Murder of Jesse Dirkhising

Jesse William Dirkhising (May 24, 1986 – September 26, 1999), also known as Jesse Yates, was an American teenager from Prairie Grove, Arkansas. He was staying with two men (with his parents' permission) who bound, drugged, tortured, and repeatedly raped him. He died from drugging and positional asphyxia during the ordeal.<ref name="Lieb">Lieb</ref><ref name="Lawyer to request change">"Lawyer to request...", The Washington Times, Nov. 20, 1999</ref>

Despite his being at their home with approval from his parents, the defense argued he was complicit in the sexual acts, and therefore the death was accidental. However, Arkansas law at the time established the age of legal consent at 14. Therefore, assent on his part would be irrelevant; any adult engaging in sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old would be guilty of statutory rape. Further details revealed in the court case depicted a gruesome death.

Dirkhising's death received only regional media coverage until a Washington Times article ran a story nearly a month after his death, noting the lack of national coverage in contrast to that given to the 1998 death of Matthew Shepard.<ref name="Press Bias and Politics">Kuypers</ref>Template:Page needed<ref name="Contrasts in media coverage"/> The Shepard murder was approaching its first anniversary and was getting renewed national attention, coupled with updates on pending hate crime legislation.<ref name="Why One Murder Make"/> Prompted by coverage in The Washington Times, the Dirkhising case gained notoriety as conservative commentators compared media coverage of the two cases and explored the issues of what was considered a hate crime.<ref name="Contrasts in media coverage"/> The added attention resulted in mainstream media also reporting the Dirkhising case in relation to the coverage of the Shepard case, with many attempting to explain why the two were handled differently by the media, and perhaps received differently by readers.<ref name="Press Bias and Politics"/>Template:Page needed<ref name="Why One Murder Make"/><ref name="Bozell: No Media Spotlight">Bozell, "No Media Spotlight ..."</ref>

The media coverage of the Dirkhising case was repeatedly and consistently contrasted with that of the high-profile Shepard case, although the cases were dissimilar in several important details. While both victims died as the result of assaults by two men, Dirkhising was a minor and the victim of a sex crime, while the adult Shepard was ostensibly murdered as part of a hate crime.<ref name="Press Bias and Politics"/>Template:Page needed<ref name="The Death of the West">Buchanan</ref> While both heterosexuality and homosexuality have been cited as issues in both cases, the circumstances were different and in contrast: Shepard was an openly gay man who was attacked by two heterosexual men, while Dirkhising was raped by two men who were described as lovers in a police affidavit.<ref name="Killer: Shepard Didn't">"Killer:Shephard ..."</ref><ref name="A Special Kind of Killing"/>

Background

Dirkhising was the son of Tina and Miles Yates Jr. from the small town of Prairie Grove, Arkansas. At the time of his death he was 13 and in seventh grade.<ref name="Contrasts in media coverage">"Contrasts in Media Coverage", The Washington Times.</ref> Davis Carpenter, who was charged with his murder, was then 38, and lived about Template:Convert away in Rogers, a "small but booming northwest Arkansas town."<ref name="Contrasts in media coverage"/><ref name="Arkansas town still reeling">"Arkansas town still reeling", The Washington Times</ref><ref name="Driving Directions from">Driving directions</ref> 22-year-old Joshua Macave Brown shared Carpenter's apartment.<ref name="Contrasts in media coverage"/><ref name="Media Tunes Out Chi"/> Carpenter, who managed a beauty salon, was a friend of Dirkhising's parents. Dirkhising had stayed with the two men at their apartment on weekends only to work at the salon to make money to rebuild his car for two months prior to his death.<ref name="Media Tunes Out Chi">Price</ref> Brown had been sexually molesting Dirkhising for two months before his death; he claimed that the boy was a willing participant. But because Dirkhising was under the age of 14, Arkansas law would make consent impossible. Moreover, Jesse was dating a girl, lending skepticism to claims about his willingness to engage in sex with men.<ref name="Jury Split On Rape"/><ref name="Violence and Nonviolence"/> Jesse's family had been told that he was helping out at the salon.<ref name="Media Tunes Out Chi"/>

