Prominent Trans Activist Sentenced to Life in Prison for 'Most Depraved Crime' Judge Has Ever Seen
Dana Rivers, a longtime transgender activist, was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for the 2016 murder of a lesbian couple and their son.
Rivers, formerly known as David Warfield, garnered national fame in 1999 for suing the Center Unified School District in Sacramento and winning a $150,000 settlement after being fired for talking to students about transitioning genders, according to the Mercury News.
Rivers attacked two women, aged 56 and 57, in their bed as they slept, shooting both women and their 19-year old son before stabbing one of the women 47 times and setting their garage on fire.
“This is the most depraved crime I ever handled in the criminal justice system in 33 years. Frankly, you deserve to spend the rest of your life in prison,” Judge Scott Patton said in a Wednesday court hearing, according to Mercury News.
Rivers was arrested Nov. 11, 2016, the day of the murders, while covered in blood leaving the victims’ home, according to the report.
Some of Rivers’ activism involved pressuring women’s only events to include male participants.
Rivers participated in a pressure campaign against Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival (MichFest) in an attempt to force the group, which had a “womyn-born-womyn-only” policy, to admit him entry, according to Reduxx.
Rivers, a male who identifies as a woman, had befriended one of the female victims through an all-women motorcycle club, but the friendship soured after the woman left the club, according to Mercury News.
Rivers rekindled the friendship in order to carry out the triple murder.
Rivers claimed self-defense and then insanity earlier in the trial process, according to Mercury News.
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