The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) raised eyebrows with a social media post Friday which bemoaned a serial rapist and murderer not receiving a “gender-affirming” surgery prior to his execution.
The ACLU sympathetically tweeted on behalf of Duane Owen, claiming he was the victim of “enormous suffering” prior to his execution. Owen was in prison for over 30 years for crimes committed in 1984. Owen allegedly stabbed and then raped 14-year-old Karen Slattery and bludgeoned 38-year-old mother Georgianna Worden with a hammer and then repeatedly raped her. Both women were reportedly dead when Owen allegedly violated their corpses. (RELATED: Transgender Inmate Gets 7 More Years After Raping Woman In Jail)
“The state of Florida never provided medically necessary gender-affirming care to Duane Owen — causing her enormous suffering and violating her right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment for the more than 30 years she was in state custody,” the ACLU tweeted.
“In legal papers she drafted, Owen wrote that she ‘should be accorded the ‘essence of human dignity’ and be allowed to become ‘who she was meant to be” before her death. No one should be killed by the state. The time to end the racist, unfair and cruel death penalty is now,” the ACLU continued.
Owen’s lawyers
attempted to spare their client the death
penalty with pleas of insanity,
according to CBS News. They argued, per the report, Owen had dementia and gender dysphoria, but psychiatrists for the state refuted these claims and said Owen “didn’t appear to present himself as female.” They argued Owen was instead sexually sadistic, per the outlet.
The ACLU’s tweet drew sharp criticism, with many condemning the
organization for pushing a sympathetic narrative about someone accused of horrific deeds.
“So y’all are saying that he’s the victim in all this? Gtfoh. My thoughts and prayers are with the actual victims,”
tweeted social activism organization DallasJusticeNow
“It’s amazing to me how many rapists who abuse women suddenly “discover they are a woman” Im sure it has nothing to do with how they are treated by their fellow prisoners who have daughters/wives/mothers/sisters,”
tweeted social issues commentator Audra Facinelli.
“HE wanted to be housed in a women’s prison. Presumably because as a violent rapist he wanted to be around more potential victims in a captive space. Good thing we don’t do that in Florida,”
tweeted DeSantis Rapid Response Director Christina Pushaw.
“Funny how his gender dysphoria didn’t stop him from violently raping a woman and a girl. You’re sick,”
tweeted Reduxx writer Shay Woulahan.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied the Owen’s final appeal Wednesday. When asked in the death chamber shortly before Owen died if he had any final words, he said, “No,” according to
The Palm Beach Post.
Owen was executed Thursday evening by lethal injection.
