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Are "Enhanced" penalties for hate crimes unconstitutional?

Please explain.

I will qualify that. That is even true for nonviolent first time offenders.

Your figures refer only to first timers?
 
Your figures refer only to first timers?

When it comes to first time offenders, yes. It's been a while, but I have a number of articles about that. A black person who is a first time non violent offender has 4 to 8 times the chance of going to prison than a white person charged with the same crime (depending on location).
 
When it comes to first time offenders, yes. It's been a while, but I have a number of articles about that. A black person who is a first time non violent offender has 4 to 8 times the chance of going to prison than a white person charged with the same crime (depending on location).

Would love to see them. Keep out all DailyKos/Infowars tier articles though.
 
Would love to see them. Keep out all DailyKos/Infowars tier articles though.

Here is one From Race and Ethnicity - Sentencing And Minorities - Black, Offenders, White, and Percent - JRank Articles

A minority youth had a six times greater chance as a white youth for being arrested, convicted, and sentenced to jail or prison. A study in California showed that whites charged with a felony were more likely than blacks or Hispanics to have charges reduced or dismissed. Of the first-time offenders in San Francisco, the courts sentenced 4 percent of the white offenders to state prisons, 7 percent of black offenders, and 11 percent of Hispanic offenders.

That one was specifically talking about felonies though. I will keep looking for the articles I saw about first time non-violent offenders and see if I can find it from a non-news source (i.e judicial, the government, or education).
 
It's not unenforceable. I don't know where or how you came up with that notion

Taking the defendant's personal opinions about race into account in a trial leaves a lot of room for ambiguity. As I stated earlier, there is a huge difference between determining whether or not a person intended to commit a crime, and determining why someone committed a crime. If someone on trial knows that they will receive enhanced punishment if they are convicted of attacking someone with racial motivations, they can simply lie about their feelings on race in many cases. Even if one was able to prove that the defendant held racist beliefs, and assaulted a black man for example, how can one prove they assaulted the victim because of their racist beliefs? They might've thought that the victim deserved it because of their race, or maybe they bumped into each other on the street and he simply snapped.
 
Taking the defendant's personal opinions about race into account in a trial leaves a lot of room for ambiguity. As I stated earlier, there is a huge difference between determining whether or not a person intended to commit a crime, and determining why someone committed a crime. If someone on trial knows that they will receive enhanced punishment if they are convicted of attacking someone with racial motivations, they can simply lie about their feelings on race in many cases. Even if one was able to prove that the defendant held racist beliefs, and assaulted a black man for example, how can one prove they assaulted the victim because of their racist beliefs? They might've thought that the victim deserved it because of their race, or maybe they bumped into each other on the street and he simply snapped.

All you've done is point out that it can be difficult to prove motive. Plenty of crimes are based on motive and while they may be difficult to prove, that has never been a reason to have those crimes on the books.

But then again, look at the Dylann Roof shooting. The man said he shot those people because black people were raping white women and he wanted to start a race war. How hard do you think it will be to prove his motives? Will the jury have to read his mind, or just read his own words?
 
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