Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson: Trial, Sentences, and Aftermath

Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson are the two men convicted of the 1998 kidnapping and murder of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay college student in Laramie, Wyoming. Both are serving two consecutive life sentences and remain incarcerated more than a quarter century later. The case became one of the most widely known anti-gay attacks in American history and led, eleven years afterward, to the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

What Happened the Night of October 6, 1998

McKinney and Henderson met Shepard at the Fireside bar in Laramie around midnight on October 6, 1998. McKinney approached him, and shortly afterward the three left together in a pickup truck Henderson was driving.¹ McKinney began beating Shepard with the butt of a pistol almost immediately. Shepard handed over his wallet. The assault continued.

They drove to a remote area outside town. McKinney pulled Shepard from the truck, and Henderson tied him to a split-rail fence with rope. When Henderson asked McKinney to stop, McKinney struck Henderson in the face with the gun and then delivered a final blow to Shepard that left him unconscious.¹ The two drove off and left him there.

On the way back into town they got into an unrelated street fight with two other Laramie men, Emiliano Morales and Jeremy Herrera. McKinney hit Morales in the head with his gun, opening a wound that needed stitches. Police investigating that assault used it to identify McKinney and Henderson as suspects in the attack on Shepard.²

A passing cyclist found Shepard around 6:00 p.m. on October 7, still tied to the fence and unconscious. He was taken to a Laramie hospital and transferred to Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he died at 12:53 a.m. on October 12, 1998, without ever regaining consciousness.¹³

Who McKinney and Henderson Were

Both men were in their early twenties at the time of the murder. Both were high-school dropouts working as roofers in Laramie. McKinney’s girlfriend, Kristen Price, and Henderson’s girlfriend, Chastity Pasley, would both later be convicted for helping dispose of evidence and providing false alibis.⁴

The motive has been disputed by the defendants themselves. In a 2004 interview with ABC’s 20/20, McKinney said he attacked Shepard to rob him and fund a methamphetamine binge, not out of anti-gay bias. Henderson told the same program, “It’s not because me and Aaron had anything against gays or any of that.”⁵ Kristen Price had earlier told 20/20 that the two intended “to teach a lesson” to Shepard after he said he was gay and expressed interest in them.⁶ Laramie law enforcement officials who worked the original case continued to describe the attack as hate-motivated. Prosecutor Cal Rerucha, however, later said, “I don’t think the proof was there” to charge it that way in legal terms, and Wyoming had no hate crime law under which to do so.⁷

Russell Henderson’s Guilty Plea

Both men were initially charged with kidnapping and aggravated robbery. After Shepard died on October 12, first-degree murder charges were added.⁷

On April 5, 1999, Henderson pleaded guilty to felony murder and kidnapping under an agreement that took the death penalty off the table. He received two consecutive life sentences.¹⁴ Speaking to Matthew Shepard’s parents at his sentencing, Henderson said, “I regret greatly what I did.”

Aaron McKinney’s Trial

McKinney went to trial in the fall of 1999. His attorneys attempted a “gay panic” defense, arguing that a sexual advance by Shepard had triggered an uncontrollable rage rooted in McKinney’s history of childhood sexual abuse. The goal was to reduce the charge from murder to manslaughter by casting the killing as a heat-of-passion crime.⁷

On October 30, 1999, District Judge Barton Voigt rejected the strategy, ruling that it amounted to a form of temporary insanity or diminished capacity, neither of which is permitted under Wyoming law.⁸⁹ What had been projected as a two-week defense case shrank to two or three days.

