A Tennessee appeals court has overturned a man’s voluntary manslaughter conviction after finding a trial judge erred by hiding the fact that the victim was a biological male who claimed to be a “transgender woman” from the jury.
Samuel Ward Jnr claimed that he acted in self defence when he shot Paris Nicole Lee six times during an argument at the victim’s home in Cordova, east of Memphis, in June 2022, but was found guilty by a Shelby County Criminal Court jury in May, and sentenced to six years in jail the following month.
But last week the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals reversed Ward’s conviction and ordered a new trial, after finding that the victim’s biological sex was not only relevant to Ward’s self-defence claim, but supported it.
The appeals court heard that before Ward’s trial the State filed a motion to exclude references to Lee’s “sexual identity” as it would “potentially prejudice the jury against the victim”, and Ward agreed to refer to the victim as a female and use “she/her pronouns”, but argued Lee’s biological sex was relevant.
During a hearing on the motion on the first day of the trial, prosecutors argued that because Lee “was a large woman” who was armed with a gun, his sex was not relevant to the issue of self-defence, and told the court that “sexual identity” is “a touchy subject that could mislead and bias the jury”.
Ward’s attorney, John McNeil, countered that the relevant strength of biological males and females was relevant to self-defence, and expressed concern that if the victim’s biological sex was excluded then his client would have to lie to the jury “either by omission or just a straight-out lie”.
Mr McNeil also argued that if any jurors were biased against “transgender individuals”, then they would also be biased against his client, who was in a sexual relationship with Lee.
Judge Carlyn L. Addison sided with the prosecution, and stated “I just don’t believe that gender is relevant here”.
“A deadly weapon is a deadly weapon is a deadly weapon. Someone in possession of a firearm is in control of a deadly weapon,” she said.
“Whether that person has a vagina or a penis has no bearing on the deadliness of a firearm.”
Judge Addison then required everyone to refer to the victim as “Ms Lee”, and “admitted redacted crime scene and autopsy photos which concealed the victim’s male genitalia and a redacted written autopsy report which blocked all information relating to the victim’s sex”, the appeals court noted.
Ward did not give evidence during the trial, and when asked if he wished to testify stated “I would like to testify if I could tell the whole truth”, and expressed concern that the jury might hold it against him that he “did something to a woman”.
He was then convicted after the jury heard he fired six times and Lee fired only once, Ward was not injured, a medical examiner testified that the trajectories of the gunshot wounds did not align with Ward’s statement, and that Ward drove 30 minutes to his home before calling police.
Appellate Judge Timothy L. Easter stated in a written judgement that the three-judge panel disagreed with Judge Addison’s ruling that the biological sex of the victim, who was five feet and 11 inches tall and weighed 262 pounds (118kg), was irrelevant because he was armed.
“While a gun might equalise differences in physical strength and size, there are other inherent physiological differences between the sexes that science continues to reveal and that we choose not to ignore,” Judge Easter stated.
“Regarding the danger of unfair prejudice, we recognise that societal biases exist. As counsel for Defendant observed at the pretrial hearing, any prejudices the jury might have against the victim for being transgender could very well be applied to Defendant for being in a sexual relationship with the transgender victim.
“The trial court was concerned that knowledge of the victim’s biological sex might lead to bias and cause the jury to confuse the issues. The danger of bias, however, ran both ways in this case. Defendant expressed his concern that the jury might be less likely to accept his claim of self-defence based on their understanding of the victim as a woman rather than a biological male.”
The court also found that the exclusion of Lee’s biological sex “left the jury with the impression that a male defendant killed a female victim”.
“The exclusion of the victim’s biological sex – including a photo depicting the victim as a female, redacted crime scene photos, and redacted autopsy photos and report – misled the jury, threatened the fairness of the judicial process, and was prejudicial to Defendant,” Judge Easter stated.
The appeal court further found that by excluding evidence of the victim’s biological sex, Judge Addison had “caused an injustice” to Ward by denying him an opportunity to testify in his own defence.
“Because we conclude that the trial court abused its discretion by excluding evidence of the victim’s biological sex and its exclusion of the evidence prevented Defendant from presenting his defence, we reverse the judgment of the trial court,” Judge Easter stated.
“Defendant’s conviction is vacated, and this case is remanded for a new trial.”
After the shooting Lee was described in an article by Human Rights Campaign, which called him “Kitty Monroe”, as a “beloved friend and loving mom to her four small dogs” and a “black transgender woman”.
Header image: Left, Samuel Ward (Shelby County District Attorney’s Office). Right, Paris Lee (Facebook).
