Between trials.

Relieved by Russell Henderson's guilty plea, activists join Matthew Shepard's friends and family in preparing for the next ordeal

Despite six months of buildup and anticipation, the first trial for the murder of Matthew Shepard was over in a flash. A 70-minute flash, to be exact.

In fact, the trial of Russell Henderson never even happened. In a last-minute plea bargain April 5 in Laramie, Wyo., Henderson pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two consecutive life terms. The bargain not only eliminated the risk that Henderson would be put to death but also killed the opportunity for the press attention on hate crimes against gay men and lesbians that would likely have accompanied the trial.

But activists who work every day trying to boost awareness of the plight of gays and lesbians say it was well worth losing the precious press to assure, in this case, that justice was swiftly served.

"There is a sense of relief that [Matthew's parents] won't have to go through weeks of details of this case," says Valerie Baker-Easley, interim executive director of the Lambda Community Center of Northern Colorado and Southern Wyoming.

David Smith, communications director for the Human Rights Campaign, agrees. "Sure, three weeks of intense focus on the case would have illustrated in a stark way the violence against gay people," Smith says. "But it would have been a horrible experience for Judy [Shepard]."

It seems that the plea bargain hearing, which included graphic details of the attack and an apology from Hendemon, was difficult enough for the Shepards. In an interview with The Advocate, Judy Shepard said she couldn't even put the experience into words. "[My husband] Dennis and I are just happy we won't have to go through two trials," she said. (Second murder suspect Aaron McKinney is scheduled to be tried in August.) Shepard says that until then she will continue her work for the Matthew Shepard Foundation and, apart from the foundation work, lobby for passage of the federal hate-crimes bill. She also plans to attend Senate hearings on the proposed law April 28.

Henderson's guilty plea occurred on the eve of both the release of the annual report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs--which showed a slight decrease in attacks against gays and lesbians but an increase in the severity of those attacks--and on President Clinton's endorsement of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

"When someone dies in a horrible incident in America," Clinton said at an April 6 press conference, "or when we see slaughter or ethnic cleansing abroad, we should remember that we defeat these things by teaching and by practicing a different way of life and by reacting vigorously when they occur within our own midst."

While the president drew parallels between Shepard's murder and current events in the Yugoslavian province of Kosovo, Smith says Kosovo news likely would have trumped any coverage of the Henderson trial if it had occurred. "There really is very little news breaking through, and there is some question as to whether [a trial] would have served any purpose at all," he says.

The situation will likely be different when McKinney is tried this summer, says Cathy Renna, director of community relations for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. "[McKinney] is being positioned as the main culprit, the main perpetrator," she says. "I strongly feel that trial is going to happen, and the fact that Matt was gay is certainly going to be a part of it."

In Laramie, where Henderson's plea bargain brought relief by quelling the media buzz around town, residents are looking to the McKinney trial as not only the end of a long ordeal but also a way to answer some questions that still remain unanswered six months after Matthew Shepard's death.

"We're curious and want to know what [Henderson's and McKinney's] motivations were," says Jim Osborne, president of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Association at the University of Wyoming. "Knowing more about what happened will provide us with a chance to do some more healing and to bring our lives closer to normal."