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Breaking: charges in the murder of Islan Nettles

EG

TRIGGER WARNING: VIOLENCE AGAINST TRANS WOMEN

James Dixon has been charged with manslaughter in the 2013 murder of Islan Nettles, a young black trans woman in NYC. He is pleading not guilty. The crime is not being charged as a hate crime because the police say they cannot tell what was said before Dixon beat Nettles to death, but no motive beyond transmisogyny transmisogynoir has been suggested.

Insofar as one can be pleased about anything in this situation, I am glad that Nettles’s death was not allowed to pass unnoticed and ignored by the city, and I am glad to say that the linked NYT article genders her correctly, although it refers to her gender identity as her “sexual orientation.” It is unclear to me whether this is a result of ignorance, a mistake, or because “sexual orientation” is included as a protected category in NY’s hate crimes law and gender identity is not, though gender is.

I don’t have anything analytical to say about this, but I remember how upsetting this murder was to many of us here, and I wanted to update the community.

17 thoughts on Breaking: charges in the murder of Islan Nettles

  1. Really glad to see this happening, and that the charge is appropriate (i.e. he wasn’t able to plead down to battery). That said, I have to question why it took the NYPD so goddamn long to make the arrest. I’ll be interested to follow the trial.

    1. The article says that there was another suspect, present at the time, who originally confessed but was not the killer, and that muddied the waters. I remember when the original suspect was not arraigned, and how upsetting that was, so I’m glad that it turned out to be (I hope) because they were dedicated to identifying the true killer instead of just closing the case quickly. And I’m glad they didn’t just let it go when that original man turned out not to be the right one.

      1. The article says that there was another suspect, present at the time, who originally confessed but was not the killer, and that muddied the waters. I remember when the original suspect was not arraigned, and how upsetting that was, so I’m glad that it turned out to be (I hope) because they were dedicated to identifying the true killer instead of just closing the case quickly. And I’m glad they didn’t just let it go when that original man turned out not to be the right one.

        Huh, I might be reading the article wrong but it seems to suggest that it was Dixon who confessed to the beating immediately after the crime, but someone else was arrested anyways.

        Either way, I’m definitely glad of that as well.

  2. The motive was transmisogynoir, not transmisogyny. For Black trans women, misogynoir and transmisogyny are experientially inseparable. It’s extremely important to keep this in mind, because it’s impossible to be a genuine ally of Black trans women when the basis of their oppression is wrongfully conceptualized.

  3. It’s a sad state of affairs that we can be relieved someone was even charged with a crime here, let alone anything else about this case. Hopefully it’ll lead to some changes in the justice system.

  4. This might be a little 101, but what’s the difference between gender and gender identity as it relates to the law?

    1. Honestly, I have no idea at all. I was just speculating. I guess I could see a transphobic jury deciding that since he didn’t attack her because she was a woman, but because she was a trans woman, that didn’t count as a gender hate crime? But I don’t know, I’m just making shit up.

    2. I think it’s the usual sex/gender fail and misgendering.

      If the law doesn’t acknowledge/protect specifically trans and/or nonbinary identities then the motive for killing is no longer a hate crime.

      It would work like this: Islan was a man dressed like a woman and was thus murdered. Since “dress” is not a protected category it is not a hate crime, any more than it would be a hate crime if I were shot for wearing a Packers shirt in Chicago.

      (Please please understand I don’t think this is true and is just a gross disrespect, but that’s how I think it would play out in court.)

  5. See the further details in this article:

    http://gawker.com/man-arrested-for-killing-transgender-woman-18-months-af-1689363065

    Just to clarify once again, the person who was originally arrested (Paris Wilson) was released after James Dixon confessed. They were both part of the harassing group, and apparently bear a strong resemblance to each other.

    It supposedly took until now for the confusion to be cleared up. I would remind everyone of the extreme outrage from a lot of people when Wilson was released, because Dixon’s confession was seen by some as some kind of ploy to muddy the waters. As it turned out, they seem to have gotten the right person in the end.

    As for the hate crime issue, crimes based on “gender” and sexual orientation are both grounds for charging someone under the New York State hate crimes statute, and I believe that at least one killing of a trans person has been charged as a hate crime under NY law. I think the ostensible reason for not charging Dixon with a hate crime is a perceived difficulty in proving that Islan Nettles was attacked for being trans. (I’m dubious; I think that’s exactly the reason that Islan was attacked.)

    Dixon, the accused perpetrator, is also black, so it’s also not feasible to charge him with a racial hate crime.