Death and investigation

On September 26, 1999, Dirkhising's murder was discovered by police of Rogers, Arkansas, when they responded to a 911 call.<ref name="Media Tunes Out Chi"/> They went to the home of Davis Carpenter,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> where Joshua Brown was also present.<ref name="Affidavit of the Jesse Dirkhis">McMath</ref><ref name="Contrasts in media coverage"/> Police found that Dirkhising had been tied to a mattress and that his ankles, knees, and wrists had been bound with duct tape and belts.<ref name="Affidavit of the Jesse Dirkhis"/><ref name="Lieb"/><ref name="Jury Split On Rape"/><ref name="Violence and Nonviolence"/> Dirkhising had been gagged with his own underwear, a bandana and duct tape.<ref name="Affidavit of the Jesse Dirkhis"/><ref name="Media Tune Out Torture"/> Brown told police they had given Dirkhising an enema of urine dosed with amitriptyline, an antidepressant and a sedative.<ref name="Did Media Hide Gay Murder...">"Did Media Hide Gay Murder Case?", ABC News, Apr. 10, 2001</ref> Police determined that Dirkhising had been repeatedly raped over a period of several hours.<ref name="Media Tune Out Torture">"Media Tune Out ..."</ref> It was later revealed that over a two-day period Dirkhising had been repeatedly raped and sodomized with various objects.<ref name="Right Angles And Other"/> After the men took a break to eat, Brown noticed Dirkhising was not breathing and alerted Carpenter, who attempted to resuscitate the boy, then called 911.<ref name="Affidavit of the Jesse Dirkhis"/><ref name="Media Tunes Out Chi"/><ref name="Right Angles And Other"/> Dirkhising later died in the hospital, his death hastened apparently as the result of positional asphyxia.<ref name="Affidavit of the Jesse Dirkhis"/><ref name="Jury Split On Rape"/><ref name="Violence and Nonviolence"/>

Police found in Carpenter's home material of a pedophile nature, including instructions on how to sedate a child, and a diagram of how to tie up and position the boy, as well as other notes of fantasies of molesting children.<ref name="Affidavit of the Jesse Dirkhis"/><ref name="Press Bias and Politics"/>Template:Page needed<ref name="Why One Murder Make"/> It was speculated that one of the men planned the assault and the other carried it out.<ref name="Right Angles And Other"/> The Arkansas State Police recorded in their affidavit a statement by Brown that he had been molesting Dirkhising for at least two months prior to Dirkhising's death. Brown called the molestation 'horseplay' and claimed that Dirkhising was a willing participant.<ref name="Affidavit of the Jesse Dirkhis"/><ref name="Jury Split On Rape">Skoloff, March 22, 2001.</ref><ref name="Violence and Nonviolence">Barak</ref> According to age of consent laws in Arkansas, Dirkhising was incapable of giving informed consent for sexual activity.<ref>Arkansas Code Template:Webarchive - Title 5. Criminal Offenses - Chapter 14. Sexual Offenses. Sections 5-14-

103 Template:Webarchive, 124 Template:Webarchive, 125 Template:Webarchive, 126 Template:Webarchive, 127 Template:Webarchive</ref> Brown also later claimed he himself was "under the influence of methamphetamine" when talking with his arresting officers.<ref name="Case of Boy's Rape">Skoloff, March 13, 2001.</ref>

Media coverage

Dirkhising's case initially was reported regionally by "news organizations in Arkansas and also covered by newspapers in Oklahoma and Tennessee," yet almost no national press.<ref name="The Death of the West"/><ref name="Media Tune Out Torture"/> The Associated Press ran the story on its local wires but not nationally until a month later when the story was focused on the lack of coverage rather than the crime itself.<ref name="Press Bias and Politics"/>Template:Page needed A LexisNexis search revealed only a few dozen articles that appeared only after The Washington Times story on the lack of coverage on October 22, 1999, a month after Dirkhising's death.<ref name="Press Bias and Politics"/>Template:Page needed

