18-Year Old Victim Had Testified in April for Passage of Matthew Shepard Act
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Austin, TX (July 2, 2007) – Equality Texas today mourns the death of David Ritcheson, the 18-year-old Spring, Texas teenager who had survived an April, 2006 brutal hate crime. On April 22, 2006, Ritcheson was beaten nearly to death by self-professed Skinheads, who cut him, burned him, poured bleach over him, sodomized him with an outdoor umbrella pole and yelled anti-Hispanic slurs.
Last November and December, Ritcheson sat in a courtroom in Harris County, Texas and faced his attackers for the first time as they went through their respective trials. Ritcheson’s attackers eventually were convicted of aggravated sexual assault; one was given a life sentence, the other 90 years.
[On Sunday, July 1, 2007, David Ritcheson apparently jumped to his death from the upper deck of a cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico
Less than three months ago, on April 17, 2007, David Ritcheson went to Washington, D.C. and testified before the House Judiciary Committee urging passage of the “Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007”, also known as the Matthew Shepard Act.
Ritcheson’s testimony included:“I appear before you as a survivor of one of the most despicable, shocking, and heinous acts of hate violence this country has seen in decades. Nearly one year ago on April 22, 2006, I was viciously attacked by two individuals because of my heritage as a Mexican-American.”