Murder of Gwen Araujo

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Gwen Amber Rose Araujo (February 24, 1985 – October 4, 2002) was an American teenager who was murdered in Newark, California, at the age of 17. She was murdered by four men, two of whom she had been sexually intimate with, who beat and strangled her after discovering that she was transgender. Two of the defendants were convicted of second-degree murder, but not the requested hate-crime enhancements to the charges. The other two defendants pleaded guilty or no-contest to voluntary manslaughter. In at least one of the trials, a "trans panic defense"—an extension of the gay panic defense—was employed. Under California law at the time of the murder, the sexual intimacy by Magidson and Merel, both 22 years of age, with Gwen Araujo was statutory rape. Merel and Magidson were sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 15 years. Merel was granted early parole in 2016, after reportedly showing extensive remorse to Araujo's mother, who supported the decision. Magidson, however...

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