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"Now let's transfer that over to the difference between a crime of passion and a hate crime against a homosexual (just as examples). A man walks in on his wife having sex with another man, goes into a rage and murders the man. Elsewhere, a man sees two men walking down the street holding hands and locking lips, follows them home, and beats their heads in with a tire iron. Which is more likely to happen again, and how does motive and intent factor into that? It seems simple. The man who was cheated on could possibly get a temporary insanity verdict because of the extenuating circumstances and extreme emotional distress. In addition, he's not likely to be in that situation again. The man who hates gay people may very well be exposed to more gay people because they theoretically take up something like 8% of the US population (though not evenly distributed). Moreover, the fact that his motive was "I hate them" means that he could also hate women, black people, etc. If hatred is a motive, then he's more likely to strike again.
I don't think the comparison is valid. You're comparing two different crimes which laws without a "hate" clause distinguished between anyway. Do you think the punishment would be different if your example of a hate crime were instead two heterosexuals walking down the street and someone follows them home and bashes their head in with a hammer? I don't see how labeling it a hate crime accomplishes anything legally. Matthew Shepard as a real world example, if he was straight and someone did that same thing to him how is one worse than the other, and why should one of those criminals be seen as any different than the other. There's a markedly different mentality between both of those examples and someone killing in a crime of passion.
Not to mention that in my opinion if you have proven you have it in you to kill another human being in a given circumstance, you have it in you to do it again in another not necessarily identical circumstance, and no innocent person should be subject to that possibility ever again.
Genuingirly, no way Palin is laughing about this. At the very least, those who are so sensitive to an effigy of Obama hanging outside someone's house, should at the very least it acknowledge that hanging an effigy of anyone, encourages those who would be inclined to do so. Fuck the rest of the worlds reaction if Obama was hung like this, what would these hollywood homeowners reaction be if their next door neighbor hung an effigy of Obama outside their own in reaction. Couldn't they see that it would have never happened if they hadn't done it in the first place. They'd have no business being offended, becuase they encouraged it.
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