Accusations of liberal media bias

On October 22, 1999, approximately one month after his death, The Washington Times ran a story with the headline "Media tune out torture death of Arkansas boy." The story contrasted the lack of coverage of the Dirkhising case with the treatment the murder of Matthew Shepard received.<ref name="Press Bias and Politics"/>Template:Page needed The story quoted Tim Graham, director of media studies at Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog group that frequently criticizes liberal bias, as saying, "Nobody wants to say anything negative about homosexuals. Nobody wants to be seen on the wrong side of that issue."<ref name="Media Tunes Out Chi"/> Brent Bozell, media critic and director of the Media Research Center, accused the media of deliberately spiking the story.<ref>Bozell, "Human Events" pp. 16-17</ref> Bozell wrote, "Had he been openly gay and his attackers heterosexual, the crime would have led all the networks. But no liberal media outlet has as its villains two gay men."<ref name="Bozell: No Media Spotlight" />

After The Washington Times article, the lack of coverage of Dirkhising's case was noted by conservative commentators and was attributed to the homosexuality of the perpetrators as well as the nature of the crimes.<ref name="The Death of the West"/> Conservative political commentator Pat Buchanan noted that showing gay men as sadistic barbarians does not fit the "villain-victim script of our cultural elite."<ref name="The Death of the West"/>

The Dirkhising case was repeatedly compared with the media coverage of the murder of Matthew Shepard although Dirkhising was a minor in a sex crime and Shepard's murder was a hate crime involving adults.<ref name="Press Bias and Politics"/>Template:Page needed Also the sexualities of the victims and attackers differed somewhat with Shepard being an openly gay man attacked by two heterosexual men, while Dirkhising's attackers were lovers and presumed to be gay.<ref name="Killer: Shepard Didn't"/><ref name="A Special Kind of Killing">"A Special Kind ..."</ref>

Jonathan Gregg wrote in Time, "Matthew Shepard died not because of an all-too-common sex crime, but because of prejudice. Essentially, Shepard was lynched; taken from a bar, beaten and left to die because he was the vilified "other" whom society has often cast as an acceptable target of abuse; Dirkhising was just "another" to a pair of deviants. And while child abuse is unfortunately no big news, lynching still is."<ref name="Why One Murder Make"/>

In the month after Shepard's murder, LexisNexis recorded 3,007 stories about his death compared with only 46 in the month after the Dirkhising murder.<ref name="The Death of Jesse Di">Sullivan, page E1</ref> However, once the media seized on the story, this count rapidly rose into the thousands.<ref name="The New Republic">Sullivan, p8, 1p</ref> Many of the articles justified the lack of coverage, citing that the death did not justify national attention; initial reports failed to mention that the two perpetrators were gay, whereas the Shepard reports identified Shepard as gay and the crimes as hate crimes from the beginning.<ref name="Press Bias and Politics"/>Template:Page needed In a November 4, 1999, Time magazine article, Jonathan Gregg opined that accusations of liberal media bias were not justified because the two cases varied with the Dirkhising murder offering "no lessons," whereas the Shepard murder "touches on a host of complex and timely issues: intolerance, society's attitudes toward gays and the pressure to conform, the use of violence as a means of confronting one's demons."<ref name="Press Bias and Politics"/>Template:Page needed<ref name="Why One Murder Make">Gregg</ref>

Accusations of homophobia

Commentator Andrew Sullivan wrote an article in The New Republic accusing the liberal media of political correctness and using Dirkhising's death to attack the Human Rights Campaign for its support of hate-crime legislation.<ref name="Persecution: How Liberals">Limbaugh 2003</ref> The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), however, complained that The Washington Times "omitted a key piece of information" for its front-page story on Dirkhising: The HRC had provided a statement strongly condemning the crime and called for the perpetrators to be punished "to the fullest extent of the law."<ref name="Times Prints 'Disgusting'">Smith</ref> Sullivan also criticized some aspects of the conservative coverage of the Dirkhising case equating gay sex with child molestation as "ugly nonsense".<ref name="The New Republic"/> Sullivan squarely summed up the differences in media coverage as being due to political interests.<ref name="Persecution: How Liberals"/> Sullivan stated that whereas the Shepherd case was used to support including LGBTQ people in federal hate-crime law the Dirkhising case was ignored for concerns of inciting anti-gay prejudice.<ref name="Persecution: How Liberals"/> In November 1999, E. R. Shipp, ombudsman at The Washington Post, noted that "readers, prodded by commentators who are hostile to LGBTQ people and to what they view as a 'liberal' press" had raised questions about the Dirkhising case. Shipp said, however, that she "made a clear distinction" between the Dirkhising and Shepard cases: "Matthew Shepard's death sparked public expressions of outrage that themselves became news. . . . That Jesse Dirkhising's death has not done so is hardly the fault of The Washington Post."<ref name="Press Bias and Politics"/>Template:Page needed Shipp also noted that the Shepherd story was newsworthy because of the debate it fostered on hate crimes and the level of intolerance towards LGBT people in the United States.<ref name="Press Bias and Politics"/>Template:Page needed

