Controversial Transfer of Convicted Murderer to Women’s Prison in Illinois
In an unusual case, Illinois women’s prisons are now home to Kmuel King, a man convicted of murdering his mother back in 1995. Records indicate that he hid himself in a bathtub after the crime.
King has been sentenced to 80 years and is currently at the Logan Correctional Center, located in Lincoln, Illinois. Officially, the state classifies him as “male,” but reports suggest this change followed the Illinois Department of Corrections’ (IDOC) 2021 decision to prioritize “gender identity” over physical anatomy. However, it’s unclear when or why exactly King was assigned to a women’s facility.
Logan Correctional Center became a women’s prison in 2013, as reported by The Chicago Tribune. The IDOC has not responded to multiple inquiries regarding this transfer.
Kmuel King was found guilty of strangling his mother following an argument and, alongside his girlfriend, attempted to conceal the body in a bathtub. They are said to have later moved the body in a shopping cart to a neighbor’s closet, as noted in court documents.
In April 2021, the IDOC established a policy that directs state prisons to acknowledge gender identity, which they define as an “internal sensation” of either male, female, or something else, without regard to biological anatomy. The policy states that “transgender, intersex, and gender incongruence offenders should not be placed in gender-specific facilities based solely on external genital anatomy.” Furthermore, placement reviews are conducted biannually to assess any potential safety risks associated with offenders.
Additionally, activists have taken legal action in Illinois to ensure that prisoners receive hormone therapy and related treatments at the cost of taxpayers.
In a related move, the Trump administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) announced plans to withhold funding from the Maine Department of Corrections for allowing male double murderers to be housed with female inmates, and sought to prohibit such arrangements in federal prisons as well, although they faced legal challenges in the process.
The DOJ has not commented on these developments.
