LARAMIE, Wyo. (Court TV) — The trial of a man accused of brutally killing a gay college student begins Wednesday with jury selection in Laramie, Wyo.

Russell Henderson, 21, faces murder, robbery and kidnapping charges in the death of Matthew Shepard. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Aggravated robbery carries a sentence of five to 25 years and kidnapping, 20 years to life. For murder, the sentence is death or life without parole.

The other man charged in the slaying, Aaron McKinney, 21, is scheduled to go on trial in August.

Prosecutors allege Henderson and McKinney tied Shepard to a fence, robbed him, savagely beat him with the butt of a pistol and terrorized him as he repeatedly begged for his life.

Then, they say, the two left the 21-year-old University of Wyoming student to die in near-freezing temperatures. Shepard's bloodied, unconscious body was discovered, still tied to the fence, outside Laramie, Wyo. on Oct. 7, 1998.

Shepard was taken to a Colorado hospital, where he died five days later without regaining consciousness. Doctors said his skull was so badly fractured they couldn't operate.

An autopsy showed he received 18 severe blows to the head and bruises to his groin and inner thighs. He also suffered a massive brain stem injury.

Police found Shepard's credit card and black patent leather shoes in McKinney's truck, and a bloody Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum pistol in the back of the pickup. Shepard's wallet was found hidden in Aaron McKinney's home.

The case has spawned a national debate that includes protests from gay activists who see Shepard as a modern-day martyr, and from anti-gay groups who believe homosexuals are condemned to hell.

President Bill Clinton and Congress weighed in condemning the attack, but an anti-gay protest group from Kansas tried to disrupt Shepard's funeral and are promising to stage demonstrations at the trial.

Wyoming is one of 19 states that does not have a specific hate crime statute. Efforts to pass such a bill have been defeated the last three years, but there is a new movement afoot following Shepard's death.

Henderson's attorney, public defender Wyatt Skaggs, has not made public statements about the defense strategy.

McKinney's girlfriend, Kristen LeAnn Price, and his father, Bill McKinney, have said that the two suspects just wanted to get back at Shepard for allegedly making passes at McKinney and that they never intended to kill him.

McKinney, however, told police Shepard never made a pass at him. The defense might choose not to present that testimony.

Henderson initially told police he wanted to speak with an attorney and did not want to give them a statement concerning Shepard.

Most of Henderson's court file has been sealed — the case is under a gag order — so it is unclear whether he changed his mind.

Henderson's girlfriend, Chasity Vera Pasley pleaded guilty last December to being an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder.

Pasley and Price were accused of helping McKinney and Henderson dispose of bloody clothing Henderson wore during the attack. Pasley is expected to be called to the stand.

Betty Hoover, a jury consultant based in Raleigh, N.C., said the jurors may be eager to show that the people of Laramie, population 26,000, are progressive, law-abiding folks.

"If you've got a small town where nothing like this has ever happened, then they are definitely going to do their best to portray that they care," she said. "They don't want the world to think that's the type of thing that happens in their town."

Jon Forwood, a prosecutor in nearby Cheyenne, said the university setting will probably help the defense.

"The academic community is generally perceived as one that is less in favor of the death penalty and more inclined to seek out the emotionalism as to what has happened and why," he said.

Joseph Rice, a clinical psychologist and jury consultant in San Francisco, highlighted a key difference between the Shepard case and John William King's recent trial in Jasper, Tex., in which the white King was swiftly convicted and sentenced to die for dragging a black man behind his truck until his body was torn apart.

America has "moved further along on the issue of race and people tend to know what the `right' answer is," said Rice. "The homosexual issue is less cut-and-dried, a little more difficult to measure. It's a question fewer people have considered in their own minds."

Henderson was once an honor roll student at Laramie Junior High School. An Eagle Scout, he was raised by his grandparents after being taken away from his mother's home at age 10 after allegedly being abused by some of his mother's boyfriends.

McKinney has been in and out of trouble more than a dozen time before, but none of his prior run-ins with the law involved violence.

When he was 14, he spent three months in a restitution center for stealing a cash register. More recently, McKinney pleaded no contest to stealing $2,500 from a Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1997. Sentencing for the theft is pending.

Court TV's Clara Tuma and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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