In a historic verdict, a South Carolina man who murdered a Black transgender woman has been sentenced to life in prison. The sentence was handed down on Thursday after Daqua Lameek Ritter was convicted of fatally shooting Dime Doe in August 2019.
Ritter was found guilty by a jury on all charges, including one count of hate crime, one count of federal firearms violation, and one count of obstruction. He is the first person to be tried and convicted under federal hate crime law for the fatal violence against a transgender person.
“Bias-motivated violence has no place in our society,” said Benjamin C. Mizer, principal deputy associate attorney general, in a statement. “With today’s sentencing, the defendant is being held accountable for the senseless murder of Dime Doe, a transgender woman of color. We hope this verdict provides Ms. Doe’s loved ones with some sense of comfort and demonstrates that the Justice Department will vigorously prosecute those who commit violent acts of hate against the LGBTQI+ community.”
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Dime Doe, who grew up in South Carolina and transitioned after high school, became a hairdresser and began seeing Ritter, according to Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Ritter, however, wanted to keep their relationship secret as he was involved with another woman.
Evidence presented at trial revealed that Ritter became enraged when rumors about his relationship with Doe began to circulate. In August 2019, he drove her to a remote location and shot her three times, Clarke said.
The conviction was secured under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, which expanded federal hate crime laws to include gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability. The law was named after Matthew Shepard, a gay student murdered in Wyoming in 1998, and James Byrd Jr., a Black man killed by white supremacists in Texas that same year.
“The sentencing will not bring Dime Doe back, but it sends a clear message that the Justice Department vigorously defends the civil rights of every American,” Clarke stated.
Following Doe’s death, her friends and family remembered her as having a “bright personality” and being “the best to be around,” according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group. One friend wrote in 2019, “If I knew Friday was my last time seeing you, I would have hugged you even tighter.”
The Human Rights Campaign has reported an alarming rise in fatal violence against trans people, particularly Black trans women. According to the FBI’s annual hate crime report, anti-LGBTQ hate crimes rose by more than 19% from 2021 to 2022, with anti-trans bias incidents increasing by more than 35%.
