On Wednesday, PROMO and the Anti-Defamation League jointly urged prosecutors to examine the possibility that Steinfeld's murder was a hate crime. Steph Perkins of the Missouri LGBT-rights group PROMO and Jason Lamb of the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys said they could not recall any crimes against transgender people that were prosecuted as hate crimes in the state. But those provisions have led to few prosecutions. Missouri is one of 17 states with hate crime laws that cover offenses targeting people on the basis of their gender identity. "But no, it's not a hate crime."Įven if the case were deemed to fall under Missouri's hate crime law, it probably would not result in a heavier penalty, since first-degree murder is already punishable by execution or life imprisonment. "You don't kill someone if you don't have hate in your heart," said James Sigman, the sheriff in Missouri's Texas County. Investigators insist - without specifying a motive - that Ally Lee Steinfeld's death was not the result of anti-transgender hate. The volatile issue was back in the spotlight this week as Missouri authorities investigated the killing of a transgender teen who was stabbed in the genitals and had her eyes gouged out. Now many LGBT-rights groups are questioning the effectiveness of the laws, saying they sometimes focus too tightly on individual acts without addressing underlying bias or wider violence.
Yet state or federal hate crime laws are rarely used to prosecute the slayings.
Each year, for the past three years, LGBT advocacy groups have tallied the killings of more than 20 transgender people in the U.S.
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