Washington Blade - November 26, 2004
Brian Moylan, bmoylan@washblade.com

The hour-long feature also claims that Aaron McKinney, who is currently serving two life sentences for the October 1998 beating death of gay college student Shepard, is bisexual and that his motivation for the murder was purely robbery and a rage fueled by crystal meth, not anti-gay bias.

The program marks the first time that McKinney and Russell Henderson, also convicted of the murder and serving a double life sentence, have spoken to the media about the crime since they were convicted.

"We are always interested in following up our own reporting if we feel there are new facts that come to light. That is the definition of responsible journalism," said Jeffrey Schneider, vice president of media relations for ABC News.

Joan M. Garry, executive director of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, criticized the report and questioned its credibility.

"It's not tough to illustrate that the piece is journalistically unsound and the argument I would make here, is that you don't have credible sources," she said. "There are key people missing; there are key facts missing."

Schneider disputed Garry's assessment.

" I think that every report that goes out under the name of ABC News meets and exceeds our high standards," he said.

"I find it unfortunate that an advocacy group that has given us their highest awards ... goes out and makes comments along those lines."

"20/20" has received a number of GLAAD Media Awards over the years for covering gay issues, including several during the tenure of David Sloan, the program's current executive producer, who is gay.

Garry said GLAAD will post a viewer's guide to the episode on the group's Web site, www.glaad.org.

Limo driver makes accusations

In the "20/20" report, Thomas "Doc" O'Connor, a limo driver who claimed to be a friend of Shepard's and McKinney's, said that the two men had met before the night of the murder and had partied together in the back of his limo.

A woman only identified as "Jean," a bartender in Laramie, Wyo., where Shepard was killed, also claims that Shepard and McKinney were acquainted.

Ryan Bopp, a friend of McKinney's who said he was heavily involved in the "crystal meth scene" in Laramie, claims during the show that McKinney and Shepard were often at the same parties where crystal meth was being used.

But McKinney tells "20/20" co-anchor Elizabeth Vargas, who hosts the program, that he had not met Shepard before the night of the murder.

Tina LaBrie, a friend of Shepard's, said that he was increasingly anxious and depressed in the months before his death and that he once told her that he always gets "drawn back into" drugs.

Judy Shepard, Matthew's mother who has become an outspoken gay civil rights activist in the wake of her son's death as the executive director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, is also featured in the program.

"He was a young man with issues ... He was not a perfect child," she said. "He was just a young, 21-year-old college student who happened to be gay."

Judy and Dennis Shepard, Matthew's father, could not be reached for comment. They were both in Saudi Arabia, where Dennis works, and have not seen the broadcast at press time, according to a spokesperson. They are expected to make a statement about the content of the program after they view it.

O'Connor, the limo driver, also said that Shepard told him that he was HIV positive. The issue of Shepard's HIV status is not explored further in the show.

O'Connor, who once rented an apartment to McKinney and Kristen Price, McKinney's girlfriend and mother of his child, said that he once had sex with McKinney and another woman. But McKinney asserts that he never had any sexual contact with another man.

Price said that, in retrospect, she thinks McKinney might have been bisexual, and that he often asked her to have sex with him and another man, though she told ABC she never did.

McKinney does say that his actions on the night of the beating had nothing to do with Shepard's sexual orientation, and he said that he sees nothing wrong with homosexuality and even has gay friends.

In a taped confession he gave after the attack, McKinney called Shepard a "queer" and a "fag." Prosecution witnesses testified that McKinney and Henderson pretended to be gay to lure Shepard out of the bar.

'Gay panic' defense a hoax?

During his trial - where he was convicted of felony murder, kidnapping and aggravated robbery, but acquitted of pre-meditated first-degree murder - McKinney's lawyers tried to use a "gay panic" defense by claiming that McKinney flew into a rage after being hit on by Shepard.

Wyoming District Court Judge Barton Voight, who presided over McKinney's trial, ruled that defense lawyers could not introduce witnesses to show that homosexual encounters that McKinney allegedly experienced as a child and teenager played a role in making him prone to violence against someone making a homosexual advance toward him.

Russell Henderson (left) and Aaron McKinney, who are serving life sentences for the murder of gay Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard, spoke to ABC's '20/20,' in their first interviews since going to jail.

However, defense attorneys called two witness, both straight men, who said Shepard had propositioned them, to try to help their case.

In the "20/20" interview, McKinney said that he and his lawyers concocted the "gay panic" strategy, and that it was not true.

"It's the legend, not the facts that have been printed again and again about what happened in Laramie," Vargas narrates during the program, regarding the popular belief that Shepard's beating was a hate crime.

Price, McKinney's girlfriend, spoke to "20/20" in the months after the attack - though her face was obscured then - and said that she initially lied about the crime being bias-related. She now says that she made that up to help McKinney avoid conviction.

Cal Rerucha, who prosecuted McKinney and Henderson, said on the "20/20" program that it was friends of Shepard's who initiated the claims that the murder was motivated by his sexual orientation, and the story caught on.

There has been some speculation that part of the plea agreements agreed to by the two men stipulated that they not talk to the media about the case.

Though he didn't represent Henderson at the time of the plea, his current attorney, Tim Newcomb, told the Blade there was no such stipulation in Henderson's plea agreement.

In 1999, Editor & Publisher magazine published an excerpt from McKinney's agreement that stated he agreed not to talk to the media about the case. Under the agreement, McKinney was sentenced to two life sentences rather than entering into a sentencing phase of the trial, where he could have been given the death penalty. The Shepard family consented to the agreement.

Dion Custis, who represented McKinney at his trial, told the Blade this week that part of his client's plea agreement was that he wouldn't speak to the media.

"I don't think it was part of the legal plea in the case, but it was a condition that we had added," he said, adding that no penalties were laid out if that stipulation were to be broken. "I don't think it's legally enforceable. It was something that was discussed between us and the Shepard family and we all agreed that we wouldn't talk to the media," he said.

Schneider, of ABC News, said "20/20" received permission to conduct the interviews with McKinney and Henderson from the Wyoming Department of Prisons, as is customary for jailhouse interviews, and that an official from the department was present during both exchanges.

Garry said she hopes that the "20/20" piece will have no bearing on how the case is perceived.

"This piece should not be allowed to have any impact on Shepard's legacy, because it's simply not a credible piece of journalism," she said.

Henderson is the only person who seems to show remorse in the program. He apologizes to the Shepard family and then adds, "I'm sorry to the nation, because I know this affects a lot of people."

Henderson pled guilty to the kidnapping and murder of Shepard rather than face trial. In his latest interview he said that, though he tied Shepard to a fence, he never touched him.

"I never even shook his hand," he tells Vargas.

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