oates of murder.

At the trial, Feeney, who sought a murder conviction, had passionately argued that malice was behind the shooting, according to the Philadelphia Gay News, which covered the trial.

Defense attorney Brian McMonagle had contended that the shooting occurred during "pandemonium" in the car after Oates felt King's penis, after the two struggled for Oates' gun and after King moved toward Oates, according to the newspaper's report.

Oates told police in a statement that he didn't realize King was a man until King grabbed Oates' hand and placed it on King's penis.

To add insult to injury, Alexis King's murder is listed on the Philadelphia Homicide Victims in 2006 as "Brandon King":

At least the Philadelphia Gay News article wasn't prefaced with an offensive headline -- like the article on the sentencing was by the Philadelphia Daily News:  

5 years in jail for killing a woman who wasn't

[Below the fold: Filling out the story from the Philadelphia Gay News; as well as information on California's Gwen Araujo Justice For Victims Act that addresses defendents using "gay panic" or "trans panic" defenses.]

During Oates' bench trial in August, Feeney argued for a first-degree murder conviction for Oates or, in the alternative, a third-degree murder conviction.

She said malice was behind the killing.

Instead, Minehart convicted Oates of voluntary manslaughter, without giving an explanation for his ruling.

Here in California, AB 1160, The Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act was sent to the legislature in 2006 to address gay panic/trans panic defenses. Equality California described  what the bill, Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act, submitted by Assemblymember Sally J. Lieber (D-San Jose), would do if passed:

AB 1160 would amend jury instructions to state that the use of societal bias, including so-called "panic strategies," to influence the proceedings of a criminal trial is not permitted. It would also direct the Office of Emergency Services to develop materials for city and county prosecutors explaining how to prevent bias from affecting the outcome of a trial.  This legislation is named in the memory of a transgender teenager from Newark, California, who was attacked and killed in 2002.

The bill was passed by California Legislature in August, 2006, signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger that September, and became law on January 1st, 2007.

Kristina Wertz of the Transgender Law Center confirmed for me how that law effects panic defenses here in my home state:

AB 1160, the Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act was crafted to address the use of "panic strategies" whereby criminal defendants claiming that they "panicked" upon discovering a victim's gender identity.  The law allows for a jury instruction telling jurors not to allow bias based on gender identity (or other protected characteristics) to influence their decision and also directs the Office of Emergency Services to create training materials for district attorneys on best practices to address the use of bias-motivated defense strategies in criminal trials.

Here in California, I remember the sentencing of Estanislao Martinez -- the killer of transgender woman Joel Robles. Martinez received a four year sentence for the killing: the prosecutors on the case accepted plea in face of 'trans panic' defense. I talked to Chris Daley -- the past Executive Director of the Transgender Law Center about the Joel Robles sentencing. Along with the much more public Gwen Araujo defendants employment of a "panic defense" in an attempt to lessen their culpability, the incredibly short sentence received by Joel Robles' killer were the reasons AB 1160 was conceived.

Heaven forbid one of my peers or I were to be the victim of a killing here in San Diego for being trans as Alexis King apparently was in Philadelphia. But, if one of my peers or I were to be a victim of a killing, I would hope that the changes to California law brought by AB 1160 would successfully limit the opportunity for a "panic defense" to be successful. I would like to think that being transgender in any situation is not a reason for my peers and my lives to be criminally devalued in my home state; I would like to think that being transgender is a reason for a death sentence -- a death sentence for which the killer only would spend a few years in a penitentiary.

What I'm not confident in is that the mainstream media in my hometown would respect my M2F peers or my gender identity in any coverage of a hate crime against us. Would they call a trans women victim a man? Would they report the story using the previous male name or report the story using the current female name? Would they use a headline that would say a crime victime wasn't a real woman? Again, I'm not confident my local, mainstream media outlets would report a story on a trans woman using GLAAD's or the Associated Press's media guides.

One more thing: Kathy also wrote this to me in her e-letter:

[Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart] was endorsed by the LGBT groups - he needs to be held accountable when up for reelection. And we must abolish of the trans & gay panic defenses.

Amen to both of those sentiments, Kathy, amen to that.

~~~~~
Further reading:
* Shooter of trans woman convicted of voluntary manslaughter

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