In a landmark case which authorities say marks the first time anyone was found guilty by a jury for a hate crime against a transgender person in federal court, a man in South Carolina has been sentenced to life behind bars for the 2019 murder of Dime Doe, a transgender Black woman.
As previously reported, jurors convicted Daqua Lameek Ritter in February this year on hate crime charges, using a firearm in connection with the fatal shooting and obstructing justice. A judge handed Ritter a life sentence on Thursday, Oct. 17.
This sentencing sends a clear message — the Justice Department vigorously defends the civil rights of every American," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said in a statement. "We will use all the resources at our disposal to safeguard the rights of the LGBTQI+ community, and we will investigate and prosecute perpetrators of transphobic-fueled violence in our country."
Doe and Ritter were Having a Secret Sexual Relationship, He Didn't Want Anyone to Find Out About it
Prosecutors accused Ritter of shooting Doe three times with a .22 caliber handgun to prevent further revelation of his involvement with a transgender woman on Aug. 4, 2019.
The four-day trial over Doe's killing centered on the secret sexual relationship between her and Ritter, the latter of whom had grown agitated by the exposure of their affair in the small town of Allendale, according to witness testimony and text messages obtained by the FBI.
Text exchanges between the pair showed Ritter trying to dispel gossip about the relationship in the weeks preceding Doe's death. He also told her that Delasia Green, his main girlfriend at the time, had insulted him with a homophobic slur after learning of the affair. In a July 31 text, Doe said she felt used and Ritter should never have let Green find out about them.
Texts obtained by the FBI suggested that Ritter sought to keep his connection with Doe under wraps as much as possible, prosecutors argued. He reminded her to delete their communications from her phone, and hundreds of texts sent in the month before her death were removed.
Ritter was 'On Edge' on the Day of Doe's Killing, Seen in Same Car She was Later Found Dead in
Prosecutors presented police interviews in which Ritter said he did not see Doe the day she died. But body camera video from a traffic stop of Doe showed Ritter's distinctive left wrist tattoo on a person in the passenger seat hours before police found her slumped in the car, parked in a driveway.
On the day Doe died, a group of friends also noted seeing Ritter ride away in a silver car with tinted windows — a vehicle that Ritter's acquaintance Kordell Jenkins said he had seen Doe drive previously. When Ritter returned several hours later, Jenkins said, he wore a new outfit and appeared "on edge."
Green testified that when Ritter showed up days after the killing at her cousin's house in Columbia, he was dirty, smelly and couldn't stop pacing. Her cousin's boyfriend gave Ritter a ride to the bus stop. Before he left, Green asked him if he had killed Doe.
"He dropped his head and gave me a little smirk," Green said.
The historic case was the first trial held under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which, signed into law in 2009, enables federal criminal prosecution of hate crimes motivated by someone's actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity.
