Outgoing Gov. George Ryan shocked both sides on the death penalty debate last Saturday by commuting the death sentences of 160 men and four women to life in prison without parole.
Among those spared was Bernina Mata, an African-American lesbian whose sexual orientation was allegedly used to prejudice her case.
Bernina Mata was among those who petitioned for clemency last October.
Joey Mogul, an attorney with the People's Law Office, and her co-counsel Jed Stone represented Mata at the hearing. Mata, 22, was convicted in 1999 in Boone County of the first-degree murder of John Draheim in Belvidere in 1998. Mata's attorneys allege that the prosecution team biased the jury with homophobia and repeatedly used Mata's lesbianism as her motive, calling her a 'Hard Core Lesbian' and a 'Man-hating Lesbian.'
The prosecution showed the jury books from Mata's apartment—Call Me Lesbian, Homosexualities, and Best Lesbian Reading —to emphasize their argument that her lesbianism caused her to kill. 'A normal heterosexual person would not be so offended by the (victim's) conduct as to murder,' Assistant State's Attorney Troy Owens said.
Mata also has a history with depression, mental illness, substance abuse and childhood sexual abuse by her stepfather. At the time of the murder she also was not taking her anti-psychotic medication, and this information was not used in her defense.
'She's certainly relieved that the state will not have the opportunity to execute her,' Mogul said Monday after speaking with Mata. Mogul was also successful with another of her clients—Aaron Patterson was pardoned.
'I was hoping for this and I am pleased,' Mogul, a member of Queer to the Left, said.
Mata is still waiting a ruling from the Illinois Supreme Court based on an appeal for errors made at trial—including homophobia.
Mata's defense at trial argued that Draheim, 43, attempted to rape her in her apartment after the two had been drinking at a bar, and Mata killed Draheim in self-defense. However, the prosecution successfully argued the crime was pre-meditated. Pre-meditation was the lone factor, out of 20 possible factors, that prosecutors used to qualify Mata for the death penalty.
Mogul and Stone are arguing that the prosecution biased the jury with irrelevant homophobic statements and also that the crime was not pre-meditated.
The use of sexual orientation as a single aggravating factor is something the Illinois Governor's Commission on the Death Penalty has recommended be abolished. Mogul also said that the prosecution's reliance on Mata's lesbianism served as a de facto impermissible aggravating factor in the imposition of the death penalty.
During a GLBT panel at a death penalty conference last fall, attorney Mogul said that the death penalty disproportionately affects people of color, poor people and GLBT people. 'Journalists and advocates working in this area believe as many as 40 percent of all women on death row are lesbians.' Mogul also cited cases where state prosecutors have used homophobic, sexist, heterosexist and anti-gender variance stereotypes and sentiments to sentence people to death. An example was Wanda Jean Allen, an African-American lesbian who was executed in Oklahoma for killing her lover following a physical fight. Efforts to marginalize and dehumanize Allen to the jury included information that emphasized her role as the 'man' in the relationship and the choice she made to spell her name 'Gene,' indicating the masculine spelling. And Stanley Lingar, a gay man, was executed in Missouri in 2000. He and his co-defendant David Smith were both convicted of murder and the state's single piece of evidence was that Lingar and Smith were lovers. The state went on to argue that Stanley's sexual identity was relevant, not as proof of murder, but as an indication of his bad character.