Matthew Shepard - Ten Years Later

His story is one that is often told and one that should always be remembered. It was shortly after midnight on Oct. 7, 1998, when 21-year-old Matthew Shepard, an openly gay University of Wyoming student, was tied to a split-rail fence in Laramie, Wyoming and left for dead in the cold of night.  He was found almost 18 hours later by a cyclist who initially mistook him for a scarecrow. Six days after being discovered, Matthew died from his wounds. According to a coroner at the trial of his attackers , he “was hit at least 20 times by blows so hard they fractured his skull six times[.]“  The damage was so disturbing that jurors, “winced as they viewed graphic photos of [his] bloodied face[.]” The brutal murder of Matthew Shepard shocked the nation and in the ten years since has become one of the most covered and discussed anti-gay hate crimes in American history.  Matthew’s mother, Judy Shepard, has devoted this last decade to sharing her son&...