Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Nov. 28 WorldNetDaily article complains that the Matthew Shepard case "has been used by 'gay' activists ever since as a reason to demand enhanced 'hate' crimes for anyone who perpetrates criminal activity against a homosexual. It goes on to repeat claims made in an Oct. 11 WND column by Coral Ridge Ministries' John Aman purporting to tell "the truth" about Shepard's death -- that Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson killed Shepard over drugs, not "homophobia," as they claimed in an ABC interview.
As we noted at the time Aman's column appeared -- and as we previously reported when right-wingers like WND latched onto the ABC interview -- relying on the ever-shifting stories by convicted killers ignore the actual record of the case: McKinney and Henderson have a long record of lying about Shepard's murder, and that the hate-crime aspect of Shepard's death was corroborated during their trials. As a Wyoming police detective who worked on the Shepard case said: "Only three people know what really happened that night. ... One of them is dead and the other two are known liars and convicted felons -- murderers."
The dubious ABC interview is referenced in an American Family Association of Pennsylvania press release, on which WND based its article. It similarly claims that "interviews with the two murderers revealed that Shepherd’s murder resulted from a botched robbery." As with Aman, there is no mention of the court record; as with the WND article, there is no mention of the fact that McKinney mounted a "gay panic" defense during his murder trial, which undercuts the robbery argument.
