Matthew Shepard Killer's Commutation Request Denied

One of two men convicted in Matthew Shepard’s 1998 murder tried and failed to have his sentence commuted this month, the Wyoming Board of Parole confirmed Thursday to Cowboy State Daily.

Russell Henderson, now 46, was sentenced in 1999 to two life sentences after pleading guilty in the kidnapping and murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was then 21.

Shepard’s killing sparked a national movement that led ultimately to the passage of a 2009 federal law leveled specifically against hate crimes.

Aaron McKinney, who was 22 during the attack, also was sentenced to life sentences in prison.

Though the federal government recognizes the crime as a hate crime due to Shepard’s sexual orientation, former Albany County Attorney Cal Rerucha, who prosecuted the case, told Cowboy State Daily in May that drug use was a leading factor.

Rerucha also said the media has wrongly exaggerated McKinney’s own defense theory that Shepard tried to seduce him, and has overlooked what Rerucha and others now see as the more likely contributor to the awful violence Shepard suffered: methamphetamine.

Evidence of methamphetamine usage was a huge part of the trial too, but the media didn’t care as much about that at the time, Rerucha said.

He pointed to the 2013 book by gay journalist Stephen Jimenez, “The Book of Matt,” which essentially concludes that McKinney and Shepard knew each other before Shepard’s murder, they were sexually involved prior, and they were both involved in the methamphetamine trade.

“A lot of people didn’t appreciate (that book) because they don’t think it helps in what folks are trying to do in getting equal protection to all people regardless of race or sexual orientation,” said Rerucha.

Nevertheless, the book did “get to a lot of the facts” of the case, he said.

Whether Henderson advanced those same statements in his commutation petition is unknown: Wyoming Board of Parole Executive Director Margaret White told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that the man’s petition is privileged.

Henderson’s June, 2024, petition survived the first of three steps to commutation, but failed at the second. A panel of three board members advanced his request in July to the entire board of seven, which only meets four times a year, said White.

But that board of seven voted on Sept. 9 against advancing the petition to the final step, the governor’s office.

Since those board hearings happen in executive session, White declined to give the vote split or describe the discussions that occurred at them.

Had Henderson been sentenced to life without parole, he could not have applied for commutation under Wyoming law, said White. But both his sentences – though consecutive to one another – were simple life sentences, so he could.

White noted that some defendants may ask for a commutation that looks like a sentence reduction, translating a life sentence to a sentence of years. She declined to say whether that was the case with Henderson.

“We treated this like every other commutation petition,” White said.

Henderson won’t be eligible to petition the board again for five years, White said.

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.