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Anti-violence groups applaud Andrade murder and hate-crime convictions

A state group dedicated to fighting violence against gays cheered the guilty verdict handed down Wednesday against a man accused of beating to death an 18-year-old Greeley transgender woman in her apartment last summer.

BREAKING: Andrade sentenced to life without parole in Zapata killing

GREELEY — A man convicted Wednesday of using a fire extinguisher to crush the skull of a transgender Greeley woman was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole just over an hour after a jury returned guilty verdicts on all four counts charged, including first-degree murder and hate-crime charges. Weld District Judge Marcelo Kopcow imposed the mandatory life sentence on Allen Andrade, 32, for murdering Angie Zapata, 18, last summer in Greeley.

BREAKING: Andrade guilty on 1st degree murder, hate crime charges in Zapata slaying

GREELEY — In an unusually swift decision, a jury on Wednesday afternoon delivered guilty verdicts on all four counts -- including first-degree murder and hate-crime charges -- filed against a Thornton man accused in the brutal slaying of 18-year-old Angie Zapata, a transgender Greeley woman. The jury reached its decision after less than two hours of deliberation, casting aside defense arguments that Allen Andrade, 32, "snapped" and beat the teen to death with a fire extinguisher after he discovered Zapata was transgender.

No clones allowed. Religious groups back new NIH stem cell rules

The Obama Administration issued long-sought guidelines Friday for advancing new federally-funded embryonic stem cell research reversing a nearly nine year ban by the Bush White House. Despite hysterical and inaccurate claims by conservative religious groups over "fetal farming", the National Institutes of Health guidelines do not allow embryonic cloning or other methods of deriving stem cells beyond those available through fertility clinics.

Prosecutor: Accused Zapata killer didn’t ‘snap’ at transgender ‘deception’

GREELEY — A man who told his girlfriend "gay things must die" — as he sat in jail accused of bludgeoning an 18-year-old transgender woman to death with his fists and a fire extinguisher — was laughing and joking and didn't really mean it, a defense attorney told jurors Thursday as the trial of Allen Andrade got under way. "This case is not about a judgment of lifestyle," public defender Bradley Martin said in opening remarks. "This case is about a deception and the reaction to that deception."

Jury selection starts Tuesday in trial of man charged with Zapata slaying

The 300 Weld County residents who report for jury duty Tuesday won’t know at first whether they might wind up deciding the fate of a man accused of beating to death Angie Zapata, a 17-year-old transgender woman — first with his fists and then with a fire extinguisher — last summer in Greeley.

Talk Left blasts federal hate-crimes bill, warns against ‘punishing thought’

With the trial of a man accused of brutally slaying a transgender Greeley woman about to start, gay-rights and anti-violence groups are urging Congress to pass federal hate-crime legislation. But a Denver criminal defense attorney and progressive blogger says not so fast. "Cooler heads are needed where our fundamental liberties are at stake," Talk Left founder Jeralyn Merritt writes Monday:

Udall: ‘Now is the time’ for Congress to pass Matthew Shepard Act

Invoking the brutal murders of Matthew Shepard and Angie Zapata, U.S. Sen. Mark Udall called on Congress "to finally pass" federal hate crimes legislation in an opinion column published Sunday in the Boulder Daily Camera. Days before the trial of Zapata's accused killer was set to begin in Greeley, the Boulder County Democrat lamented that "vile prejudice based on sexual orientation still plagues our society" a decade after Shepard, a 21-year-old University of Wyoming student, was beaten, tied to a fence and left to die in the cold.

Coalition unfurls ‘End Hate’ campaign ahead of Angie Zapata murder trial

A group of 50 progressive, civil rights and anti-violence groups launched a massive Internet and print media public information campaign Wednesday across Colorado to inform readers about transgender murder victim Angie Zapata, whose accused killer goes on trial in Greeley next week.

Health care reform plans come out of the woodwork

Political watchers speculate that Colorado's freshman U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet is playing hardball with unions and business to push for labor and health care reforms. A fellow Democrat, Colorado congressional delegation veteran Rep. Diana DeGette, says that she too will be pushing a plan, but the popular single-payer system isn't politically possible. Today TMC MediaWire Healthcare Blogger Lindsay Beyerstein points to a new negotiating tactic advanced by Ezra Klein at the American Prospect.
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