Federal Court Denies Henderson Appeal in Matthew Shepard Murder

Posted on | February 22, 2006

The Washington Blade is reporting the a federal judge has denied Russell Henderson’s request for a review of his case. On October 6th, 1998, Henderson, along with Aaron MicKinney, kidnapped, robbed, beat and then tied Matthew Shepard to a fence near Laramie, Wyoming, and left him for dead. Shepard was still alive when a cyclist, who first though he was just a scarecrow, found him. Matthew was transported to a hospital in Colorado where, in spite of the best efforts of Poudre Valley Hospital, Matthew Shepard died as a direct result of his injuries shortly before 1am on October 12th, 1998.

He got a plea bargain to avoid the death penalty and was sentenced prior to the trial of McKinney to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole while, if he had gone to trial, he could have been sentenced to death. His attorney at the time of the plea bargain stressed that Henderson was just a witness and did not actually participate in the beating nor did he get any money from the robbery. In the end, McKinney got an identical sentence of two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.

To me this whole thing centers on Henderson being bitter over the fact that McKinney did not get a death sentence in the murder. This past August he pulled some bullshit claim that his rights were violated because he attorney never told him he could appeal and thus missed a deadline. Whatever happened to asking? This was Henderson’s second attempt since attempts at the state level ended with the same result.

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