One of the stupid things we do when applying the law, is to attempt to read minds.

Motivation is certainly a part of the considerations when determining guilt in circumstantial considerations, but applying a specific penalty to those motives?  Nolan Finley gets it right this time:

“It just doesn’t matter. No one should ever be charged with a hate crime.

For one thing, layering on the hate crime charge creates unequal classes of victims.

If you get murdered by a junkie who wants your wallet, or a jealous husband, or a maniac on a killing spree, you’re just as dead as someone who gets offed by a racist.”

And frankly if the punishment ought to be increased under the suspicion that the perpetrator(s) were doing a ‘hate crime’, then it ought to apply always.