After 19 months in a men's prison, CeCeMcDonald finally walked free Monday morning

[DonViejo]

CeCe McDonald released from prison

After 19 months in a men's prison, McDonald finally walked free Monday morning VIDEO

KATIE MCDONOUGH

After 19 months in a men’s prison, CeCe McDonald finally walked free Monday morning.

McDonald, a transgender woman, was sentenced to 41 months in a St. Cloud, Minn., facility, after fatally stabbing a man while defending herself during a trans-phobic attack.

McDonald was out with friends in Minneapolis in June 2011 when she was confronted by a group of white men and women outside a neighborhood bar. According to witnesses, the group of bar patrons shouted racist and trans-phobic slurs at McDonald and her group. McDonald tried to walk away, but the confrontation escalated and she was sliced in the face with a beer bottle by one of the female patrons. The two groups began to fight; McDonald walked away once again, but was pursued by Dean Schmitz. McDonald says she turned around to confront him while holding a pair of scissors she retrieved from her purse; he was stabbed in the chest and died from the injury. McDonald was charged with two counts of second degree murder, went on to accept a plea to manslaughter in the second degree, and was sentenced to 41 months in a men’s prison.

The profile of the case has brought much needed attention to the violence faced by trans people, and other cases in which a trans person has been charged with a crime while acting in self-defense.

A recent case in California provides yet another example of the kind of daily harassment and violence that trans men and women face at alarming rates, and what happens when they attempt self-defense.

more
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/13/cece_mcdonald_released_from_prison/

[chervilant]

1. My heart goes out to her!

What a horrible experience!

[Behind the Aegis]

2. This is wrong on so many levels!