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Down in the trenches
Donna Brazile, the new manager of Al Gore's presidential campaign, has a reputation as a tenacious political attack dog.
By Keith Moore
[10/11/99]

No light in his attic
For the tragic impact a "progressive," PC education has on minority students of great promise, look at the sad case of Harvard's Cornel West.
By David Horowitz
[10/11/99]

America's first gay president
President Clinton mixes with drag queens and Matthew Shepard's mom at a big New York gay pride bash.
By Sara Douglas Hart
[10/09/99]

Puffy and the pontiff
A worldwide movement to wipe out debt for poor countries is getting some star-studded support this weekend.
By David Moberg
[10/09/99]

Lost and found
Why America's 80 million-strong Generation X may be losing its religion but finding its soul.
By Holly J. Lebowitz
[10/09/99]

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It seems clear now that the prosecution will seek the death penalty, the defense will admit McKinney beat Shepard but argue his judgment was impaired by drugs and alcohol, the defense and prosecution will clash over the admissibility of the graphic autopsy photos and the trial will run longer than anticipated, probably five weeks.

Outside the hearing room Monday morning, gay rights protesters dressed like angels clashed with the Rev. Fred Phelps in a rematch of their showdown at Shepard killer Russell Henderson's trial last April. Once again the angels bested Phelps, with the protection of Laramie police.

The autopsy photos could turn out to be a crucial battle. Prosecutor Cal Rerucha asked potential jurors if they could stomach the grisly photos of Shepard, who was discovered beaten and nailed to a fence, barely alive, in a freezing field outside Laramie. "They are not pretty; murder is never pretty," Rerucha said. "But in order to be a good juror, you have to examine those photos."

At that point, three women raised their hands asking to be excused.

Defense attorney Dion Custis will likely challenge the use of those photos on the basis that they will inflame the jury. After sitting silent almost the entire morning session, he suggested that a combination of charts and drawings would suffice.

"We don't believe the pictures are even an issue here," he said. "We don't even think they're necessary."

The word gay only came up once during the morning session, when Rerucha asked panelists if they could put aside their feelings from the enormous pre-trial publicity. He said everyone would have to transcend their own identities, regardless of whether they were Christian or Muslim, straight or gay.

In the afternoon session, Custis said he would not try to prove McKinney is innocent, but would show that his judgment was clouded by drugs and alcohol. "We're not going to contest the cause of death or that he died as a result of a beating from Aaron McKinney along with Russell Henderson," Custis said. Though he does not plan to argue that McKinney was insane, he said "his mental state will certainly be a crucial question for you to answer."

There had already been indications that the defense might not challenge the basic facts of the case, but would attempt to avoid the death penalty with some sort of diminished mental capacity defense. They may argue that McKinney was intoxicated, temporarily insane or suffering from so-called "sex panic" as the result of an alleged pass by Shepard -- the defense strategy that proved effective in the Jenny Jones show murder case.

On Aug. 13, Rerucha filed a motion with the court stating: "Based upon communication from defense counsel dated August 10 asking the Albany County Detention Center to administer medication commonly prescribed for psychotic, schizophrenic, depressive and hyperactive disorders, the state can only speculate that Mr. McKinney's mental health will be an issue of mitigation in this case."

Rerucha's questions on Monday showed that he continues to anticipate that defense. Many of his questions to tentative jurors revolved around their comfort level with psychiatry and psychology. At one point he asked them whether they considered the field more of an art or a science.

Next page | It worked in the Jenny Jones case