Kedarie Johnson News Today

Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers called the legal defense tactic heinous, insulting and discriminatory

DES MOINES — Iowa House lawmakers are poised to again pass legislation that would prevent a defendant from using a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity as a mitigating factor

A bill banning gay/transgender panic defense again moves forward in Iowa House at the same time Republicans are pushing legislation prohibiting schools from teaching about gender identity or sexual orientation.

In previous sessions, bills banning the 'gay panic' legal defense unanimously passed the House but were not taken up by the Senate.

Iowa House lawmakers for a third time again moved forward legislation that would prevent a defendant from

A unanimous vote in the Iowa House provided a rare moment of goodwill during a legislative session marred by attacks on LGBTQ equality and dignity.

The progressive prosecutor movement is facing a real test in Iowa FilterJuly 28, 2021 The County Attorneys Office in Polk County (Des Moines), Iowa has gotten little attention from criminal justice reform advocates—at least until March 2021, when County Attorney John Sarcone prosecuted a Des Moines Register reporter for covering a 2020 racial justice protest in a professional capacity. Violent crime in the county has soared during Sarones decades-long "tough-on-crime" tenure. Betw...

A Burlington man convicted of killing an LGBTQ teen in 2016 has lost his appeal. Jaron Purham, 28, was found guilty of first-degree murder in a 2018 trial and sentenced to life imprisonment. Purham and another man, Jorge Sanders-Galvez, were accused of killing 16-year-old Kedarie Johnson, who was gender-fluid and often dressed and presented as female. Prosecutors said at trial that Purham and Sanders-Galvez picked up Johnson intending to have sex, and upon learning Johnson was biologically ma...

January 22, 2021 Burlington, Ia-  A Burlington man convicted of the murder of an LGBTQ teen has lost his appeal. The Hawk Eye reports that 28-year-old Jaron Purham was sentenced to life in prison in 2018 after being convicted of first-degree murder.  He and another man were accused of killing 16-year-old Kedarie Johnson. Johnson was found dead in a Burlington alley with a plastic bag over his head, one down his throat, and two gunshot wounds to the chest. Purham appealed the verdict citin...

Legislation short-circuited by COVID-19 has been reintroduced that would prevent a defendant from using a victims sexual orientation or gender identity as a mitigating factor if charged with murder or any violent crime.