However, Vallum has never contested testimony and evidence that he long knew Williamson was transgender.Ī witness in state court had testified previously that Vallum and Williamson had sex multiple times while the witness was a roommate with Williamson. Joshua Vallum pleaded guilty last December to the 2015 murder of his former romantic partner, 17-year-old Mercedes Williamson because she was transgender. He declined to speak with The Associated Press in a March letter, citing advice from his lawyers, and didn't address the issue Monday. He said he "blacked out" and doesn't remember the crime, a variation of what's known as a "gay panic" or "trans panic" defense. Vallum initially told sheriff's deputies and later told The Sun Herald newspaper that he found out that Williamson had a penis on moments before he killed her. Vallum can't go back and undo what he did to Mercedes," Allred said. "It's difficult to image how a mother could lock a two- or three-year-old child in a room for house on end while adults did drugs."Īllred said Vallum first tried to kill himself when he was 7 or 8. Vallum lived through a childhood that was characterized by abandonment and neglect," said public defender Ellen Allred. Public defenders submitted a sealed brief Monday to Guirola outlining Vallum's troubles. When Williamson tried to run, they said, Vallum chased her and bashed her head with a hammer. They added he shocked her with a stun gun and stabbed her with a pocketknife.
Vallum lured Williamson into a car in Alabama and drove her 50 miles (80 kilometers) to his family home near Lucedale, Mississippi, prosecutors said. "These actions invite increased discrimination and continued animus against transgender people," Gordon said.įederal prosecutor Julia Gegenheimer had said at Vallum's plea hearing in December that he began planning to kill Williamson after a friend called him in May 2015 to say he'd discovered Williamson's identity. She cited the Trump administration's reversal of guidelines that transgender students nationwide should be able to use school bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity - among other steps. Gordon said her group remains concerned how Trump policies will affect transgender people. LGBT advocates applauded federal officials' first use of the 2009 hate crimes law to prosecute an offense against a transgender person.ĭemoya Gordon, attorney for the Transgender Rights Project of Lambda Legal, called the prosecution "significant" but noted it began under President Barack Obama's administration and added "the cake was already baked" on Vallum's sentencing when Donald Trump became president. "The Justice Department will continue its efforts to vindicate the rights of those individuals who are affected by bias motivated crimes." "Today's sentencing reflects the importance of holding individuals accountable when they commit violent acts against transgender individuals," Sessions said in a statement.
The case, watched nationally amid concerns transgender women are particularly vulnerable to violence, drew comment from U.S. "If I could bring back Mercedes by giving up my life, I would gladly do so." "Every day, I live with the guilt and regret of my actions," Vallum said. The intersection of racism, transphobia, and transmisogyny, coupled with entrenched discrimination against both trans people and people of color, makes black trans women particularly vulnerable to violence.On Monday, Vallum begged forgiveness from Williamson's family and friends, though none of them were present - only a few reporters, the judge and Vallum's father and stepmother. This year has been one of the most deadly on record for the transgender community - particularly for black trans women, who make up the majority of those who have been murdered over the last three years. Supreme Court case that brought down the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, sued Mississippi over its anti-LGBT law, winning an injunction that blocked the law's implementation just hours before it was to take effect. Out attorney Roberta Kaplan, who represented Edie Windsor in the landmark U.S. The law also prohibited the state from recognizing transgender people's authentic gender identity, declaring that one's sex assigned at birth would be the only gender legally recognized by the state. It was the first case prosecuted under the federal Hate. Meanwhile, Mississippi made headlines earlier this year for passing one of the most aggressively anti-LGBT laws in the country, effectively enshrining a business's right to refuse service to gay, bisexual, and transgender people. sentenced Joshua Vallum in connection with the 2015 killing of 17-year-old Mercedes Williamson.
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