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The Washington Post recently reported that one of four men accused of a hate crime has pleaded no contest. Under the plea agreement, Jason Cazares, 25, will spend no more than six years in prison for the beating and strangulation of 17 year old transgender teen Gwen Araujo. Araujo was born a boy named Edward but grew up to believe her true identity was female.Araujo was beaten, tied up and strangled on Oct. 4, 2002, after men she had had sexual encounters with learned she was born a man. Cazares claimed he was outside the house when his friends killed Araujo and that he was only an accomplice by helping bury the body. The other men in the case were convicted of second degree murder.

A prominent hate crime in United States History was the brutal anti-gay murder of 21 year old Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. On October 7, 1998, Shepard met Aaron James McKinney and Russell Arthur Henderson in a bar. According to McKinney, Shepard asked them for a ride home. Subsequently, Shepard was robbed, severely beaten, tied to a fence and left to die. During court cases both of the defendants used varying stories to defend their actions. Most notably they used the "gay panic defense", arguing that they were driven to temporary insanity by Shepard's alleged sexual advances toward them.