First federal hate crime conviction under federal law for anti-trans murderer
Human Rights Campaign Photo of Pebbles LaDime Doe: 
Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009.
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In 2019, his girlfriend discovered Ritter’s relationship with Doe. Prosecutors said that this was what motivated him to kill Doe. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009.
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In 2019, Ritter’s relationship with Doe was discovered by his girlfriend, which prosecutors said motivated him to take Doe’s life. Prosecutors said Ritter, in a fit of rage fueled by the news their relationship spreading among friends, lured Doe to an isolated location and shot her three times in the head.
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Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke with the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights division described the hate crime verdict as “historic.”
“We want the Black trans community to know that you are seen and heard, that we stand with the LGBTQI+ community and that we will use every tool available to seek justice for victims and their families,” Clarke said in a departmental statement.
“Every day is a struggle,” Doe’s mother, Debra Saab, said at Ritter’s sentencing. The jury found Ritter guilty of all charges for the “tragic murder” of Doe. Ritter’s girlfriend called him an anti-gay slur, they believe, which made him “extremely upset.”
Prosecutors said Ritter lied to police about his whereabouts at the time of the killing and got people to help him burn his clothes and hide his weapon as he fled South Carolina for New York.
Video of a traffic stop placed Ritter in Doe’s car just hours before she was killed, along with DNA evidence. Ritter’s cousin testified that Ritter asked him to keep the murder a secret and was angry because Doe wouldn’t delete a picture of him from her phone. The cousin said that Ritter asked him to keep the murder a secret and was mad that Doe wouldn’t delete a picture of him from her phone.
A friend of Ritter’s, present when he was burning his clothes after the murder, testified Ritter said, “Nobody gonna have to worry about
anymore.”
According to the Human Rights Campaign, 27 transgender people have been killed so far in 2024 — 48% were Black transgender women, and 63% were killed with a gun.
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