“For this Justice Department, it is important for us to send an unequivocal message that violence based on one’s gender identity constitutes a hate crime,” Vanita Gupta of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division told BuzzFeed News after Vallum was charged under the federal hate-crime law in December.

Related | Research Says About 20 Percent of Post-Election Hate Crimes Done in Trump's Name This is the first case prosecuted under the Hate Crimes Prevention Act involving a victim targeted because of gender identity. Justice Department called the bias-motivated murder of his transgender ex-girlfriend, Mercedes Williamson.

Vallum said he was motivated out of fear what would happen to him if his gang found out he was dating a transgender woman. Joshua Brandon Vallum of Lucedale received a sentence of 49 years in prison for what the U.S. Vallum, a Mississippi resident and member of the Latin Kings gang, reportedly lured Williams into a car in Alabama and drove her to his family’s home in Mississippi before stabbing her multiple times and beating her with a claw hammer. Related | No One 'Asks' to Be the Victim of a Hate Crime to be sentenced on federal hate-crime charges for killing a transgender person, the Associated Press reports. On Monday, Joshua Brandon Vallum will become the first person in the U.S. According to the Associated Press, Vallum is scheduled to appear before a judge today in Gulfport, Mississippi, after he pled guilty to hate-crime charges in the death of 17-year-old Mercedes Williams in December 2015. Kelly Wilkins, from Mobile, Alabama, is the mother of 29-year-old Josh Brandon Vallum - who pleaded guilty to a hate crime on Wednesday over the killing of 17-year-old Mercedes Williamson. Mississippi Man to Receive First Sentence Under Federal Hate-Crime Law for Murder of Transgender Person By Lisa Ryan Joshua Brandon Vallum. Man Murdered Ex Because of Fear People Would Find Out Shes Transgender Woman Alberto LuperonDec 22nd. Today Joshua Brandon Vallum will become the first person in United States history to be sentenced on federal hate-crime charges for murdering a transgender person.

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