Lawyer calls transgender slay execution

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-3980102,00.html

HAYWARD, Calif. (AP) - Prosecutors are presenting the slaying of a transgender teen as an ``execution'' by young men whipped into a fury by a deception that gnawed at their tender egos.

``They decided ... that the wages of Eddie Araujo's sin of deception were death,'' prosecutor Chris Lamiero said as the trial got under way Wednesday.

Araujo, 17, was beaten and strangled in 2002 in a slaying that has drawn national attention to violence against transgender people, or those who believe their sexual identity is at odds with their biology.

Angry shouts of ``Are you a woman or a man?'' escalated to murder, fueled by the explosive combination of insecurity and ``tough guy'' personas, the prosecutor said.
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Surprizing a few of them didn't join up to kill "Rag Heads"--- but then the "Rag Heads" just might shoot back and kill their sorry asses.

This young person who was killed probably should have had a gun for self-defense. Its the only way to protect yourself. Dial 911 and die.

I am tired of killings by groups of armed thugs being described as "executions." Regardless of my position of capital punishment (I now oppose it), a deliberate killing of a human being by a group or individual without the sanction of the state is murder, period.

senseless