Not Guilty Plea In Lesbian Killings
Doreen Brandt
365Gay.com Newscenter

(April 27, Washington) A Maryland man charged with the 1996 murders of two lesbians at a secluded campsite in Shenandoah National Park pleaded not guilty when he appeared in court Friday.

Earlier this month a federal grand jury charged Darrell David Rice, 34, a former computer programmer, with killing Julianne Williams and Laura Winans.

The charges allege that he chose his women because they were lesbians. It is the first time prosecutors have invoked a 1994 law allowing enhanced penalties for crimes motivated by bias against gay people.

Williams, 24, and Winans, 26, were found dead June 1, 1996, at a campsite. Their throats were slashed and their hands had been bound.

Authorities began to consider Rice as a suspect in the killings shortly after he was arrested on July 9, 1997, for attacking another woman who was bicycling alone in the park just south of Washington, in Virginia.

Posted 12:11 am, April 27, 2002
©365Gay.com Ltd® 2002

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Man pleads innocent in '96 hiker deaths
Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network
Friday, April 26, 2002 / 04:01 PM

SUMMARY: The man charged with the 1996 killing of two lesbian hikers in a federal park pleaded innocent in a court hearing on Thursday.

The man charged with the 1996 killing of two lesbian hikers in a federal park pleaded innocent in a court hearing on Thursday.

Darrell David Rice, 34, is charged with four counts of capital murder in the slayings of Julianne Williams and Laura Winans, who were found with slashed throats at a remote campsite in the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

When Rice was charged earlier this month, Attorney General John Ashcroft said he would seek hate crimes penalties because the suspected killer "intentionally selected his victims because of his hatred of women and homosexuals."

Court documents indicate that Rice told investigators that Williams and Winans "deserved to die because they were lesbian."

Ashcroft also said that Rice, if convicted, could face the death penalty.

This case marks the first time that the limited 1994 Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act has been applied to a case of violence based on sexual orientation. The slayings qualify for hate crime penalties, in part, because they occurred in a national park.