quite a lot of activity in this thread while I was ummm.... watching TV last night.
First off, I have a bit of a problem with the insinuation that Andrade will get raped in prison and deserve it. Maybe he does deserve it. But I don't think that we should want that for him, no matter how much he hurts anyone of us, no matter what he did. Not to get argumentative about it, mostly just because I don't want to, but I see that as stooping to the level of hatred for the other. I think we're all better than that. Feel free to disagree, but that's my two cents.
@Tekla: I think we're very lucky he wasn't judged under Sharia law-- he probably wouldn't have even been arrested. Although, I must confess I am rather ignorant; maybe Sharia law protects trans people.
Agreeing with Nichole and others about trans-panic probably not being a dead dog. At least not completely. I'm sure someone will trot it out.
I watched most of the trial through the live feed on CNN, and some of it was impossible to listen to. There was a lot of blaming the victim, and a lot of talk about Angie deceiving people over her biological sex. It sounds like she was very open and out, but I'm sure we'll be seeing trans-panic used again, especially if the victim is stealth.
I do see a few positive things about all of this:
The jury returned a conviction in
under two hours. Either the good people of the great state of Colorado are less prejudiced than the people who live next door to me here in sunny southern California, or they didn't let their own bias get in the way of sending a murderer to jail. Either way, good for them. I think the prosecution did a really good job of pointing out that a 'reasonable person' would have walked away, not beaten someone to death. That type of rational argument makes a lot more sense. That, if anything, will do more to put 'trans-panic' away as a defense than anything else.
Also, the prosecutor made a great point in his closing argument-- are trans people supposed to carry a sign around or something? The prosecutor was basically just arguing against Angie being deceptive, but I thought it was a very well crafted point. There's a fine line between being out and inviting hate and violence, and being so deeply stealth that you incite hate and violence.
The press in the mainstream media has been overwhelmingly positive. Sure there are problems with using the 'really a man, whose name was Justin'-meme, but I think that's mostly out of ignorance. A few articles I saw talked about Angie, called her a transgender woman, and used female pronouns. Fairly impressive. Miles and miles to go, but I think this is progress. Sharon Dunn, a reporter for the Greeley Tribune live-tweeted and reported on the trial each day, and was very professional.
Autumn Sandeen from Pam's House Blend live-tweeted and reported on the ground in Greeley for the whole thing. She was a point of contact for several mainstream media outlets during the course of the trial, which I think is awesome.
Also, the 1st degree murder charge doesn't, IIRC the jury instructions clearly, require premeditation the way we think of it, but 'deliberation' I think was the word the prosecutor used. Hitting someone with your fist would be a 'heat of the moment' but looking around for an object with which to bludgeon someone shows deliberation and intent to kill. Deliberation can take just a few seconds, whereas the lesser charges, such as 2nd degree are primarily based on increasing levels of negligence or decreasing levels of intent to kill.
The whole thing is incredibly sad. While I believe that justice has been served for Angie, none of it will bring her back. She's dead, and her family has to live without her.