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Plea Deal Reached In Emotionally Charged Transgendered Woman's Murder Case

CeCe McDonald   Facebook

MINNEAPOLIS, MN -- The plea to second-degree manslaughter in a case that involved a 23 year old transgendered female- on trial for killing a man who witnesses claimed used racist and transphobic slurs- has angered supporters of the defendant.

CeCe McDonald, a transgender woman of colour, was on trial for the murder of Dean Schmitz, 47, after a June 5 confrontation last year. McDonald was walking with a group of friends past a local bar where Schmitz and others were outside smoking. Hennepin County prosecutors said that words were exchanged, a fight broke out and McDonald stabbed Schmitz in the chest with a pair of scissors.

As the fight broke out, a woman allegedly threw a glass and cut McDonald's face. According to witnesses, Schmitz pulled McDonald out of the melee and said "You stabbed me." McDonald allegedly replied "Yes, I did" and walked away. Schmitz died at the scene of a stab wound to the heart area. Another witness reported seeing McDonald throw away scissors in a nearby supermarket parking lot.

In a videotaped interview with police afterwards, McDonald claimed that she took out scissors to scare Schmitz, but he "ran into them." McDonald later denied stabbing Schmitz, then switched to say she acted in self-defense.

McDonald’s case attracted attention around the country, with many viewing McDonald’s actions self-defence. Dozens of her supporters, clad in purple, attended McDonald’s hearings.

Supporters allege that McDonald is being punished simply for surviving. Transgender women of colour in particular face extreme levels of violence against them. In April of this year alone, three transgender women of colour have been murdered in the United States.

Supporters also argue that this case illustrates the criminal justice system's institutional biases toward the sexual orientation and race.

Minneapolis City Council member Cam Gordon chose to defend McDonald, writing that he believes McDonald was targeted for her race and gender. "It appears that CeCe was the victim of a hate crime that involved many people but she was the only person held by the police. Here is another example transgender women of color being targeted for hate- and bias-related violence. It is unfortunate that in this case, as in so many, the hate crime itself appears to have been ignored."

The Minnesota Daily's columnist Melanie Williams wrote; "[Schmitz's] attack, therefore, was not just a random attack on one person’s body, but an attack on an entire race and entire gender. An entire population of living, breathing, feeling people are hurting with McDonald, perhaps not physically but in the core of who they are."

Prosecutors don't dispute there were slurs, but also point out that during her plea in Hennepin County District Court, McDonald agreed to stop claiming that the stabbing was in self-defense or accidental, and she also admitted that she could see that Schmitz did not have a weapon.
She is expected to be sentenced to 41 months in prison and will likely serve about 20 months given good behaviour and time already served.