First ever application of federal hate crime law re: trans
Josh Vallum, a highly placed member of the Latin Kings street gang, pleaded guilty yesterday in the first ever federal hate crime charge filed against the killer of a transgender person.
Vallum, 29, admitted he stabbed and beat to death Mercedes Williamson, 17, because she was transgender. Until now, Vallum had consistently denied killing her because of gender identity.
Vallum entered the plea before U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. He is facing a sentence of life without parole and up to a $250,000 fine at his March 21 sentencing.
The prosecution is the first in U.S. history under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act for targeting a transgender victim. Allen Andrade was convicted of first degree murder and bias-motivated crime in Colorado for killing transgender teen Andie Zapata in 2009, but that was application of a state hate crime statute.
Vallum is already serving a life sentence with parole on a state charge of murder by deliberate design in the case. Vallum claimed he entered the plea to avoid putting his fellow Latin Kings through more than they had already been through.
Jackson County District Attorney Tony Lawrence said he believes Vallum entered the plea in the state case because of a trove of gay pornography found on his cellphone.
Prosecutors believe Vallum killed Williamson to cover up his sexual relationship with her. Williamson’s friends said she had openly talked about how she and Vallum would be killed if his fellow Latin Kings street gang members found out about his homosexual activity.
Latin Kings bylaws strictly prohibit homosexual activity.
In an exclusive jailhouse interview in July, Vallum said he thought Williamson was a virgin. He said he didn’t know until he went to have sexual intercourse with her the day of the May 30, 2015, murder.
Vallum said he hit Williamson with a stun gun, stabbed her repeatedly with a 75th Regiment military knife and beat her over the head with a claw hammer until her screaming stopped. Afterward, he covered her body with some debris and buried her body on his father’s property.
Williamson, he said, begged for her life.
While in jail Vallum attempted to hang himself with a bedsheet. He wrote a suicide note, addressing his fellow gang members:
To my Nation and my brothers and sisters, it will always be Amor de Rey y Reina y Corona (meaning Love King and Queen and Crown)! I just can’t take this anymore. I see her face and hear her voice.
Her spirit is screaming for revenge. I’m living a nightmare. It’s like a horror movie. I killed her and now she’s not gonna stop until she has killed me. I love all of you. I’m so sorry.
Comments
Not No. 1
I’m sorry, but I am tired of your efforts to elevate this issue far beyond the importance that I feel it warrants over all of the other issues facing our nation and world at this time. I absolutely believe that people should not be discriminated against for their sexual preferences or gender identity. However, this feels to me like another niche, identity politics issue being pushed by the PTB to divide and distract us from more important economic fairness issues that affect everyone, not just those that sort of dress as the opposite gender and want to use a different bathroom.
You labor tirelessly to have your diaries top the daily list, and the paucity of comments you get is a pretty decent indicator of the importance of these issues to the vast majority of the progressives on this site. Are transgender bathroom and discrimination issues really more important than an exploding homelessness crisis, gross wealth inequality, the lack of affordable healthcare for the vast majority of Americans, and the military misadventures around the world that kill millions of people? I think not.
It needed to be said.
No, it didn't need to be said
You've shown yourself to be completely without understanding of the damage -- economic, physical, spiritual, emotional -- done daily to trans people, who just want to live their lives.
Please don't do this again. If you don't want to read what she writes, that's your prerogative, but don't speak for the rest of us.
There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka
That was not only uncalled for, it was improper. firstly, you
aren't the arbiter of anything. This:
is just egism. If you think the issue is trivial, then ignore it, but don't attack those who think it is important.
You also do not speak for
, you speak only for yourself.
Because people disregard and downplay, for whatever reason, issues such as these is precisely the reason why people like Robyn must labor tirelessly to keep them in the public eye. She provides a vital public service, both for the trans community, and for all of the rest of us as well.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Don't know who you are, Bring Back Civics, but to equate Robyn's
concern with how transgender people are being treated as "identity politics issue being pushed by the PTB," is just ignorant and narrow-minded.
We have issues more important than human rights? What issues would those be? Fracking--which poisons the water and land for PEOPLE. Multi-national insurance and pharmaceutical companies ripping everyone off-- which impoverishes and kills poor/working class PEOPLE. Banking deregulation which allows Wall Street to suck up all the public funds, so working PEOPLE are pushed further back into poverty.
ALL issues come back to THE PEOPLE, AND THE PEOPLE'S RIGHTS.
When you're ready to dismiss the transgender people- or the lesbian and gay people- or the native and hispanic people--YOU ARE READY TO DISMISS ALL OF US as having any say in our government.
Thanks for your work, Robyn
Robyn, your writings are a window allowing us to peer through and see things that may be unpalatable for some, harder yet for some to comprehend. I know this, as it's been tough for me personally. Whether it's attempts to stop two people of different races from marrying, trying to stop people of the same sex from loving each other, or refusing a business transaction due to a gender issue - it's still wrong and is certainly should not be a function of our government. As we all know, changing ingrained prejudices can be a long road. Still, you have to try. I appreciate that you do.
I don't catch everything you write, but most. Please do continue.
Thanks, Robyn, it is good to see you posting these here.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --