LGBTQIA+ Death Penalty

September 4, 2024

Sentencing LGBTQIA+ People to Death

Recently, The Appeal analyzed criminal cases in which queer defendants faced the death penalty, examining how their LGBTQIA+ identity played into the outcome. The result of this analysis? Anti-LGBTQIA+ bias (unsurprisingly) influenced more than 50% of these cases.

As Adam M. Rhodes writes, no part of the criminal legal system is immune from such bias. Judges have “hidden virulent homophobia when presiding over cases,” while prosecutors have “masculinized queer women and pathologized queer men to play into jurors’ biases.” Jurors have acted on their biases when deciding to sentence someone to death. And defense attorneys have “thrown in the flag when defending their queer clients.”

The fact that people are being killed by the state is, by itself, horrific. But knowing that the state disproportionately kills the most marginalized – including LGBTQIA+ folks – renders the death penalty even more disturbing. This disproportionality is due, in part, to the notion that “the process of dehumanization required to obtain a death sentence is easier” when a defendant is of a “different race, class, sexual orientation, and/or gender identity than the jurors or judge,” as Andrea Ritchie, Joey L. Mogul, and Kay Whitlock opine in Queer (In)Justice.

We at the Woodhull Freedom Foundation are grateful to The Appeal for directing attention to such a critical, fundamental human rights violation. In light of the inherent inhumanity of the death penalty – and the deep concerns regarding the role that bias plays in sentencing – we unequivocally join in calls by advocates including Lambda Legal, the ACLU’s LGBTQ Rights Project, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights to abolish the death penalty.