Matthew Shepherd 15 years later

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/23/book-claims-matthew-shepard-murdered-for-reasons-far-more-complicated-than/

Synopsis:

Fifteen years after Matthew Shepard was tied to a fence and beaten to death in Wyoming, becoming a powerful symbol for the gay community's fight for hate crimes legislation, a new book claims the college student was murdered for “reasons far more complicated” than being homosexual.

Stephen Jimenez’s “The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard” claims a 13-year investigation — including trips to Laramie, Wyo., and interviews with more than 100 sources — contradicts police testimony and national consensus that the University of Wyoming freshman was targeted by Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson in 1998 because he was gay.

McKinney and Henderson, both of whom are serving life sentences in Wyoming for the killing, broke their silence on the case in 2004 during their first public interview following the attack. They said they were motivated by the prospect of robbery to feed a methamphetamine binge rather than violent homophobia.

Analysis:

"Oh no. We didn't kill him because he was gay. We killed him because we needed hard, illegal drugs." Yeah. That makes perfect sense and now it isn't so bad that you killed a boy. 

Basically thats all that I gathered from this article. For the last 15 years this particular even has stood out in history as a major hate crime on gays. To me, this is very much an attempt to rewrite history. Justifying a murder as drug related as opposed to a hate crime doesn't actually work. It makes it just as pathetic and just as desperate. Yes, maybe beating Matthew to death wasn't your real self, but your "meth self," but it still isn't a sufficient excuse. 

How do you know they aren't lying and that it really was a hate crime? Valid question. These were statements released in 2004 from the men, who are serving life sentences in prison for what they did. They are going to be in prison forever. Why did they need to make a statement on the matter? Nothing they can say now is going to change their fate. So no benefit or harm can necessarily come from it. From men with nothing to gain or lose, they would probably just want everyone to know the truth. They won't be thought of as better or worse guys because they said it was meth not homophobia. It doesn't make the fact that they killed someone easier to bear just because it was a consequence of meth.