Kentucky Gets First Two Convictions on Gay Hate Crimes

Ashamed the crime happened here, committed by Kentuckians. So proud Kentucky is the first to use the federal hate crimes law to nail the motherfuckers.

From the Courier:

Two Kentucky women have pleaded guilty to helping kidnap and assault a gay man in the first federal case to use a hate-crime law that protects against attacks motivated by sexual orientation.

Mable Ashley Jenkins and Alexis LeeAnn Jenkins, both 19, pleaded guilty this week to aiding and abetting the kidnapping and hate-crime assault against a man in a southeastern Kentucky park last year. The U.S. District Court in London unsealed the guilty pleas Friday, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Lexington.

Two men, cousins David Jason Jenkins, 37, of Cumberland, and Anthony Ray Jenkins, 20, of Partridge, have been indicted on charges of kidnapping, assault and violating the hate-crime law. All four defendants are facing a maximum sentence of life in prison for the April 4, 2011, attack on Kevin Pennington at Kingdom Come State Park in Harlan County.

SNIP

Federal prosecutors say this is the nation’s first federal case charging a violation of the sexual orientation section of the Matthew Shepard-James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which was passed in 2009. The women’s guilty pleas were the first convictions under that section of the law.