The mother of Matthew Shepard is urging senators to oppose Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions’ nomination to become President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, citing his opposition to hate crimes legislation. In a report issued by the Human Rights Campaign, Judy Shepard – whose son Matthew was beaten and left to die in Wyoming in 1998 in a crime motivated by anti-gay sentiment – blasted Sessions for opposing the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law in 2009.