Finally, First-of-Kind Justice for Black Transgender Woman in South Carolina

Federal hate crime prosecution secured for the first time in the 13 years the law has been in force

History was made last week when South Carolina man Daqua Lameek Ritter was found guilty for the murder of a Black transgender woman, Dime Doe. The jury took four hours of deliberation to reach their decision against Ritter, who is now looking at potential life imprisonment without parole. Evidence presented in the case included text messages, eye-witness testimonies, and body camera video the FBI collected from a traffic stop.

A Commitment to Fight Violence Against Minorities

The assistant U.S. attorney who oversaw the case for the District of South Carolina, Brook Andrews, stated:

This case stands as a testament to our committed effort to fight violence that is targeted against those who may identify as a member of the opposite sex, for their sexual orientation or for any other protected characteristics.

Andrews is referring directly to violations of the Federal criminal code outlined in the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, put on the books back in 2010 as part of the National Defence Authorization act for Fiscal Year 2010.

One of the namesakes of this act, Matthew Shepard, was beaten and left to die. Shepard’s sexual orientation was solidified as a clear motive for the crime when one of the perpetrators could not keep homophobic slurs out of his mouth during his interviews.

The other namesake, James Byrd, Jr., a Black man, was murdered by three White men, two of whom were known White supremacists. Both crimes occured in 1998.

This law criminalizes the willful causing of bodily injury in a myriad of scenarios involving motive produced by a perceived characteristic of the identity of the victim. In Ritter’s case, the important characteristics that are associated with his crimes in this landmark case are gender and sexual orientation.

The Old Story of Internalized Homophobia

When we hear about crimes against Black transgender women, one might be tempted to guess that these may have been crimes committed by a stranger. For Ritter’s story, that is not the case.

Ritter did not want the community to know about their affair and sought to keep their relationship a secret.

Ritter and Doe were in a relationship that involved multiple interactions as revealed by text messages including some of Ritter thanking Doe for her generosity. The problems in their relationship began to arise, as they often do, when broader society got involved and word of their relationship began to spread in their hometown of Allendale, South Carolina. Ritter, feeling shame, did not want the community to know about their affair and sought to keep their relationship a secret.

In his efforts to halt the spread of knowledge of their relationship, Ritter followed through on his wish to silence Doe forever using a .22 caliber weapon. However, not only did Ritter fail to keep their former relationship a secret, but their relationship is now the backdrop for the first federal landmark application of the broader provisions of this National Defence Authorization act.

While Ritter’s conviction is a “win” for this until-now untested law, it still feels like a loss. Doe cannot be brought back and it simply doesn’t feel good that this law had to be in place for justice to be served. Yet, the alternative, for the law to not exist, is even worse.

Roadblocks When Fighting for the Minority

In a 2010 hearing before the Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate to pass the addendum to the hate-crime law, Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr. was asked whether adding crimes “against people because of their gender… sexual orientation, or gender identity” was important and by extension even needed.

His answer: “Absolutely.” General Holder went on:

If one looks at the hate crimes statistics over the last decade (i.e. preceding 2010), you will see that the third largest component of hate crimes involves sexual orientation. About 12,000 of those crimes over the last decade, 16 percent of all of the hate crimes that have been reported, deal with sexual orientation motivated.

Passing the law still was not easy and was met with years of opposition leading up to that congressional session. Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. were murdered in 1998 after all, and we were only making slight progress on fixing our laws to assure protection for people like him 12 years later.

Digging into the historical record of the aforementioned judiciary committee hearing you’ll see infamous names like Orrin Hatch, who once said “I wouldn’t want to see homosexuals teaching school anymore than I’d want to see members of the American Nazi Party teaching school”.

During the hearing, Hatch, as if on cue, interrupts General Holder as he is about to explain how the rewritten law will work and why it is needed. Hatch wanted to clutch his pearls about how the wording in the law is “too broad” and how every crime could be tried under this law simply because the victims have a gender identity.

Honestly, interesting theory, Hatch. I wonder if he is proposing that if we criminalized all crimes committed due to gender persecution then there would be no crime. Is he advocating against the law or for it? (I kid, I kid).

In his response, General Holder simply reminds the right-wing members of the committee that the core wording of the law has not changed and that they have simply expanded the number of groups it protects. Prosecution of a hate crime will still require evidence of hate in the aggressor as it always has.

Progress is Slow

So to recap and do some basic math, 12,000 hate crimes in 10 years amounts to 1,200 hate crimes a year. That is 1,200 hate crimes a year, including murders, since 1998 when Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. were murdered. This law, despite opposition, was only passed in 2010.

Dime Doe was murdered in 2023. Doe’s case is the first case that has been brought to justice at this level in 13 years since this law was passed.

Logically, this means that without looking at the data we can safely assume 1,200 annual hate crimes, and likely more, have occurred since 2010. Justice apparently has a 12 year lag and then some.

… for me, to allow the justice system grace and nuance when trans women of color are not allowed that same grace or nuance is inequitable.

This legislative analysis is a brash oversimplification and perhaps incomplete critique of how the judicial system works. However, for me, to allow the justice system grace and nuance when trans women of color are not allowed that same grace or nuance is inequitable.

I want very much to end this article with a powerful one-liner about how people like Orrin Hatch didn’t stand in the way of progress and that Ritter’s conviction is a victory we must celebrate. But the truth is that they did stand in the way, and, I’m not sure if we must celebrate.

When I look at this lengthy timeline, it certainly doesn’t feel worth celebrating.

I think of how many stories similar to Dime Doe’s have been allowed to happen with limited or no repercussions in that time period.

Despite my jaded perspective, I know that people who were ready to fight the good fight brought us here and made this happen. Both change and healing take time so I will always raise a toast to those with the persistence to stay in the fight.

Cheers to the future, tap to the past, live for the present.

References

H.R. 2647 — National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010

Senate Committee Hearing on Hate Crimes

The Matthew Shepard And James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act Of 2009

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