State of Wyoming v. Aaron McKinney
E641696
State of Wyoming v. Aaron McKinney is the criminal case in which Aaron McKinney was prosecuted and convicted for the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a killing that drew national attention to anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes in the United States.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| State of Wyoming v. Aaron McKinney canonical | 1 |
| State of Wyoming v. Russell Henderson | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7112246 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: State of Wyoming v. Aaron McKinney Context triple: [Matthew Shepard, legalCase, State of Wyoming v. Aaron McKinney]
-
A.
Wolf v. Colorado
Wolf v. Colorado was a 1949 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held the Fourth Amendment’s exclusionary rule did not apply to the states, a position later reversed by Mapp v. Ohio.
-
B.
Oregon v. Elstad
Oregon v. Elstad is a 1985 U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that a suspect’s later, properly Mirandized confession can be admissible even if an earlier unwarned statement was obtained in violation of Miranda.
-
C.
Arizona v. Evans
Arizona v. Evans is a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court case that extended the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule to evidence obtained through an arrest based on erroneous computer records.
-
D.
Skinner v. Oklahoma
Skinner v. Oklahoma is a landmark 1942 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a state law mandating the sterilization of certain criminal offenders, recognizing procreation as a fundamental right under the Equal Protection Clause.
-
E.
United States v. Ryan
United States v. Ryan is a U.S. Supreme Court decision that formed part of the landmark 1883 Civil Rights Cases, which curtailed federal enforcement of civil rights protections against private discrimination.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: State of Wyoming v. Aaron McKinney Target entity description: State of Wyoming v. Aaron McKinney is the criminal case in which Aaron McKinney was prosecuted and convicted for the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a killing that drew national attention to anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes in the United States.
-
A.
Wolf v. Colorado
Wolf v. Colorado was a 1949 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held the Fourth Amendment’s exclusionary rule did not apply to the states, a position later reversed by Mapp v. Ohio.
-
B.
Oregon v. Elstad
Oregon v. Elstad is a 1985 U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that a suspect’s later, properly Mirandized confession can be admissible even if an earlier unwarned statement was obtained in violation of Miranda.
-
C.
Arizona v. Evans
Arizona v. Evans is a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court case that extended the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule to evidence obtained through an arrest based on erroneous computer records.
-
D.
Skinner v. Oklahoma
Skinner v. Oklahoma is a landmark 1942 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a state law mandating the sterilization of certain criminal offenders, recognizing procreation as a fundamental right under the Equal Protection Clause.
-
E.
United States v. Ryan
United States v. Ryan is a U.S. Supreme Court decision that formed part of the landmark 1883 Civil Rights Cases, which curtailed federal enforcement of civil rights protections against private discrimination.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | criminal case ⓘ |
| associatedFederalLaw | Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| associatedFederalLawEnactmentYear | 2009 ⓘ |
| associatedWith | Matthew Shepard hate crime narrative ⓘ |
| charge |
aggravated robbery
ⓘ
first-degree murder ⓘ kidnapping ⓘ |
| conviction |
aggravated robbery
ⓘ
felony murder ⓘ kidnapping ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | Albany County District Court NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| crimeAdditionalAct | leaving victim tied to a fence ⓘ |
| crimeMethod | beating ⓘ |
| crimeType | hate-motivated violence ⓘ |
| dateOfCrime | October 6, 1998 ⓘ |
| dateOfVictimDeath | October 12, 1998 ⓘ |
| deathPenaltyAvoidedBy | plea agreement ⓘ |
| deathPenaltyImposed | false ⓘ |
| deathPenaltySought | true ⓘ |
| defendant | Aaron McKinney NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| defendantBirthName | Aaron James McKinney NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| defenseArgument | claimed drug use and robbery motive ⓘ |
| impact | increased public awareness of anti-gay violence ⓘ |
| inspiredDiscussionOf | hate crime legislation in the United States ⓘ |
| involvedVictimSexualOrientation | gay ⓘ |
| jurisdiction | State of Wyoming NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| legalOutcome | guilty plea ⓘ |
| legalSignificance | frequently cited in debates over hate crime laws ⓘ |
| locationOfTrial | Laramie, Wyoming NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| mediaCoverage | extensive national media coverage ⓘ |
| notableFor | national attention to anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes ⓘ |
| placeOfCrime | near Laramie, Wyoming ⓘ |
| pleaAgreementDate | November 1999 ⓘ |
| pleaType | guilty to felony murder and kidnapping ⓘ |
| presidingJudge | Barton R. Voigt NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| prosecutionAllegation | murder motivated by anti-gay bias ⓘ |
| prosecutorSought | death penalty before plea ⓘ |
| publicPerception | widely regarded as anti-gay hate crime ⓘ |
| relatedCase | State of Wyoming v. Russell Henderson NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| sentence | two consecutive life sentences ⓘ |
| timePeriodOfTrial | 1999 ⓘ |
| victim | Matthew Shepard NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| victimAgeAtDeath | 21 ⓘ |
| victimCauseOfDeath | severe head injuries ⓘ |
| victimFullName | Matthew Wayne Shepard NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| yearOfCrime | 1998 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: State of Wyoming v. Aaron McKinney Description of subject: State of Wyoming v. Aaron McKinney is the criminal case in which Aaron McKinney was prosecuted and convicted for the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a killing that drew national attention to anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes in the United States.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
State of Wyoming v. Russell Henderson