    Aaliyah, is “transmisogynoir” a term generally accepted among black trans women? I ask only because the person whom Wikipedia credits with coining the term is a cis woman.

    1. See these links for further clarification of New York’s hate crimes law. Under the federal hate crimes law, by the way, “actual or perceived” gender and gender identity are both expressly protected categories.

      http://www.transgenderlegal.org/headline_show.php?id=530

      November 24, 2014 – TLDEF today renewed its call for justice in the case of a slain transgender woman after the New York State Court of Appeals overturned the hate crime conviction of the man accused of killing her but allowed the state to retry him on the disputed hate crime charge. DeLee was originally convicted of manslaughter in the first degree as a hate crime for the 2008 killing of Syracuse resident Lateisha “Teish” Green, a 22-year-old African American transgender woman.

      Green died November 14, 2008 after she was shot outside a house party in Syracuse. Evidence at trial demonstrated that DeLee shot her because she was transgender and because he believed she was gay. A jury found DeLee guilty of manslaughter in the first degree as a hate crime in July of 2009 and in August of that year he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

      It was the first time a New York jury had delivered a hate crime conviction in the killing of a transgender person, and only the second hate crime conviction in the nation stemming from the killing of a transgender person. The jury reached the first degree manslaughter as a hate crime verdict after determining that DeLee had targeted Green based on his perception of her sexual orientation, which is a protected category under New York’s hate crimes law.

      http://www.ag.ny.gov/civil-rights/lgbt-rights

      Hate Crimes Laws

      With the passage of New York’s Hate Crimes Act in 2000, the legislature recognized in its findings that “crimes motivated by invidious hatred toward particular groups not only harm individual victims but send a powerful message of intolerance and discrimination to all members of the group to which the victim belongs. Hate crimes can and do intimidate and disrupt entire communities and vitiate the civility that is essential to healthy democratic processes.” The law offers local District Attorney’s Offices, who are tasked with enforcing its provisions, sentence enhancements to criminal defendants who are found to have committed a criminal offense – or who intentionally selects the victim of such an offense – in whole or substantial part because of a belief or perception of the victim’s sexual orientation, among other relevant characteristics. While New York’s Hate Crimes Act does not explicitly address gender identity-based hate crimes, under the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, the definition of “hate crime” has been expanded to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability. The federal law also gives the United States Department of Justice expanded authority to prosecute such hate crimes when local authorities do not. Individuals cannot privately enforce either the New York or federal hate-crimes laws.

    2. The Black trans women I know use that term to describe their oppression, so that’s why I’m using it. And as far as I can tell, transmisogynoir is a popular term among Black trans women on social media websites.

    3. Just to clarify once again, the person who was originally arrested (Paris Wilson) was released after James Dixon confessed. They were both part of the harassing group, and apparently bear a strong resemblance to each other.

      It supposedly took until now for the confusion to be cleared up. I would remind everyone of the extreme outrage from a lot of people when Wilson was released, because Dixon’s confession was seen by some as some kind of ploy to muddy the waters. As it turned out, they seem to have gotten the right person in the end.

      Thanks Donna (by the way, is it OK to call you Donna or do you prefer DonnaL? sorry if this is silly but I know some people feel strongly about their nyms). That actually clarifies a lot, I was really confused by the details of this case.

      The Black trans women I know use that term to describe their oppression, so that’s why I’m using it. And as far as I can tell, transmisogynoir is a popular term among Black trans women on social media websites.

      I’m not qualified to join the discussion over whether it applies to this case, but I do think it’s a really cool word that I’ll definitely remember. I like like linguistic constructions that reinforce intersectionality, especially when they’re pronounceable! So, thanks for teaching me something new.

      1. Just Donna is fine. It is my name, after all! L is simply the first letter of what may or may not be my real surname. I adopted it years ago as part of my user name in most places, because “Donna” alone was already taken.

        And how do you feel about being called “ludlow,” without the 22?

        1. Ludlow is good! The 22 is just a relic of a time I registered a username and ‘ludlow’ was already taken, so no attachment to it. It’s not my name, just the street I lived on for most of my life. Thanks for asking!

  6. Comment in moderation with further links regarding New York State’s hate crime statute, as it has been applied to crimes against trans people, based on the inclusion of actual or perceived gender and sexual orientation as protected categories even absent express mention of gender identity and/or expression. The federal hate crimes statute, enacted much more recently, does expressly include gender identity as a protected category.

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