Hate Crimes Conundrums. Both the liberal Human Rights Campaign and the leftwing National Gay and Lesbian Task Force " the two big Washington-based lesbigay lobbies -- issued press releases on Thursday applauding (yes, applauding!) U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, one of their favorite nemeses. The occasion was Ashcroft's invoking of the federal Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act in the indictment of Darrell David Rice for the 1996 slaying of two lesbian hikers in Shenandoah National Park, in Virginia. The Act mandates sentencing enhancements for crimes motivated by hate that occur on federal land. According to the indictment, "The United States maintains that the defendant hated women and lesbians and that hatred was a motive for his killing""
According to HRC Political Director Winnie Stachelberg, "With this indictment, the federal government has recognized the horrendous nature of this hate crime and that it should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law".We are grateful that federal jurisdiction could be exercised in this case." But the HRC release also declares that "If these murders had occurred almost any other place in America, this statute could not have been used." Both HRC and NGLTF have used the indictment to call for passage of a proposed law that would federalize violent hate crimes committed anywhere in the U.S. Without such a law, "many hate crime victims and their families may not receive the justice they deserve," says Stachelberg.
But this "hate crime" was, in fact, a horrendously brutal premeditated MURDER. And had it occurred outside the park, Murder One charges would have been brought in Virginia, and state prosecutors would have sought the death penalty -- regardless of the absence of either a wider federal or statewide hate crimes law. While the symbolism of a broad federal statute that lists gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and the transgendered in the laundry list of victim categories may have understandable appeal to activists, it's bogus to suggest that violent crimes such as the Shenandoah killings would go unprosecuted without federal intervention. Moreover, hate crime laws that list selected groups as special victims, but not others (conservative Republicans?) are likely to be, like affirmative action's group-based preferences, an ongoing source of conflict regarding whether they guarantee -- or mandate against -- equal treatment for all. And then there's the persistent issue of whether the government should be prosecuting "hate" (what the perpetrator is thinking and feeling) as opposed to the criminal act itself -- a slippery slope, indeed.
And there's another contradiction involved. If a hate crime statute bumps up the penalties for premeditated murder, the only place to go is the death penalty. But NGLTF is on record as opposing the death penalty, as do many other activists. This is what led to a series of bizarre arguments during the Matthew Shepard trial, in which some activists used the slaying to urge passage of a federal statute that would enhance hate crime penalties, but at the same time opposed the death penalty for Shepard's killers. Just what did they think enhanced penalties mean (no workout privileges? going without cable?). Eventually, Shepard's parents asked that the death penalty not be invoked, and their son's killers received multiple life sentences.
At least the Log Cabin Republicans, who also issued a release praising the federal indictment, have the courage of their convictions and are pro death penalty.
I leave aside a wider analysis on the general merits of hate crimes statutes (or the death penalty, for that matter) for another day.
Whose False Consciousness? As the AP reported earlier this month, the Florida Supreme Court has allowed convicted serial killer Aileen Wuornos to fire her attorneys and drop all appeals to her upcoming execution. Wuornos, a lesbian who received multiple death sentences for fatally shooting six middle-aged men along a central Florida highway in 1989 and 1990, last year admitted the truth about her motives. Writing to the Florida Supreme Court and expressing her desire to drop all appeals and be executed, Wuornos said, ""I am a serial killer. I would kill again," and "I"ve come clean. All were"murder to rob." Wuornos had previously claimed that her victims had tried to rape or kill her. And a host of national feminist and lesbian rights groups affiliated with the Aileen Wuornos Defense Committee had come to her aid, claiming the murders were ALL self defense (theory one), or else justifiably triggered by her years of abuse by men (theory two). Now that Wuornos has dropped her appeals, accepted her sentence, and admitted her guilt, don't expect her activist supporters to have the grace to apologize (they"ll probably claim the patriarchy has brainwashed Wuronos into falsely blaming herself!).