The first federal indictment for an anti-gay hate crime in U.S. history has been handed out today to two men in Kentucky.
A federal grand jury in London, Ky., returned a three-count indictment charging David Jason Jenkins, 37, and Anthony Ray Jenkins, 20, for kidnapping and assaulting Kevin Pennington, and for conspiring with each other and with other unnamed individuals to commit the kidnapping. The indictment charges the men with committing a hate crime in violation of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded federal jurisdiction to include certain assaults motivated by someone’s sexual orientation.
The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was signed into law by President Obama, by the way.
Matthew Shepard was tortured and killed in 1998 because of his sexual orientation.