Tennessee court orders retrial in killing of trans woman, says jury was 'misled' on her genderhttps://www.thepinknews.com/2026/10/09/paris-lee-new-trial-samuel-ward-jr-tennessee-court/ 🔗Sian Thompson (9 Oct 2026)
A Tennessee appeals court has overturned the voluntary manslaughter conviction of a man who shot and killed a Black trans woman. The court ruled that a jury should have been allowed to hear evidence about her sex assigned at birth as part of his self-defence claim.
The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals filed its decision to remand Samuel Ward Jr's case on 5 October and ordered a new trial in the June 2022 killing of Paris Lee. The three-judge panel found that the trial court had wrongly excluded evidence of Lee's sex assigned at birth, which Ward's lawyers argued was relevant to how much fear he experienced during the confrontation, as first reported by independent journalist Jamie Satterfield.
The ruling does not find that Lee's killing was justified. Instead, it means Ward's conviction has been vacated, and prosecutors have a legal entitlement to bring the appeal to a higher court.
The decision has raised concerns among LGBTQ+ advocates about the role a trans person's identity can play in legal arguments about violence and the risk that stereotypes about trans women could be used to portray them as inherently threatening.-----------------------------
@Sarah B
