USA - The Senate passed 4 amendments to the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, including a provision that would allow the death penalty

The Senate passed 4 amendments to the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, including a provision that would allow the death penalty to apply to hate crimes. The amendment, added by Senator Jeff Sessions, R, AL, deals with victims of gender and sexuality-based hate crimes. The goal of the Matthew Shepard Act is to allow the investigation and prosecution of some hate crimes based on the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identification, or disability. The person for whom it is named was a 21-year old college student who was tortured and murdered in Wyoming in 1998 by 2 other young men. As an openly gay young man, Matthew Shepard was the victim of much discrimination and violence. During the trial for his murder, witnesses stated that he was victimized that night by Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson because of his sexuality.