Please spread the word.
(Trigger Warning)
Angie Zapata, an 18 year old Colorado trans woman, was brutally murdered in July, 2008. Allen Ray Andrade, 32, admitted beating Zapata to death because he became enraged upon learning she was transgender during a date. He learned Zapata was transgender by grabbing her genitals without her consent.
“(S)he tricked me!” – known as “trans panic” – is commonly used as a defense by people on trial for killing transgendered folks. Tragically, juries and members of the public often have more sympathy for the murderers than they do for their victims. Andrade is charged with second-degree murder; it is the first murder of a transgender person that will be tried as a hate crime in the US. Jury selection begins today.
“Andrade indicated he became angered by his discovery and struck victim Zapata with his fists,” according to the affidavit. He then grabbed a fire extinguisher, he said, and struck her twice.
He told investigators he thought he “killed it,” referring to Zapata.
“It.”
Andrade then stole Zapata’s car and used her credit card at multiple locations around the Denver area.
A group of progressive, civil rights and anti-violence groups have launched an Internet and print media public information campaign across Colorado to inform people about Angie and educate about hate crimes.
The ads urge readers to “light a candle for Angie,” … and to support passage of legislation that would add sexual orientation to federal hate-crime law.
You can “light a candle for Angie” by becoming a fan of this Facebook page and sharing the link – and Angie’s story – with your friends. May justice be served for Angie and may she rest in peace.
This is very sad. I, like a lot of people, have a lot of learning to do about trans-men and -women. I hope that these campaigns can make a difference.
Also, I want to kick the guy in his balls for referring to a PERSON as ‘it’. Ugh.
Sarah is he being prosecuted under some sort of Colorado hate crime legislation?
Yes, In 2005, the Colorado Legislature added sexual orientation, including transgender status, to Colorado’s hate-crime law.
I still think its bullshit they went with second degree.
“It”? Fucking hell. Not much more to say beyond that, frankly. Andrade saying “It” says it all.
seriously. what’s second degree about it?
I thought a murder counted as first degree if the killer met up with the victim intending to kill him/her. I’m guessing they’re charging Andrade with second degree because they were on a date and he only decided to kill her once he discovered her secret.
“trans panic” — ugh.
This is such a heartbreaking story. The fact that he used her credit cards after the death is somehow extra disgusting. I just get this feeling like he felt entitled to the money, obviously not backed up by any facts other than the rampant culture of entitlement in this country (especially among men, and especially among the kind of man who would claim a “trans panic” defense).
To be sure, the trial has not begun, so I don’t know if his defense team is going to go with “trans panic,” but this sort of situation plays out that way all the time. Hopefully he will not get away with it.
“Trans panic” or “gay panic” is some serious Twinkie Defense shit.
And yeah, kithkin, the credit card thing? Revolting. I hope he gets his metaphorical ass nailed to the wall.
Has anyone read Janet Halley’s take down of gay panic? So weird. We also need to ban the term “twinkie defense” from our lexicon. It’s a pet peeve of mine.
(Ignore the below monologue if you so desire)
It’s actually the defense from the trial of Dan White, who killed Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone. He never mentioned twinkies in court, just was arguing diminished capacity based on depression. White’s behavior had become increasingly erratic in the weeks before the killing, and one of the aspects of that behavioral change was that he had been a health nut and all of the sudden started eating tons of sugar and junk. The defense wasn’t arguing that the sugar made him do it, but that his changed diet was one of many pieces of evidence that he was not acting in full capacity. In any case White only received 7 years for involuntary manslaughter despite evidence that he had planned the attacks and planned to kill other members of the city council as well. However this travesty of justice had to do with the fact that the jury had no gays and no ethnic minorities on it and the defense played on the jury’s own homophobia and conservatism by playing up White’s background as a cop. The fucked up thing is that the media started playing this twinkie defense shit and the case ended up being the impetus for California getting rid of the diminished capacity defense based on this twinkie myth, which is unfortunate because now “twinkie defense” is this shorthand for overly liberal defenses in criminal actions when really White’s “victory” was about homophobia and right wing reactionism, not constitutional defenses in criminal trials. And now defendants who actually had diminished capacity don’t have that as a defense.
