Transgender Claims "I'm Innocent of Pre-Op Murders"

A Washington State man, Douglas Perry, was accused of a series of murders in 1990. Since then, Perry has undergone gender reassignment surgery, becoming Donna Perry, who claims that she is not responsible for the murders because Douglas no longer exists.

Donna's novel defense is that as a male she was prone to violence so she had gender reassignment surgery in Thailand a few years ago in order to purge herself of those violent tendencies. Further, since she is now a woman, she is a wholly different person and therefore she isn't responsible for what her former male self did.

Donna was arrested for the murders in 2012 after being apprehended on an unrelated weapons charge. Police found that her fingerprints matched what had become a cold case in the murders of the three prostitutes decades ago.[…]

Donna further told authorities that she would not confess to murder because she didn't do it. Donna also claimed not to know if Douglas killed the prostitutes in 1993. "I don't know if Doug did or not, it was 20 years ago and I have no idea whether he did or did not," she said.

Police cite testimony from Donna's cellmate who said that the transgendered woman made all sorts of admissions in prison, even once saying she was a "sociopath."

Donna's central defense, the claim that becoming a woman helped stem her violent tendencies, is disputed by Jack Halberstam, a transgender professor of American and gender studies at University of Southern California.

Halberstam called the defense a "very sketchy and a desperate defense ploy."

Interesting legal case, eh?

Tip: slwlion