The jury foreperson in a landmark federal hate crime trial involving a trans woman’s death in Allendale, South Carolina, shared what important pieces of evidence persuaded her of the defendant’s guilt.
A judge in Columbia determined that Daqua Ritter shot and killed Dime Doe, who he had been romantically involved with, along a rural road on August 4, 2019, after about four days of deliberation last Friday.
In the first trial of its kind in the country, a federal jury found a person guilty of a hate crime for a crime based on gender identity.
Deanna “Dee” Elder, a jury foreperson whose job is to ensure that deliberations are conducted in a free and orderly manner, stated in an interview that she thought Ritter and the victim’s nearly 750 writings were the most compelling pieces of evidence that this was a bias-motivated violence.
These texts, many of which were later deleted at Ritter’s request, depict a relationship that had become extremely contentious.
Ritter expresses stress in some of the messages that his girlfriend at the time had concerns about seeing Doe, who was 24 years older.
“We couldn’t go through them in the open court, but when I got a chance to sit down and really sort of partake in those texts, they struck me as depicting a transgender person who wasn’t proud of what he was up to and who wanted to hide this from others because of her transgenderness,” Elder, a native of Aiken, said.
Federal prosecutors claimed that Ritter killed Doe to “silence her” and that she was proudly true.
Although she emphasized that her identity personality had nothing to do with the ruling, Elder, who is a trans woman, said she was surprised she was chosen to stay on the jury.
She said, “I entered this without any bias.” “I followed the jury’s instructions and the law as it was explained to me in that court, just as I was instructed. I adhered to the directions.
Around 5:30 p.m. on Friday, Elder claimed a secret poll revealed the jury was split. Despite the fact that the majority of jurors found themselves convinced, some were still deliberating.
She said, “I was one of the indecisive.”
For lying to authorities about the situation, Ritter was charged with the gender-biased death, a federal weapon count, and an obstruction of justice charge.
Jurors watched parts of interviews with both state and federal law enforcement, according to Elder, who claimed that the next one was “fairly straightforward.”
According to the state, a timeline starting on August 4 would have allowed Ritter to spend time with Doe during what Andrew Manns, a Civil Rights Division trial attorney for the Department of Justice, would have termed the “murder window.”
Ritter can be seen in Doe’s car at a traffic stop on the first day, and Doe receives her last words from her mother at 3:22 p.m.
Federal prosecutors claim the shooting took place along Concord Church Road between 3:55 and 4:41 p.m.
In the end, jurors found this information to be compelling.
She said, “I sort of put a container around that ending of Concord Church Road, as I pictured it.” “The only two persons in that field were Ritter and Miss Doe. And he left, and she was dying inside.”
This remote country road is about a mile from Ritter’s father’s home.
At the trial, the prosecutor’s ex-girlfriend testified that she saw Ritter the day after the shooting.
She claimed that he would usually speak with her in private, but this time it was different.
The ex-girlfriend testified that Ritter was acting strangely and looking for a walk home.
The final factor that was considered by Elder during deliberations was whether Ritter was motivated by Doe’s female identity, she said.
The lots of texts Ritter and Doe exchanged as evidence, according to Elder, convinced her of his guilt along with some racist comments Ritter made.
She claimed Ritter killing Doe was the only thing that “made sense.”
Joshua Kendrick, Ritter’s defense attorney, pleaded with the jury to find his client not guilty, arguing that the government relied on anecdotal evidence and shifting accounts of characters from Ritter’s “crew of clowns.”
Elder did not consider that to be a convincing argument.
“In total, the anecdotal evidence all pointed to the fact that Mr. Ritter did this,” she said. “According to the instructions I was given, anecdotal evidence, enough of it, is sufficient to prove that he is guilty. And that’s enough. There was a lot of it, which is sufficient for me to conclude without a doubt that he committed the crime.”
Given the case’s historical significance, Elder said she felt she had an important perspective to add.
She also thinks that transgender violence needs to be brought up more because cases like this are occurring all over the country.
“We’re your relatives, we sit on juries, we
‘re your colleagues, we’re not strangers,” Elder said. “We just want to live our lives and participate in society like everyone else does.”
According to statistics, hate crimes reported to the FBI increased by nearly 40% between 2021 and 2022.
Elder said she was aware of how difficult it is to judge someone else and that she took her responsibility seriously.
She believes that treatment may be prioritized over retribution for inmates in a better way.
Ritter’s sentencing date has not been specified.
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