Hate Crimes Technicality?

The Times-Picayune reports that the Gretna man who was the first to be convicted under Louisiana's hate crime has had his conviction thrown out and avoided retrial. The hate crime statute requires that the commission of a hate crime must be linked to another crime, such as murder, battery, rape or arson. Frank Palermo, who is white, was found guilty of placing combustibles and a hate crime. The placing of combustibles conviction was thrown out as unconstitutional, however, because it requires the judge--not the jury--to determine if the arson would have been simple or aggravated. Accordingly, Palermo can only be retried for attempted aggravated (or simple) arson, so the prerequisite is not met for the hate crime statute. The story reports that the Legislature "will be asked to fix the flaw in the hate crime law by including attempted crimes in the list of offenses linked to hate crimes."

Posted by AJR at May 30, 2003 07:16 AM