Matthew Shepard, in a family photo carried in his father’s wallet. Photo: Courtesy the Matthew Shepard Foundation
Russell Henderson, one of the murderers of hate crime victim Matthew Shepard, will stay in prison for at least five more years now that the Wyoming Board of Parole recently denied his petition to shorten his two consecutive lifetime prison sentences. Henderson and his accomplice, Aaron McKinney, were convicted for the October 1998 kidnapping and murder of Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming.
“The Board held a hearing on Russell’s petition and declined to forward the petition to the Governor,” Margaret White, the parole board’s executive director, told Advocate.com.
Related:
Inmates in Wyoming who have served 10 years of their lifetime sentences may submit a commutation petition (a request to have their sentence shortened) every five years. It’s unclear if Henderson has previously filed petitions.
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Henderson pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder and kidnapping of Shepard to avoid a death sentence. Henderson was sentenced in April 1999. His accomplice, McKinney, was convicted of kidnapping, aggravated robbery, and second-degree murder later that year. To avoid the death penalty, McKinney accepted a sentence of life in prison without chance of parole or appeal.
Henderson and McKinney’s October 7, 1998 murder of Shepard shocked the nation. The murderers repeatedly beat the 21-year-old with the butt of a handgun, fracturing his skull. They then tied him to a fence, leaving him to die and suffer from hypothermia in the 28-degree overnight weather.
A cyclist found Shepard early the next morning, initially mistaking his lifeless body for a scarecrow. Shepard’s face was reportedly covered in blood except for the places where tears had streamed down his cheeks. The attack left Shepard in a coma. He remained hospitalized on life support for six days before dying.
While court testimony revealed that meth dealing may have brought the victim and his murderers together, a detective testified that McKinney said he had felt threatened by Shepard’s homosexuality. The murderers asked their girlfriends to help provide alibis and hide evidence during the police investigation into the murder.
In 1998, Shepard’s parents founded the Matthew Shepard Foundation, an LGBTQ+ nonprofit that runs educational, outreach and advocacy programs against queerphobia.
In 2009, Matthew Shepard’s mother Judy Shepard published the book, The Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed. In May 2024, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her continued advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights.
In October 2009, the U.S. Congress passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a law that included gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability into pre-existing federal hate crime laws. The law also provided additional federal funding for hate crime investigations and tracking.
The aftermath of Shepard’s murder was documented in The Laramie Project, a 2000 play compiled from actual interviews with local investigators and residents. The play was adapted into a 2002 film of the same name. Numerous songs have been dedicated to Shepard, including the lesbian singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge’s 1999 song “Scarecrow.”
