Quote:
Originally Posted by El Blanco
Murder is a crime, your motivation isn't.
|
But intent is the difference between manslaughter and murder.
Killing someone because you hated them specifically is just as wrong, to me, as killing someone because you hate some concept they represent, but in a society where you have different punishments for different legal definitions of crime you have to have these seemingly stupid laws, because it isn't right to treat someone who killed a man through a thoughtless act the same as one who killed through a selfish or malicious act.
Longer sentences are an arbitary, nonproductive response to hate crimes though, so I agree with you that the implementation of hate crime laws is stupid. However I think considering the motivation when deciding the punishment is a good idea.