Hate crime?

[*michaelsean*]

Just curious about people’s opinions. I was watching one of those ID shows and it was about a group of guys looking to rob people. They came up with a plan to meet gay men in AOL Chat (this was like 15 years ago) and set up a rendezvous at a remote place supposedly for sex. When the guy got there they would rob him. There thinking was they would have a better chance of luring a gay man, and if he wasn’t out yet he might not even report it. Well the guy they lure figured it out pretty quickly and starts taking off. They catch up to him near a highway and punch him a couple times. He gets away but is disoriented and runs into traffic and is killed. Amongst the other charges they were charged with a hate crime because they targeted gays. Is that really what hate crime legislation means? Should muggers or rapists be charged with hate crimes because they target women?

The worst thing though is these guys got off way light. They were convicted of a lesser crime plus the hate crime and ended up with like 15 years, and the hate crime nearly doubles the sentence so they would have gotten like eight years which is ridiculous. Whatever happened to felony murder?