The story of the September 26 death was transmitted by Associated Press national news wires on October 29, and the Post ran a news brief the following day.<ref name="Press Bias and Politics"/>Template:Page needed

Jonathan Gregg, in a November 9 Time magazine editorial, asserted that "[the killing of Dirkhising] was the kind of depraved act that happens with even more regularity against young females and, indeed if the victim had been a 13-year-old girl, the story would probably never have gotten beyond Benton County, much less Arkansas.<ref name="Why One Murder Make"/> The same editorial also said: "A red herring worth addressing at the outset is the failure to distinguish between homosexuality and pedophilia, which creates a false parallel at the core of The Washington Times argument.<ref name="Why One Murder Make"/> But sex with children is a crime regardless of the sexes involved, and is not synonymous with homosexuality. . . . "The reason the Dirkhising story received so little play is [that] it offered no lessons.<ref name="Press Bias and Politics"/>Template:Page needed<ref name="Why One Murder Make"/> Shepard's murder touches on a host of complex and timely issues: intolerance, society's attitudes toward gays and the pressure to conform, the use of violence as a means of confronting one's demons. "Jesse Dirkhising's death gives us nothing except the depravity of two sick men."<ref name="Press Bias and Politics"/>Template:Page needed<ref name="Why One Murder Make"/><ref name="Why One Murder ...">"Why One Murder ..."</ref>

Trials and convictions

Davis Don Carpenter and Joshua Brown were each charged with capital murder and six counts of rape, and they faced the death penalty in Arkansas for the crimes.<ref name="A Special Kind of Killing"/><ref name="Media Tune Out Torture"/> Neither man had any known prior convictions.<ref name="Affidavit of the Jesse Dirkhis"/> The two men were tried separately, as it was believed "each of them will blame the other for the murder."<ref name="Right Angles And Other">Bates</ref> The Arkansas state prosecutor "maintained that the older man had mapped out the assault and watched a portion of it" so chose to send Brown to trial first.<ref name="Jury Split On Rape"/><ref name="Violence and Nonviolence"/> Carpenter's court-appointed attorney, criminal defense lawyer Tim Buckley, sought a change of venue from Benton County citing excessive pretrial publicity.<ref name="Lawyer to request change"/> "It's been on everyone's lips down here for a month and a half," Buckley stated.<ref name="Lawyer to request change"/> The Washington Post was "almost alone among national newspapers" reporting on Brown's trial and Fox News was the only network to cover the murder trial and conviction.<ref name="The Death of the West"/> The prosecutors "argued that Jesse suffocated to death during the sexual assault because of a combination of the drugs and the way he was trussed up."<ref name="Jury Split On Rape"/><ref name="Violence and Nonviolence"/> In March 2001, Brown was found guilty of first-degree murder and rape. He was sentenced to life in prison, and this sentence was upheld on appeal by the Arkansas Supreme Court in September 2003. In April 2001, Carpenter pleaded guilty to similar charges and was also sentenced to life. Subsequently, Carpenter said on the Fox News Channel that Brown was solely responsible for the rape and murder of Dirkhising while Brown said that Carpenter was the director.<ref>Edge with Paula Zahn</ref>

Template:As of Carpenter, Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC)#120443 is in the Tucker Maximum Security Unit. He entered the state prison system on April 26, 2001.<ref>"Carpenter, Davis D." (Archive) Arkansas Department of Corrections. Retrieved on February 26, 2013.</ref> Template:As of Joshua Macave Brown, ADC#120142, is located in the East Arkansas Regional Unit. He had been received into the state prison system on April 4, 2001.<ref>"Brown, Joshua M." (Archive) Arkansas Department of Corrections. Retrieved on February 26, 2013.</ref>

See also

• Cultural depictions of Matthew Shepard

References

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Further reading

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