A Syracuse man who is being retried for the 2008 shooting of a transgender woman and is serving as his own lawyer made a potentially convincing argument to the jury that eyewitnesses who identified him as the shooter were lying to protect their own friends and loved ones.
Dwight DeLee, 30, is faces a charge of manslaughter with hate crime enhancements for allegedly shooting Lateisha Green, a transgender woman, while she sat in a car on Syracuse’s Near West Side, reports The Syracuse Post-Standard.
If found guilty, DeLee could face up to 25 years in prison.
DeLee was initially convicted of Green’s murder in 2009 and served two years in jail. But he was released after the conviction was overturned because the first jury found him guilty of manslaughter as a hate crime, but not guilty of regular manslaughter.
After a protracted legal battle, the New York State Supreme Court eventually allowed for a retrial. He was re-indicted on the charge in 2016, and went to trial earlier this week, choosing to serve as his own lawyer.
In his closing arguments before the jury, DeLee sought to cast doubt on the charge the hate crime charge leveled against him, employing visual aids that purported to show the names of witnesses for the prosecution, and their connections to one another.
DeLee suggested that the witnesses were protecting people close to them, saying: “As humans, by nature, we are protective and save our own.”
DeLee questioned the witnesses’ credibility, as well as their identification of him as the shooter and their allegations that he had made several anti-gay remarks prior to the shooting. He also noted that it was dark outside, that the witnesses were teenagers who had been drunk and partying, and that their level of intoxication and the loud music from the party could have interfered with their ability to identify DeLee or hear any comments he allegedly made.
“They’re all make-believe, like Santa Claus,” DeLee said of the witnesses’ testimony. “Only parents tell their children about Santa Claus with good intentions. These stories at this trial were given with ill intent.”
DeLee’s arguments may have been bolstered by the fact that two witnesses for the prosecution refused to testify, and one even threatened suicide if he was forced to do so. That man remains in the hospital, while the second witness who declined to testify is serving 30 days in jail for contempt of court.
But prosecutor and Chief Assistant District Attorney Joseph Collican argued that all the witnesses who did testified pointed to one person — DeLee — as the shooter. He added that there was no credible evidence presented at trial that indicates that another person was responsible for Green’s death.
Collican also said that some discrepancies in the witnesses’ accounts were inevitable, but did not stray significantly from one another to justify anything other than a guilty verdict.
“We are all human beings, we all perceive things differently, we all react to things differently,” he said. “If it all added up perfectly, I’d question it.
“Each and every piece of evidence from that witness stand pointed to one person, Dwight DeLee,” Collican concluded, adding that if a homicide investigation is a puzzle, the “face on that puzzle is Dwight DeLee and no one else.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced plans to prohibit transgender individuals from using public bathrooms that match their gender identity on the House side of the U.S. Capitol complex.
As first reported by The Hill, Johnson announced the ban in a public statement. Under House rules, the Speaker has "general control" of facilities in the chamber, giving Johnson the authority to issue policy regarding restroom usage.
"All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings -- such as restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms -- are reserved only for individuals of that biological sex," Johnson said in the statement. "It is important to note that each Member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol."
The Colorado Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit against a Christian baker who refused to create a cake celebrating a gender transition for a transgender woman on procedural grounds.
In doing so, the court sidestepped the issue of whether -- and to what extent -- a person's First Amendment rights override local nondiscrimination laws.
Lower courts in Colorado had previously ruled in favor of the woman, Autumn Scardina, finding -- based on the facts of the case -- that Jack and Debra Phillips, the owners of Masterpiece Cakeshop, in Lakewood Colorado, had discriminated against her by refusing to bake a custom-made cake only after they found out the purported significance of the cake.
U.S. Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.) said she will comply with House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) newly announced policy banning transgender individuals from using restrooms and other facilities that align with their gender identity.
On Wednesday, November 20, Johnson decreed that all single-sex facilities in the U.S. Capitol complex will be reserved for individuals of that biological sex. His edict came in support of a vile, transphobic effort by U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) seeking to ban McBride, the first out transgender person elected to Congress, from women's restrooms.
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A Syracuse man who is being retried for the 2008 shooting of a transgender woman and is serving as his own lawyer made a potentially convincing argument to the jury that eyewitnesses who identified him as the shooter were lying to protect their own friends and loved ones.
Dwight DeLee, 30, is faces a charge of manslaughter with hate crime enhancements for allegedly shooting Lateisha Green, a transgender woman, while she sat in a car on Syracuse’s Near West Side, reports The Syracuse Post-Standard.
If found guilty, DeLee could face up to 25 years in prison.
DeLee was initially convicted of Green’s murder in 2009 and served two years in jail. But he was released after the conviction was overturned because the first jury found him guilty of manslaughter as a hate crime, but not guilty of regular manslaughter.
After a protracted legal battle, the New York State Supreme Court eventually allowed for a retrial. He was re-indicted on the charge in 2016, and went to trial earlier this week, choosing to serve as his own lawyer.
In his closing arguments before the jury, DeLee sought to cast doubt on the charge the hate crime charge leveled against him, employing visual aids that purported to show the names of witnesses for the prosecution, and their connections to one another.
DeLee suggested that the witnesses were protecting people close to them, saying: “As humans, by nature, we are protective and save our own.”
DeLee questioned the witnesses’ credibility, as well as their identification of him as the shooter and their allegations that he had made several anti-gay remarks prior to the shooting. He also noted that it was dark outside, that the witnesses were teenagers who had been drunk and partying, and that their level of intoxication and the loud music from the party could have interfered with their ability to identify DeLee or hear any comments he allegedly made.
“They’re all make-believe, like Santa Claus,” DeLee said of the witnesses’ testimony. “Only parents tell their children about Santa Claus with good intentions. These stories at this trial were given with ill intent.”
DeLee’s arguments may have been bolstered by the fact that two witnesses for the prosecution refused to testify, and one even threatened suicide if he was forced to do so. That man remains in the hospital, while the second witness who declined to testify is serving 30 days in jail for contempt of court.
But prosecutor and Chief Assistant District Attorney Joseph Collican argued that all the witnesses who did testified pointed to one person — DeLee — as the shooter. He added that there was no credible evidence presented at trial that indicates that another person was responsible for Green’s death.
Collican also said that some discrepancies in the witnesses’ accounts were inevitable, but did not stray significantly from one another to justify anything other than a guilty verdict.
“We are all human beings, we all perceive things differently, we all react to things differently,” he said. “If it all added up perfectly, I’d question it.
“Each and every piece of evidence from that witness stand pointed to one person, Dwight DeLee,” Collican concluded, adding that if a homicide investigation is a puzzle, the “face on that puzzle is Dwight DeLee and no one else.”
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