Sorry for the rant.
@jdregent: No, that was informative! If feminism is supposed to encompass justice for all, it needs to encompass justice for the mentally ill, too. It’s good that you brought that up. When the media offers a twisted portrayal of defenses based on mental illness, it messes with the public’s ability to think clearly about the subject. By now, the issue is so tangled up that folks seem to think that mental illness doesn’t really exist at all, that it’s just an excuse people use to get out of paying for their behavior.
I wish I could talk a little more coherently about the problem, but it’s so messed up I hardly know where to begin. So thanks for your informative “rant.”
JDR: You’re the lawyer, so perhaps I should defer to you on the matter, but I’ve always understood “Twinkie Defense” to mean “bullshit arguments that no one could seriously believe and there is obviously some kangaroo court stuff (like homo- or trans-phobia, or other social biases) going on here, ’cause that ain’t justice.”
@sarah: 1st degree just means premeditated and premeditation is basically making the decision to kill someone. If he discovered her gender and in a state of rage hit her and she died, ok I could see it. But he hit her with his fists, she went down, and then he consciously picked up the fire extinguisher and bashed her on the head once, THEN (per his interview) he saw her try to raise her head and he bashed her again. That sounds very premeditated to me.
There was a case in MI a year or so ago. Husband killed his wife by strangling her and they charged him with second degree. My boss at the time was like, do you know how long it takes to manually strangle someone? several minutes. He was like, how is it not 1st degree if for a good 3 minutes you’re squeezing the life out of someone? You know you’re doing it, you’re making the decision to kill them. same bullshit.
Lawyer ladies, can you clarify? I though any degree of “murder” necessitates the “decision” to kill someone.
Here’s the definition of First Degree Murder from the Michigan Penal Code (which is substantially similar to other states)
(a) Murder perpetrated by means of poison, lying in wait, or any other willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing
It’s the willful and deliberate part. Most murders involve the decision to kill someone (except involuntary manslaughter)but based on varying mitigating circumstances the state can choose to go for a lesser. In THIS case though the guy made at least 2 premeditated decisions to kill. So thats why I think the state going with the lesser second degree is bullshit.
you’re right PhD it has come to mean that. I was just explaining how the term “twinkie defense” came about, and how it was totally a conservative bullshit response to an ex cop killing a gay that got twisted by the press to mean “arguments no one could seriously believe that let evil criminals pretend to be crazy.” i’m saying the argument made in court was not really bullshit, and was not really the reason that white got only 7 years for killing Milk and Moscone. Just myth busting. You definitely used the term correctly in the parlance of our times.
bluebears and Sarah — i’m sure the prosecutor is anticipating the trans panic defense and pre-empting the jury finding that there was no premeditation and it was an act of somehow understandable rage.
JD: Gotcha. *fingergun* *wink* Thanks–I actually didn’t know that the term had started out as a conservative meme. Weird.
here’s part of a jury instruction on the meaning of premeditation:
The law does not say how much time is needed. It
is for you do decide if enough time passes under
the circumstances of this case. The killing cannot
be the result of a sudden impulse without thought
or reflection.
JD: oh totally. I think he/she is probably thinking that. It still makes me go grrrr.
I’ll be watching this like a hawk – it will set a lot of precedents and hugely influence Colorado’s reputation. I’m really curious to see how jury selection goes; the case has made so many headlines, finding a group of people unaware of the details will be tough. Greeley, despite being a college town, is not (to my knowledge) as progressive as other parts of the state, which worries me.
[...] Andrade, who faced trial this week for the murder of trans woman Angie Zapata, has been found GUILTY on all four charges!!! Guilty of first degree murder. Guilty of bias [...]