On this date in 1990, in Wilmington, North Carolina, Talana Quay Kreeger, a 32-year-old lesbian known for her love for and kindness toward animals, was brutally sexually assaulted and murdered by long-haul truck driver Ronald Sheldon Thomas in a vicious hate crime due to sexual orientation bias after Ms. Kreeger left the Park View Grill, a lesbian establishment, where she had played pool and drank with Thomas. Thomas first confessed to the murder to Dunn, North Carolina, minister, Kenneth Spivey, the following morning; and, Thomas was later convicted of rape and murder, which were upheld upon appeal in 1992 by the North Carolina Supreme Court. Court documents detailed the heinous anti-lesbian crime as follows (North Carolina v. Thomas, filed November 19, 1992): "defendant bit the victim's breasts until they were bleeding and then inserted his fingers into her vagina; the entire time the assault was occurring, the victim was fighting, kicking, and screaming; defendant reached for a hand cleaner on the floorboard and, after lubricating his hands with it, penetrated the victim with his entire hand to a point past his wrist at least twice; defendant tore out the wall between the victim's vaginal and anal openings and proceeded to tear out part of the victim's colon and right kidney; when the victim attempted to crawl from the truck and fell to the ground, defendant dragged her into the woods some 120 feet on her back and left her helpless and bleeding to death; defendant made no attempt to obtain assistance for the victim; the victim was conscious for some amount of time after being left to die; and defendant thereafter cleaned up his truck, resumed his delivery route, and slept before his next delivery."

On this date in 1999 in a St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana courtroom, Frank G. Palermo, 32, is sentenced to twenty years in prison following the first hate crime trial in Louisiana history. Palermo, who is white, was convicted of two counts of a hate crime for attempting to burn two cars belonging to two black men, Curtis Briggs and Frank Taylor, along a suburban New Orleans freeway, and one of the cars had a three-year-old child strapped inside. Rain prevented the cars from being set ablaze after he and his teenaged brother poured gasoline on them at McArthur and Westbank Expressway. Palermo is also said to have used racial slurs during the attack which included him breaking the windows of one car with a baseball bat. Palermo's brother, Patrick Palermo, 15, was found guilty of helping douse the cars with gasoline; he received the minimum sentence of three years in prison. However, Patrick Palermo challenged his conviction arguing that the state's hate crime statute was unconstitutional. On May 31, 2002, the Louisiana Supreme Court vacated Patrick Palermo's conviction and La. R.S. 14:54—the state's hate crime statute—was declared unconstitutional. Frank Palermo’s conviction and sentence were also reversed due to the state supreme court ruling, and his case was remanded to trial court for further proceedings. Trendsinhate does not know the outcome of those proceedings.

Charges were filed on this date in 2007 against two Washington state residents for allegedly committing malicious harassment under the state's hate-crime law. Brian D. Lappin, 35, of Seattle, and Nichol A. Kirk, 25, of Shoreline, were charged stemming from an allegation that they made racist comments to two Yemenese delicatessen employees. Kirk is also alleged to have kicked and slapped one of the male victims, although she was not charged with assault. The defendants were arraigned in King County Superior Court. The attack apparently was caught on videotape, and on June 26, 2007, Nichol was found guilty of assault and malicious harassment as a hate crime. In August, 2007, Nichol was given the maximum sentence: nine months in jail. People responded to the attack on Mr. Steven Saleh, the owner of Saleh's Deli, and his nephew/employee by sending Mr. Saleh cards and flowers from various part of the United States.

In Minersville, Pennsylvania, on this date in 2007, the Church of Broken Pieces was vandalized and racial slurs were spray-painted all over the church, whose congregation is said to be about 75% Black. Police are following up on leads.

In Washington, D.C., on this date in 2008, the U.S. Department of Justice announced in a press release that its Community Relations Service, which works to prevent and defuse racial and ethnic conflicts, has implemented a Noose Incident Response Team to more closely monitor and respond to community racial tensions arising from alleged noose incidents nationwide.

