Charges brought for 1996 Hiker Slayings

[MaggieL]

Originally posted by dhamsaic
Well, there are no federal hate crime laws, so they're not actually basing the charge on that. He's still going to be tried for murder, period.

From the AP coverage:
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Federal authorities had automatic jurisdiction in the case because the slayings took place on U.S. government land. A federal hate-crimes law covers crimes motivated by race and religion, but not sex or sexual orientation. An effort to add those categories failed two years ago.

The Justice Department was able to push for a hate-crimes type of indictment in this case, however, because comments Rice allegedly made in prison indicate he selected the women "because of the actual or perceived gender or sexual orientation" of his victims.

Rice was charged with four counts of capital murder:

-One count for each murder on the basis of Rice's motivation, which allows prosecutors to introduce more evidence than a straight murder charge.

-One conventional murder charge for each woman's death in case the "hate crime" charges are rejected by a jury, department officials said. Conviction on any of the charges could bring Rice the death penalty. ----------------------------------------------------

If the women had been armed, the government wouldn't need to try him now, and his subsequent assaults on women would not have occured. And the women would be alive.

http://www.pinkpistols.org