Posted by David Kopel: Expand the federal "hate crime" law? http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_04_12-2009_04_18.shtml#1239643197
In Greeley, Colorado, a trial will begin this week for Allen Andrade, who is accused of murdering Angie Zapata. Zapata (former first name "Justin") was a female transgender person. It appears that Andrade tricked Zapata into a sexual relationship. Andrade was led to believe that Zapata was a female in the conventional sense of the term; when he found out otherwise, he flew into a rage and beat Zapata to death. Colorado law for sexual assault [1]states that there is no "consent" if the consent "is induced by force, duress, or deception." Accordingly, Zapata may have perpetrated the crime of "[2]unlawful sexual contact", which is a Class 1 misdemeanor and is subject to enhanced sentencing as an "extraordinary risk crime." As detailed in an [3]article in the Greeley Tribune, GLBT activsts are hoping to use the Andrade prosecution as a springboard for enactment of a federal hate crime law for sexual orientation, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The Greeley Tribune accurately quotes my views that hate crime laws in general are a bad idea, and that therefore expanding the laws is bad idea, regardless of arguments made about whether some particular group should or should not be included. That view is set forth in this 2003 [4]Issue Paper. However, if I were a lobbyist who supported the federal proposal, I would be wary about making Zapata into the face of a lobbying campaign. Matthew Shepherd was entirely innocent, and was, accordingly, a sympathetic person around whom to build a campaign. In contrast, Zapata was criminal whose death resulted from unjustifiable retilation by the victim. Of course Zapata did not deserve to die, but people who perpetrate sex crimes by deception are not particularly sympathetic characters. References 1. http://www.michie.com/colorado/lpext.dll/cocode/2/2c8c9/2c8f0/2ce7b/2cf1b#JD_18-1-505 2. http://www.michie.com/colorado/lpext.dll/cocode/2c8c9/2e296/2e8bc/2e989?fn=document-frame.htm&f=templates&2.0 3. http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20090412/NEWS/904129944/1002/NONE&parentprofile=1001 4. http://davekopel.org/CJ/IP/Hate-Crimes.pdf _______________________________________________ Volokh mailing list [email protected] http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
