Criminal Justice-Short writing On October 6, 1998, Matthew Shepard was beaten, t

Question

Criminal Justice-Short writing

On October 6, 1998, Matthew Shepard was beaten, tortured, and killed by two men. Shortly after the attack, police arrested Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. Although defense lawyers argued that McKinney and Henderson were driven to temporary insanity as a result of sexual advances made by Shepard, it was widely believed that Shepard was targeted because he was gay.

Criminal law is designed to protect citizens from social harm. Hate crime law is intended to enhance the penalties associated with criminal conduct that is motivated by prejudice against members of a group on the basis of discernible characteristics such as gender, race, ethnicity, or religion. Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered individuals have increasingly become common targets. Considering what you have learned about crime and criminal law in Chapter 2, answer the following question.

Do some internet research on the Emanuel Nine Church Shootings in Charleston, SC. Define hate crime according the South Carolina Criminal Laws. Was the church shooting at Emanuel AMA Church on June 17, 2015 a “hate crime”? Explain.

(250 words minimum requirement)

Explanation / Answer

Hate crime is where shootings are carried in response to certain targets, where these targets are based on the se-xual orientation of a person, or their colour, race or ethnicity. In the incident case scenario m the charleston church shooting has been cited. The convict of this crime was Dylan roof who killed nine black people, and was thus charged for a federal hate crime. Alternatively, South Carolina is a state, out of the five, which does not exhibit its own law for hate crimes. Hence, this case has become historic, owing to the role that the federal government has played in Dylan Roof's case. This case was of hate crime since he did this to instigate a racial war. He targeted only the black parishners. "I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go.",were the words of the convict when the 26 year old nephew asked why he was pointing the gun. He kept shouting racial epithets while constantly shooting people.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse C
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.