Matthew Wayne Shepard December 1, — October 12, was an American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie on October 6, Suspects Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson were arrested shortly after the attack and charged with first-degree murder following Shepard's death.
Significant media coverage was given to the murder and what role Shepard's sexual orientation played as a motive for the crime, as he was gay. The prosecutor argued the murder of Shepard was premeditated and driven by greed. McKinney's defense counsel countered by arguing that he had intended only to rob Shepard but he killed him in a rage when Shepard made a sexual advance toward him. McKinney's girlfriend told police that he had been motivated by anti-gay sentiment , but later, she recanted her statement, saying that she had lied because she thought she could help him by lying.
Henderson pleaded guilty to murder , and McKinney was tried and found guilty of murder; each of them received two consecutive life sentences. Shepard's murder brought national and international attention to hate crime legislation at both the state and federal level. Shepard's murder inspired a number of films, novels, plays, songs, and other works , including The Laramie Project a play and film and Judy Shepard's memoir The Meaning of Matthew. His younger brother, Logan, was born in The two brothers had a close relationship.
As a child, he was "friendly with all his classmates", but was targeted and teased due to his small stature and lack of athleticism. During his high school years, Matthew moved with his family to Saudi Arabia, when his father was hired by Saudi Aramco , a Saudi oil and natural gas company.
In , during a high school trip to Morocco , Shepard was abducted, beaten and raped. Shepard became a first-year political science major at the University of Wyoming in Laramie with a minor in languages, [ 4 ] and was chosen as the student representative for the Wyoming Environmental Council.
