State of Wyoming v. Aaron Mckinney On October 7, 1998 a man by the name of Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten, tied to a fence, and left to die in Laramie Wyoming. His perpetrators, AAron Mckinney and Russell Henderson, have been caught and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Since then Matthew has become the face of hope and has helped shape the platform for gay rights in the LGBTQ community. This is to testify what, how, and why this happened to Matthew Shepard. Is it rightfully labeled a hate crime, or was this something much simpler? It is important to remember the human being who was taken from this world by the man who is on trial today. Matthew was born in and grew up in Casper Wyoming but soon moved to Saudi Arabia for his …show more content…
This time spent abroad ultimately fueled his love for travel and ability to make friends from all over the world. Matthew was often described by his peers as easy to talk to, kind, made friends easily, and always fought for the acceptance of everyone. Although his college education eventually led him back to Wyoming to attend the university where he would study political science and foreign relations. Matthew’s life ended on October 12, 1998 with his family surrounding him, and his fight was finally over. Although his life was taken away from him only five days earlier when Aaron Mckinney and Russell Henderson both made the choice to do so. According to the main witness in this case, Mike Galloway, at approximately eleven forty-five on the evening of October 6, 1998 two men know as Aaron Mckinney and Russell Henderson entered the Fireside Bar. Mike Galloway goes on to state that these two men could be described as dirty, rude, and grungy during their entire visit to the bar that night. They paid for a pitcher of beer and went on their own to play a couple games of pool while Matthew was enjoying himself at the bar just enjoying the general company and atmosphere of the place due …show more content…
The story of two young men who made a mistake is a much sadder one to those who understand their point of view. Laramie started out as a small rural western railroad town. It was founded on the basis of hard labor of those who worked in manufacturing and the Union Pacific railroad line. This all fell away in the 1950’s when the railroad had officially made its switch from steam to diesel locomotives. That specific event causing the University of Wyoming to become the largest employer in the area. The constant influx of World War II veterans returning home or pursuing educations did not help economic matters for Laramie, either. Thus creating the divide between lower middle-class residents and the well-to-do educated people of Laramie. In 1998, Aaron Mckinney was a twenty-one year old high school dropout, and meth addict that just had been informed he was to become a father by his recent girlfriend, Kristin Price. Due to the great divide between social classes in Laramie, many of the youth were turning to drug dealing and robbery in order to just stay alive. For any young adult becoming a parent is probably the scariest thing to ever happen to them, let alone knowing that there is no way one can raise a child in the environment surrounding him. Not only is that enough fear for a lifetime, Aaron is then faced with addiction to meth,