A South Carolina man was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for the murder of a Black transgender woman.
In February, a jury convicted Daqua Lameek Ritter for the 2019 killing of Dime Doe on all charges, including one hate crime count, one federal firearms count and one obstruction count.
Ritter is the first person to be tried and convicted under a federal hate crime law named for Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. — men killed because of their sexual orientation and race — for violence against a transgender person. The 2017 murder of Mercedes Williamson, also a trans woman, was the first case prosecuted under the law that involved a victim targeted........