Hate law punishes the killer of trans woman

A Mississippi man was sentenced to 49 years in prison Monday for killing his transgender former girlfriend, a case the Justice Department said was the first involving violence against a transgender person to be prosecuted under the federal Hate Crimes Act.

The man, Joshua Vallum, 29, killed Mercedes Williamson in May 2015, after the end of their relationship, because a friend learned that she was transgender, a fact Vallum kept hidden from friends and family while they dated. Localnews reports said Ms. Williamson was 17 at the time of her death.

Vallum is a member of the Latin Kings gang and decided to kill Ms. Williamson because he “believed he would be in danger” if other gang members learned that he had once dated a woman he knew to be transgender, the Justice Department said in a statement. He pleaded guilty to a state-level murder charge and was sentenced to life in prison last July.

In December, Vallum pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a federal hate crime statute signed into law in 2009.

“Today’s sentencing reflects the importance of holding individuals accountable when they commit violent acts against transgender individuals,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in the statement. “The Justice Department will continue its efforts to vindicate the rights of those individuals who are affected by bias-motivated crimes.”

But Rob Hill, Mississippi state director for the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT advocacy group, said the case showed how much more work needed to be done at the state level.

Mississippi — where Vallum stabbed Ms. Williamson and beat her with a hammer after driving her into the state from Alabama — is one of 20 states that do not have a hate crime law covering crimes committed on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, according to the HumanRights Campaign.

“There is an epidemic of violence against transgender people, and particularly women of color, across the country,” Mr. Hill said. “And yet today is the first time a perpetrator will be sentenced under federal hate crimes charges for killing a transgender person because that crime crossed a state line.”

At least 22 transgender people, most of them women of color, were killed in 2016, according to the Human Rights Campaign.