A Tennessee court has overturned the conviction of a man who killed a Black transgender woman, ruling that a lower court “erred” by preventing the killer from using the victim’s trans identity in his defense.
Samuel Ward Jr. shot Paris Lee six times outside her Memphis home in June 2022, according to the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office. He then drove 30 minutes home, leaving her to die. Ward was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in May 2025.
But the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals in Jackson overturned that conviction on Monday and ordered a retrial. The trial court’s judge had disallowed the defense from presenting the victim’s identity as a transgender woman in its arguments.
“The trial court erred by excluding evidence of the victim’s assigned sex at birth, [and] the evidence was insufficient to support [Ward’s] conviction,” reads the Monday appellate court decision. “Because we conclude that the trial court erred… we reverse and remand this case for a new trial.”
The defense had argued it would be more reasonable for Ward to fear Lee if jurors knew she was assigned male at birth, and said jurors would be more prejudiced against Ward for killing a cisgender woman, according to Jamie Satterfield, an independent journalist who first reported the ruling.
The gay panic defenses has not gone away. Also, this rings of saying its not murder because transgender people aren’t people.
On the one hand a retrial makes sense because not all the facts of the case were presented to the jury.
On the other hand the prior conviction was manslaughter which is crazy lower for six shots and then just going home. Maybe the jury will see this as not only a hate crime, but also escalate to some form of murder charge.
“waa manslaughter which is crazy low” INAL and have no knowledge of Tennessee law but the way lawyers have explained it this often comes down to whst you can prove. like maybe murder requires prooving premeditation. or some other technicalities. i suspect that was the case.
in those cases “i got mad and shot them” and “i wasn’t paying attention and ran them over” might be manslaughter but different types.
All of that is chosen by the prosecution which then sets whats argued during trial. The jury not having the information shouldn’t affect their determination of the facts related to the charge but could, unfortunately, bias them away from the facts. which is presumably why the judge excluded it.
All this to say, i don’t think this changes the manslaughter part. Juries don’t do that.
Am lawyer.
We have basically three murders:
An intentional killing with Malice aforethought or premeditation as you put it.
An intentional killing in the Heat of passion lacking the premeditation.
An unintentional killing, manslaughter.
In Tennessee the middle on is called intentional manslaughter and that’s the one at play.
There are certainly cases where the jury has concluded at some point between bullet one and bukket six you formed the premeditation required.
Person brought a gun outside of their property. Premeditated murder. Done. I’ve owned guns for 19 years. If I bring a gun off my property it was premeditated. If I shoot someone it was intentional.
Whether or not I was passionate about pulling the trigger or not, it was thought about ahead of time and deliberate.
Anyone who has shot guns should know it isn’t a hiccup to pull out a gun, ensure it is cocked, safety off, aim and hit a target… Let alone 6 times. This person deliberately and intentionally used a deadly weapon to assault someone.
That’s you. Some people keep guns with them at all times for safety or because they just like guns. If you read the actual ruling, you’ll see Defendant didn’t even get a chance to testify honestly from their perspective when they were trying to put on a self-defense theory. That’s actually unfair, even if you like trans women and support trans women.
They brought a gun to someone elses house, got in a argument pulled a gun shot them at their own house 6 times and lied in court about how it happened.
"According to testimony, Ward went to Lee’s home, where a verbal altercation occurred. The victim, Paris Lee, asked Ward to leave. During the confrontation, Ward claimed that Lee pointed a gun at him while they were at the top of a staircase, causing him to fall backward. He told police that he then drew his own weapon and fired upward from the bottom of the stairs, striking Lee.
However, physical evidence and expert testimony from Medical Examiner Dr. D. Van Pelt contradicted Ward’s version of events. Lee was shot six times, and the trajectories of the gunshot wounds did not align with the defendant’s statement. Additionally, Ward had no visible injuries, undermining his claim of self-defense.
The prosecution presented a key witness, Tarik Hunter, Lee’s best friend, who testified about a phone call with Lee during the incident. Hunter told the jury he could hear Ward yelling in the background and that Lee repeatedly asked him to leave."
So let the defendant present their defense and then if that’s what happened, the jury will see it and convict.
Also, I am just realizing now defendant was never even charged with murder. That’s surprising. I would have thought he would have at least been charged with that so the jury could weight it.