December 7, 2002
BLUE STATE FUN IN THE REDDEST STATE (for Charles Murtaugh):
Transsexual Sentenced in Sister's Murder (Bob Hookway, 12/6/02, Valley News)A Claremont man who shot his sister to death in 2001 was sentenced to 22 years to life in prison yesterday.Tied to the case was the question of whether 66-year-old Joseph R. Shanley, who had a sex-change operation 33 years ago, should serve his sentence in a men's or women's prison.
Shanley pleaded guilty three months ago to second-degree murder in the killing of Ann Cavanaugh, 68, at the Ledgewood Drive home in Claremont they shared.
The prosecutor, Assistant New Hampshire Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin, told Sullivan County Superior Court Judge Robert E.K. Morrill that his office had worked out an agreement with New Hampshire prison officials, who said they would send Shanley to a Connecticut men's prison to serve his time in a "transgendered" unit there. If that plan fails, Strelzin told Morrill, the state would house him in the New Hampshire State Prison for Women in Goffstown.
The agreement headed off what threatened to be a court spectacle regarding Shanley's sex, as well as a potential turf battle between the New Hampshire Corrections Department and the Superior Court over who should decide where an inmate is housed.
"For people with needs like his, people with transgender issues, the closest place is Connecticut," Strelzin said in an interview before the brief sentencing hearing.
That would be the most fun they've had in Goffstown since Pamela Smart had to be moved because she had rivals fighting for her affections. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 7, 2002 7:56 AM
When I worked in Iowa, we had a short, short
news story about "transgendering."
A couple were married in Chicago and were
driving toward Colorado for their honeymoon.
At an Interstate reststop in Iowa, the groom
shot the bride six times.
Turns out, the bride chose the rest stop as
the appropriate moment to mention, for the
first time, that she had not always been a
woman.
Moral: This is a topic to be out front about.
One assumes it was ruled justifiable homicide?
Posted by: oj at December 8, 2002 9:36 PMSpeaking of morals, the groom might have also told his darling that he always carried a loaded gun. Sounds like this couple had a communication gap about as wide as the Mississippi.
Posted by: Barry Meislin at December 9, 2002 6:52 AM