Lgbtq+ People

Additional Resources

Articles and Other Publications

  • Adam Rhodes, In U.S. Courts, Anti-LGBTQ+ Bias Can Be a Death Sentence, The Appeal, August 13, 2024.
  • Prison Policy Initiative, Why Abolition of The Death Penalty Is a Queer Issue
  • Bailey P. Stamp, No Pride, All Prejudice: Addressing LGBTQ+ Bias in Capital Punishment Sentencing, Lincoln Memorial University Law Review, Summer 2023.
    • This arti­cle focus­es on how stricter safe­guards must be put in place to pro­tect LGBTQ+ defen­dants from dis­crim­i­na­tion in cap­i­tal cas­es. Safeguards must be used to pre­vent a defen­dan­t’s sex­u­al­i­ty from being a fac­tor used to prej­u­dice a jury.
  • Jessica Sutton, John Mills, Jennifer Merrigan, Kristin Swain, Death by Dehumanization: Prosecutorial Narratives of Death-Sentenced Women and LGBTQ+ Prisoners, St. John’s Law Review, 2021.
    • This arti­cle explores dehu­man­iz­ing pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al nar­ra­tives often used against LGBTQ+ peo­ple fac­ing the death penal­ty and argues that these nar­ra­tives ulti­mate­ly vio­late the U.S. Constitution’s pro­tec­tion of the dig­ni­ty of those fac­ing loss of life or lib­er­ty. The authors pro­vide a wide range of exam­ples of dam­ag­ing nar­ra­tives and shows how they fur­ther dis­ad­van­tage LGBTQ+ defendants.
  • Matt Kellner, Queer and Unusual: Capital Punishment, LGBTQ+ Identity, and the Constitutional Path Forward, Tulane Journal of Law and Sexuality, 2020.
    • This arti­cle explores the case of Charles Rhines, a gay man sen­tenced to death in South Dakota, and the role that homo­pho­bia played in the court­room with his jurors. Kellner explores anti-queer bias and ani­mus in the crim­i­nal legal system.
  • James Hampton, Homosexuality: An Aggravating Factor, Law & Sexuality, 2019.
    • This arti­cle exam­ines whether sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion is used as an aggra­vat­ing fac­tor for LGBTQ+ peo­ple and whether suf­fi­cient pro­ce­dur­al safe­guards are in place to pro­tect those indi­vid­u­als from hav­ing their sex­u­al­i­ty used against them in a cap­i­tal tri­al. The arti­cle also looks at the his­to­ry of the crim­i­nal­iza­tion of homo­sex­u­al­i­ty in the U.S..
  • Michael B. Shortnacy, Sexual Minorities, Criminal Justice, and the Death Penalty, Fordham Urban Law Journal, 2005.
    • This arti­cle address­es the bias­es LGBTQ+ peo­ple face in the court­room and the need for more insti­tu­tions to acknowl­edge these issues and devote more resources to under­stand­ing their preva­lence and impact. The arti­cle sug­gests that these bias­es may play a role in cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing and calls for greater advo­ca­cy and pro­tec­tion for LGBTQ+ indi­vid­u­als in the crim­i­nal legal system.

Related Websites

See the Human Dignity Trust for more infor­ma­tion on LGBTQ+ peo­ple and the death penalty internationally.

See The Gender and Sexuality Capital Resource Center at Phillips Black, Inc. for more infor­ma­tion about rep­re­sen­ta­tion for LGBTQ+ peo­ple fac­ing extreme sentences.