Pair Guilty of Murder in Gwen Araujo Slaying

Posted on | January 27, 2006

After nearly four years of waiting, Gwen Araujo was finally given justice with her killers being sentenced for fifteen-to-life in prison for her murder. Michael Madigson and Jose Merel were found guilty of second degree murder while Jason Cazares plead no contest to manslaughter and was sentenced to six years. This was the second trial for the three men as the first ended in a mistrial when the jurors deadlocked over finding the three guilty of first or second degree murder after they rejected any possibility of the murder being manslaughter.

Gwen, born Edward, was murdered after the men discovered she was biologically a male. In a variation of the so-called "gay panic" defense, which blames the victim for the crime, the defense had contended that the trio freaked out at discovering that fact after having sex with Araujo. A defense psychiatrist had also testified that their "gay panic" was amplified because of drug and alcohol use as if that excused it. The use of the defense angered Gwen’s family especially because it implied that she deceived people about being born biologically a male.

As a result of the defense’s use of the "gay panic" defense, the California assembly passed a bill banning its use in court. In spite of what supports of the defense say, it is exactly the same as blaming a rape victim for being "dressed provocatively" at the time. The bill passed yesterday, Republicans voting against it because I guess they believe a person’s homosexuality/transgenderedness make them at least partially responsible for crimes against them, and is named after Gwen.

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