Deeniquia “Dee Dee” Dodds was 22 when she died at the hospital a week after being shot in Northeast D.C. Last week, after two years, a jury failed to reach a verdict in the case of two men charged in connection with her death. A Superior Court judge declared a mistrial in the case. Now, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office tells WAMU it will refile charges against the two men accused of killing Dodds. A status hearing is scheduled for April 5.

On Tuesday, LGBTQ+ advocates gathered outside the Superior Court at a rally organized by Casa Ruby, a community center for LGBTQ+ people and immigrants. Joeann Lewis, who raised Dodds as her own daughter, was also in attendance. Addressing the crowd, many of whom were black and transgender, Lewis said she didn’t understand the jury’s inability to come to a conclusion in the first place.

“My daughter was a beautiful person, and I am hurting so bad at the system failing her,” Lewis said. “It makes me feel like the system just said ‘Hey, she’s a transgender, she don’t matter.’”

Last week, the jury in the murder trial was also undecided on more than a dozen other robbery and assault-related charges, according to a report by The Washington Post. The Post also reported that a murder weapon for the case had not been found, and DNA evidence was not available either. The prosecutors’ case focused on two brothers who both pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and testified saying they had witnessed the murder. The brothers said they had participated in a spree of robberies with the suspects, Jolanta Little and Montee Tyree Johnson, the two men who were charged in connection with Dodds’ death. The brothers said Little was driving the car that night, and Johnson shot Dodds.

Kisha Allure, who manages the drop-in center at Casa Ruby, said she found the 2016 killing of Dodds and the 2012 killing of Deoni Jones, another black transgender woman, especially tragic because of her history in D.C.

“As an African-American transgender woman still living today—I made it through high school as a transgender woman, made it through Ward 8 D.C.—I remember my friends that wasn’t so fortunate,” Allure said. “I remember those days when she just didn’t come back around the way … and it’s still happening.”

Activist Dee Curry, who also spoke at the rally, told WAMU she sees a direct line between cases like those of Dodds and Jones—Jones’ killer was ruled incompetent to stand trial—and the harassment transgender women face on the streets of D.C.

“They see that the system is discriminatory toward us, so they feel it’s OK for them to be discriminatory,” Curry said. “The attitude is it’s OK because the system is saying that it’s OK, that we don’t matter.”

According to D.C. police data, 36 hate crimes based on gender identity occurred in the city in 2018. In 2018, MPD reported 61 hate crimes based on sexual orientation. In 2017, 13 gender identity-based hate crimes were reported, and 56 sexual orientation-based hate crimes were reported.

Casa Ruby’s founder and Executive Director Ruby Corado told WAMU the next steps for advocacy on Dodds’ behalf will depend on how Lewis wants to proceed.

This story originally appeared at WAMU.