On this date in 2008 in a Chicago, Illinois, courtroom, Joseph Pannell, 58, also known in Canada as Gary Freeman, and reputed former Black Panther Party member, pleaded guilty to aggravated battery for the 1969 shooting of then Chicago police officer, Terrance Knox. Pannell, who lived in Canada for several decades with his wife and four children after fleeing the country and who had fought extradition to the United States, was 19 when he shot Mr. Knox partially paralyzing his arm. Circuit Judge Daniel Darcy gave Pannell a 30-day jail sentence, placed him on two years' probation, and fined him $250,000 which is to go to Chicago Police Memorial Foundation. An attempted murder charge was dismissed. Pannell’s lawyer, Neil Cohen, denied his client had belonged to the racist hate group, the Black Panther Party, in the 1960’s.

In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on this date in 2008, a black gay teenager, Simmie Williams Jr., 17, was murdered while wearing women’s clothing in an area known to local police as a hangout for transgendered prostitutes, and police have stated the shooting death of Mr. Williams might be a hate crime, based on either sexual orientation or gender status. Williams was taken to the Broward General Medical Center where he died.

In Greenville, North Carolina, on this date in 2008, Donovan Patrick Williams, 23, who is white, was arrested and charged with Assault with a Deadly Weapon with Intent to Kill, and Communicating Threats for allegedly confronting an interracial couple at a Greenville Wal-mart, directing racial slurs at them (allegedly shouting “White Power”), and shooting at them in the store's parking lot hitting their car with a bullet on January 15, 2008. Upon his arrest, Williams was not charged with a hate crime; however, he was charged with ethnic intimidation and first-degree attempted murder after a grand jury heard evidence about the shooting involving Jovan Hodge and his girlfriend on February 28, 2008.

On this date in 2008 in Hanover Township, Ohio, police allege that two Hamilton, Ohio teens, Cheyenne Blanton, 17, and her then-boyfriend, Joseph Nagle, 16, selected their victim, Ashley Clark, 18, because of a mentally disability that the Talawanda High School senior has. Unable to be charged with a hate crime—because Ohio at that time had no hate crime law protecting persons with mental or physical disabilities—Blanton and Nagle were charged with aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, kidnapping, assault and vandalism for allegedly torturing Ms. Clark in her rural home for about six hours. If convicted, the pair—who are to be tried as adults—face 8 to 28 years in prison. Police allege Ms. Clark was beaten with a baseball bat, doused with water, forced to walk in the snow in her bare feet, and bound and gagged. Blanton and Nagle, who both have extensive juvenile criminal records, are also alleged to have cut the hair of Ms. Clark and to have destroyed her prom dress. The attack on Ms. Clark prompted Democrat State Senator Eric Kearney of Cincinnati to introduce a bill (SB Number 349) that would include people with disabilities as protected under Ohio's ethnic intimidation (hate crime) law.

In the Capitol Hill section of Seattle, Washington, in the early morning hours on this date in 2009, a 41-year-old gay man was physically assaulted by two white men in their twenties who yelled anti-gay slurs at the victim as he walked home from a fundraising event. Police are investigating the assault as a hate crime.

On this date in 2011 in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, a white man, Barie Shortell, 29, of Williamsburg, was violently assaulted by six teenagers in hooded sweatshirts who perceived him to be gay. They yelled anti-gay slurs at him as he walked home on North Fourth Street and attacked him on Wyeth Avenue. The assailants fractured his jawbones, broke his nose, and shattered his facial bones and his eye sockets. Mr. Shortell, who was not robbed, was rushed to Woodhull Hospital in Williamsburg where he underwent nine-and-a-half hours of facial reconstruction surgery that included surgeons putting three metal plates in his head. Initially not classified as a hate crime, the attack on Mr. Shortell was re-classified as an anti-gay hate crime by the New York Police Department's Hate Crime Task Force. If you have any information that could help solve this crime, please contact the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force at 646-610-5267.