Search Salon

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Recently in Salon News

Mountain road
When J.H. Hatfield fled New York's media frenzy last week, he made his way back home to the Ozarks, where a man's mistakes are his own damn business.
By Suzi Parker
[10/25/99]

Not standing Pat
Buchanan revamps his presidential campaign and image by joining the Reform Party and making "racial reconciliation" a pet issue. But just how warm and fuzzy can the new Pat be?
By Jake Tapper
[10/25/99]

Viva Iowa
Though the state's Latino population makes up less than 2 percent of its voters, the Bush campaign is wooing Iowa Hispanics.
By Anthony York
[10/25/99]

The odd couple
Strange things went down this weekend when Christian firebrand Jerry Falwell and gay religious leader Mel White brought their followers together for a love fest.
By Deb Schwartz
[10/25/99]

Pete Rose steals the show
As baseball honors the team of the century at the World Series, the all-time hits leader banned for gambling proves he can't be exiled forever.
By Steve Kettmann
[10/25/99]

Complete archives for News

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Rerucha broke down the beating into three distinct phases: one in the truck, a second around the time Henderson tied Shepard to the fence and a final series of blows Rerucha says prove McKinney's intent to kill -- which is key to obtaining a first-degree murder conviction. According to Rerucha, McKinney admitted in his confession to police that his chief concern toward the end of the episode was whether Shepard could identify him. He was unsure if Shepard bought his story that he was visiting from California, and the crucial question was whether Shepard could still see well enough to read his license plate. He asked Shepard if he could read the plate, and when he did so successfully, McKinney raised his .357 Magnum again, said Rerucha, and "looks down at Matthew Shepard defenseless ... and strikes him as hard as he can in the head. Once ... twice ... three times ... He knows in his own mind Matthew Shepard is dead or will soon be dead."

Tangeman said McKinney only intended to knock Shepard out. The lawyer repeated over and over again through his 30-minute statement that McKinney told police, "I didn't mean to kill him." He promised to play the audiotape of the confession for jurors to demonstrate the sincerity in McKinney's voice.

Wyoming law allows for several possible avenues to the death penalty in this case. If the prosecution can demonstrate "specific intent" to kill Shepard, the jury would be required to deliver a first-degree verdict. The defense will attempt to refute that intent three ways: directly arguing that he only thought he was knocking Shepard out; using the "gay panic" implication that McKinney lost the ability to reason out intent and acted "in the heat of passion"; and invoking Wyoming's diminished-capacity clause to argue that drugs and alcohol left McKinney incapable of that judgment.

In a lengthy and complex set of instructions presented to the jury, Judge Barton Voight explained that if it finds McKinney was so highly intoxicated that he was incapable of such specific intent, it would have to reduce the verdict to second-degree murder or manslaughter, unless the first-degree charge was satisfied in another way. Under Wyoming law, that other way could be as simple as Shepard dying as a result of another felony, such as aggravated robbery or kidnapping. But those felonies also require a sound enough mind for specific intent.

Tangeman hammered most insistently on phrases echoing the manslaughter definition of "sudden heat of passion" read by Judge Voight earlier. "Five minutes of emotional rage and chaos," Tangeman repeated like a mantra. He ended his presentation by calling on the jury to convict his client of manslaughter. Shepard did not deserve to die for his advance, he said, but McKinney was still not guilty of murder.
salon.com | Oct. 26, 1999

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

  Get a printer-friendly version

  E-mail a friend about this article

  Backflip this article to find it again

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Search Salon