This blog originally appeared at THEM.
A man from South Carolina is potentially facing a life sentence for purportedly being involved in the death of a Black transgender woman in 2019.
The following contains descriptions of anti-transgender violence.
A South Carolina man is now facing murder charges nearly five years after the alleged killing of a Black transgender woman, marking the first instance in U.S. history where a federal grand jury will consider a gender-based hate crime.
Daqua Lameek Ritter, 26, stands accused of murder as a hate crime, using a firearm in the commission of a hate crime, and obstruction of justice, according to a press release issued Wednesday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of South Carolina. The charges, as stated by DOJ investigators, could lead to a maximum combined sentence of life imprisonment plus 25 years. Notably, prosecutors are currently not pursuing the death penalty.
In August 2019, Ritter purportedly enticed a Black trans woman, identified in court documents as Dime Doe, with whom prosecutors assert he was involved in an affair, to a secluded area of South Carolina in a vehicle, where he allegedly shot her to death. Prosecutors in the ongoing trial have argued that Ritter grew enraged and humiliated after his girlfriend and others discovered his relationship with Doe, leading him to murder Doe in an effort to “silence” her and quell further rumors, according to the Associated Press. Following the incident, Ritter purportedly destroyed his clothing, misled investigators about his whereabouts at the time of Doe’s demise, and subsequently fled to New York to evade apprehension.
Additionally, the indictment charges Xavier Pinckney, 24, with obstructing justice for allegedly providing false information to investigators on Ritter’s behalf. Both individuals were initially charged last year, with Pinckney individually pleading guilty in October.
While a separate case resulted in a 49-year sentence for the murder of a transgender woman in 2017, Ritter’s trial signifies the inaugural instance of a gender-based hate crime being tried at the federal level, as noted by the AP. Notably, due to South Carolina being one of only two states yet to enact its own hate crimes legislation, the federal government retains jurisdiction to pursue Doe’s murder as an anti-transgender hate crime, as constitutional law professor Kenji Yoshino explained to NBC.
Ritter’s defense team asserts that Ritter was not present in the vehicle when Doe was killed, and implores jurors to look beyond the “sensational” aspects of the case. However, prosecutors contend that Ritter can be identified by a distinctive tattoo visible in contemporaneous photographs, and have indicated that text messages will establish a motive.
As per the latest Trans Murder Monitoring report by advocacy network Transgender Europe, between October 2022 and September 2023, a minimum of 321 trans and gender-diverse individuals were tragically murdered worldwide. The overwhelming majority were trans women or transfeminine individuals, with approximately half falling victim to fatal shootings. Shockingly, 80% of the reported murders involved trans individuals who also faced racism. In the United States, incidents of anti-trans hate crimes saw a notable increase of approximately 40% in 2022, as revealed by an FBI report released in October.
Friends and family fondly recall Doe as a vibrant and larger-than-life personality who consistently brought joy to those around her. Reflecting on her life in a memorial for the online magazine ZORA months after her passing, one friend shared, “She was never a sad person. You could barely catch her mad. She always kept it energetic.”
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