Reconciling Ideals: Restorative Justice as an Alternative to Sentencing Enhancements for Hate Crimes
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Essay
Reconciling Ideals: Restorative Justice as an Alternative
to Sentencing Enhancements for Hate Crimes
Olivia Levinson*
INTRODUCTION
In 1998, Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered because of his
sexuality.1 His murderers were given life sentences.2 The effect of
their crime transcended that tragic moment in Laramie, Wyoming. It,
along with other hate crimes against the LGBTQ community, made
people feel powerless-they could be the next target. Matthew's mur-
derers are disempowered in a different way. Our criminal justice sys-
tem is designed to strip perpetrators of hate crimes of their power by
imprisoning them and limiting their free will. I find little solace in this
hot-potato of disempowerment. My satisfaction felt upon learning
that Matthew Shepard's murderers were still behind bars twenty
years later was muted by my fundamental discontent with mass incar-
ceration. There is a dissonance between my desire to punish those
who commit hate crimes against my community, and my commitment
to decarceration and criminal justice reform. This Essay seeks to
* J.D. Candidate 2021, University of Minnesota Law School. Thank you to Pro-
fessors Amanda Lyons and Nate Freeman for developing the Sexual Orientation, Gen-
der Identity, and Human Rights course that led to this Essay, and for their thoughtful
feedback. Thank you also to Minnesota Law Review editors Geoff Koslig and Cat Ulrich
for their insightful suggestions and guidance through the publication process. Lastly,
thank you to Judy and Dennis Shepard for their dedication to the elimination of hate
crimes. Copyright © 2020 by Olivia Levinson.
1. For an overview of Matthew Shepard's murder, see James Brooke, Gay Man
Beaten and Left for Dead; Two Are Charged, N.Y. TIMES (Oct. 10, 1998), https://www
.nytimes.com/1998/10/10/us/gay-man-beaten-and-left-for-dead-2-are-charged
.html [https://perma.cc/7GQT-3LD6] (Although Wyoming often bills itself as the
'equality state,' the state Legislature has repeatedly voted down hate crime legislation
on the ground that it would give homosexuals special rights.).
2. See Jude Sheerin, Matthew Shepard: The Murder that Changed America, BBC
(Oct. 26, 2018), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45968606 [https://
perma.cc/UDR6-5KHJ] (describing how Matthew's murderers, Aaron McKinney and
Russell Henderson, were given consecutive life sentences for kidnapping and murder).
209](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/headnotpan105&div=11&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Reconciling Ideals: Restorative Justice as an Alternative to Sentencing Enhancements for Hate Crimes
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