The trial of Dwight DeLee for the murder of Lateisha Green will begin in Syracuse, NY on Monday, July 13. Teish, who was a trans woman, was murdered at a party in 2008 by a gunman who is said to have made a number of hateful remarks about her gender identity and presentation and perceived sexual orientation. Her brother was also injured in the attack. The alleged murderer, DeLee, is being tried for second degree murder, with added hate crime charges.
I will be following the trial as closely as I can, and if you’d like to as well, the best place to start is the Justice For Teish Facebook page. Become a member of the group, as they will have regular updates, and be sure to invite your Facebook friends as well, as a means of spreading awareness about the case.
There will also be a Twitter presence in the courtroom. Get updates from the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund by following TLEDF, and get updates from GLAAD by following Andy_Marra. Just this morning, they covered a memorial service that was held for Teish in advance of the trial. You can also follow the hash tag #justiceforteish and use it yourself to forward information to your own Twitter followers.
For more information and background on Lateisha Green’s murder and the upcoming trial, also check out the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund’s resource kit.
I have noticed the reduction in press between this and the Zppata trial. It seems the medias decision to treat the murders of trans women as an important social issue is fleeting. Thanks for the update on the case.
Why do I get this bad feeling that we will see the same old shameful defence of trans panic and victim being put on trial for being trans and not the accused for murder.
Thank you for the links.
FWIW, I’m in Syracuse, and plan to be at the trial as much as my schedule and stomach will allow. If I end up writing anything, it’ll be on my blog (I’ll post links if relevant), although there’s a good chance I’ll end up curled up in bed.
I’m not sure how things will play out, but given that, AFAIK there are witnesses (Green’s brother, for one, was also shot), I’m guessing that the defense will try to argue that the murder wasn’t a hate crime. I can’t see how they can argue that Dwight DeLee didn’t kill Lateisha Green. In other words, what Abi said.
From what I’ve seen, actually — and I could be wrong — it seems like they’re going to argue that it wasn’t a hate crime, and say that DeLee didn’t know anything about Lateisha’s gender identity or sexual orientation. (Teish, as is my understanding, had a boyfriend and was straight. But as many ignorant people confuse/conflate sexual orientation with gender identity, apparently DeLee was hurling homophobic slurs, and he is being tried on hate crime charges based on sexual orientation rather than gender identity because gender identity isn’t included in New York’s hate crime statutes.)
Which I guess would be a step up from the trans panic defense? In any case, I imagine we’ll know shortly.
But if anyone else writes, please feel free to leave links in the comments on relevant posts. I’ll definitely put up a post whenever a verdict comes out, and I’ll try my best to post at least once before then.
I’ve heard that they are going to use Teish’s male name throughout the trial in an attempt to get a sexual orientation hate crime charge because there is no gender orientation hate crime law in the state. This does erase Teish’s identity and deny her status as a woman. Transphobia, totally.
Oh god, I really hope that’s not true, Cathy. Especially since it would be unnecessary — they don’t need to prove that the murderer hated the victim’s actual sexual orientation, only perceived sexual orientation. Both are covered, as they should be, since ignorance and hate rarely goes for accuracy. It would be transphobia to the extreme.
[...] trial, which has gone under-reported in the mainstream media. Bloggers at GLAAD, Transgriot, and Feministe will be covering the trial. On Twitter, you can follow the hash tag #justiceforteish and these [...]