On November 2, 1999, the jury convicted McKinney of felony murder, aggravated robbery, and kidnapping. He was acquitted of premeditated first-degree murder.⁷¹⁰

The Shepards’ Decision to Spare His Life

Before the jury began the penalty phase, which could have produced a death sentence, McKinney’s defense approached Dennis and Judy Shepard. The Shepards agreed to spare McKinney’s life in exchange for two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole and a full waiver of any appeal.¹¹

Dennis Shepard then addressed McKinney directly in court. “I would like nothing better than to see you die, Mr. McKinney,” he said. “However, this is the time to begin the healing process. To show mercy to someone who refused to show any mercy.” He added, “Mr. McKinney, I’m going to grant you life, as hard as it is for me to do so, because of Matthew.”¹¹

Where They Are Now

Russell Henderson is incarcerated at the Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution in Torrington, Wyoming.¹² In June 2024 he filed a petition to commute his sentence. A three-member panel of the Wyoming Board of Parole advanced the petition in July 2024, but in September 2024 the full seven-member board voted against forwarding it to Governor Mark Gordon.¹³ His sentences are technically “life” rather than “life without parole,” which made him eligible to petition; under Wyoming law he cannot submit another commutation request for five years.

Henderson had previously sought post-conviction relief in 2004, arguing that his constitutional rights were violated because he was not properly informed at sentencing of his right to appeal. Albany County District Judge Jeffrey Donnell dismissed the petition, and the Wyoming Supreme Court declined to review the decision.¹⁴

Aaron McKinney is incarcerated at the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler, Mississippi, having been transferred out of Wyoming under an interstate corrections arrangement.¹⁵ Because his sentencing deal required him to waive all appellate rights, there is no public record of him seeking any sentence reduction.

The Federal Law That Followed

Wyoming had no hate crime statute at the time of the murder and still does not. A 1999 House bill died on a 30-30 tie vote, and as recently as 2021 the Wyoming House Judiciary Committee tabled another proposed hate crime measure.¹⁶¹⁷

The federal response took longer. Judy and Dennis Shepard became prominent advocates for hate crime legislation, working with the Human Rights Campaign and lobbying Congress for years.¹⁸ On October 28, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law. It expanded federal hate crime protections to cover crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, gender, or disability, categories not previously covered by federal law.¹⁹ The act also authorized federal investigations when local authorities do not act and funded state and local hate-crime prosecutions.²⁰ Neither McKinney nor Henderson was ever charged under a hate crime statute; the law that carries Shepard’s name did not exist when they were tried, and Wyoming still has none.

The “gay panic” defense that Judge Voigt rejected in McKinney’s trial remained legal in most states for years afterward. California became the first state to formally ban it in 2014, and as of 2024 at least 20 states plus the District of Columbia have enacted bans, including Illinois, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, New York, Colorado, New Jersey, Washington, Maryland, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Delaware, Minnesota, and Michigan.²¹ Federal legislation to ban the defense in federal courts has been introduced but has not passed. In states without a ban, the strategy remains available.

1
Famous-Trials.com. Matthew Shepard Murder: A Chronology
2
UPI. Second Attack Led Police to Suspects
3
Matthew Shepard Foundation. Our Story
4
WyoHistory.org. The Murder of Matthew Shepard
5
NBC News. Shepard’s Killers Discuss Attack
6
New York Times Books. Losing Matt Shepard
7
Famous-Trials.com. The Matthew Shepard Murder: McKinney and Henderson Trials
8
CBS News. Gay Panic Ruling No Surprise
9
Orlando Sentinel. Judge in Shepard Case Bans Gay Panic Defense
10
Los Angeles Times. McKinney Gets Life in Shepard Slaying
11
Washington Post. I’m Going to Grant You Life
12
The Advocate. Russell Henderson Commutation Petition Denied
13
Cowboy State Daily. Matthew Shepard Killer’s Commutation Request Denied
14
Wyoming News. Court Refuses Henderson Case
15
Wyoming Department of Corrections. Aaron James McKinney Inmate Record
16
WyoHistory.org. The Legacy of Matthew Shepard
17
NBC Philadelphia. Wyoming Shelves Hate Crime Law Decades After Matthew Shepard’s Death
18
Matthew Shepard Foundation. Judy Shepard
19
U.S. Department of Justice. Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
20
Human Rights Watch. Memorializing Matthew Shepard
21
National LGBTQ+ Bar Association. LGBTQ+ Panic Defense