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A Deadly Amendment to the Hate-Crimes Bill

By Steve Hall

That's the title of an editorial in today's Los Angeles Times.  The subtitle is, "The GOP added a death penalty clause to the Matthew Shepard Act in hopes that a debate over capital punishment would derail the legislation."The Senate has joined the House in expanding the definition of "hate crimes" to include attacks on gays and lesbians. In doing so, however, it attached an amendment that would make some hate crimes punishable by death. Democratic congressional leaders should insist that the provision be removed. Also known as the Matthew Shepard Act, the legislation empowers the Justice Department to assist states and localities with the investigation and prosecution of crimes motivated by the victim's sexual orientation or gender identity, just as it currently does with crimes motivated by racial bias...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on August 07, 2009 (boomark / email).