to be sentenced on federal hate-crime charges for killing a transgender person, the Associated Press reports. The law went into effect in 2009 but has not yet been used to prosecute a case in which the victim was transgender. On Monday, Joshua Brandon Vallum will become the first person in the U.S. A Mississippi man received a 49-year prison sentence in federal court on Monday for the murder of his former transgender girlfriend, the New York Times reports. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which deals with hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity. There was no way to differentiate what happened to her from any other killing by a gang member.īut if a crime meets several key criteria - one of which is it must involve interstate commerce, a bar that was cleared when Vallum drove Williamson from Alabama to Mississippi - the federal authorities have jurisdiction to prosecute under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. They are sitting on a top of a dresser at a childhood friend’s house in south Alabama.Įarly on in the investigation, the district attorney reviewed state law to determine whether he could use Mississippi’s hate crime statute in the case, but Mississippi had no hate crime statute that pertained to gender identity. Her ashes still sit in a small black box the funeral home gave the family. A federal court in Mississippi handed down a 49-year prison sentence on Monday to Joshua Brandon Vallum, the first person prosecuted under the Hate Crimes Prevention Act for targeting a victim.
Her mother said she wanted to but Williamson’s father said he didn’t have the money for it. Williamson’s family never hosted a memorial service. As Sun Herald ’s Margaret Baker reports, the teenager, who was from Alabama, was apparently lured to the state to meet her one time romantic partner, Joshua Vallum. Written by: Brianne Szopinski On Monday, May 15, 2017, Joshua Vallum became the first individual to be prosecuted and sentenced for a federal hate crime.
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