Obama signs hate-crimes law bearing Shepard and Byrd's names

Matthew Shepard was tortured and left to die near Laramie, Wyoming. James Byrd Jr. was dragged to death behind a truck in Jasper, Texas. Eleven years later, Congress finally passed a law carrying their names. On October 28, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, attached as a rider to that year's defense authorization bill. The law expanded the 1968 federal hate-crime statute to cover gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability, and dropped the old requirement that victims prove they were engaged in a federally protected activity…