They are difficult to prosecute, acknowledged by few police departments, yet touted as a way to protect the innocent.
Hate crimes, according to Utah statistics, are on the decline. But numbers can be deceiving.Records compiled by the state's Bureau of Criminal Identification show there were 65 hate crimes in 1995, compared to only 40 logged last year.
But consider this: While 30 police agencies acknowledged they had a hate crime in 1995, only 19 agencies admitted in 1997 that someone was victimized because of their color, ethnic background, religious ties, gender or sexual orientation.
Both police and prosecutors say the law, while grounded in good theory, is hard to put into practice because it fails to define a class of victims and requires investigators to climb inside a suspect's head.
Defining exactly what constitutes a hate crime becomes fodder for disagreement.
During the fatal stabbing of Bernardo Repreza on Halloween night, racial slurs were yelled at some point in the melee.
Salt Lake police say the issue of race did not prompt the free-for-all that ended with the 15-year-old's death. But family members and friends of Repreza, who was Hispanic, contend the white teenagers involved in the confrontation yelled a racial slur at Jaynell Cooper, Repreza's black friend, and that's what started the fight.
But because police concluded race was not a motivating factor in the stabbing that caused Repreza's death, the slaying was not deemed a hate crime.
Last month, however, a 22-year-old West Jordan man became the prosecutorial exception and is facing enhanced criminal penalties because his was an alleged hate crime.
In the case, he allegedly unleashed a string of racial profanities at a black woman waiting for a traffic light to change. Prosecutors say the man called the woman a racial slur at least three times and also threatened to kill her.
Speech, although generally constitutionally protected, became a terroristic threat in this instance because the woman was "intimidated or terrorized" by the man's actions July 23.
The charge of terroristic threats, normally a class B misdemeanor, was enhanced to a third-degree felony because Salt Lake County pros-e-cutors say the man's actions were motivated by racial bias.
Salt Lake District Attorney Neal Gunnarson concedes Utah's 1992 law allowing for increased penalties if the crime is motivated by bias has not been applied very much in the courts.
"To show motive, you have to get inside the suspect's mind."
Gunnarson likened the difficulty of prosecuting hate crimes to determining why young children behave the way they do.
"If you have two children and one hits the other one with the stake and you are the parent, the first thing you ask is why," Gunnarson said. "A child may say they wanted to know if it would hurt the other. Or they may say they don't know. But you can't get inside that child's mind. A child can say anything."
Gunnarson said for prosecution of hate crimes to be effective, investigators have to look at prior incidences and prior attitude to put together a "mosaic" that represents a whole picture and not just one piece.
Weber County Attorney Mark DeCaria flatly objects to Utah's hate crime law, saying it isn't strong enough to make much of an impact.
Words like "terrorize" and "intimidate" are vague, and the law doesn't define hate crime, simply preferring to link the penalties for hate crimes to a victim's constitutional or civil rights, DeCaria said.
Utah's law simply does not define the victims of hate crimes, such as people targeted due to race, ethnic orgin, religion or sexual orientation.
"If individuals want prosecutors to prosecute more strenuously because a crime is a hate crime, then we need a better piece of legislation than what we have in the code."
Frank Pignanelli, who sponsored the state's first hate crimes legislation in 1992, initially wanted those classifications in the law.
As originally drafted by Pig-na-nelli, the legislation increased the penalties for crimes motivated by hatred of an individual's race, religion, ethnic background or sexual orientation. It also required police agencies to report incidents of hate crimes.
But Pignanelli's bills encountered stiff opposition from those who claimed the law created a special classification of protected individuals. So supporters accepted a compromise that allowed the law to be applied to anyone subjected to a criminal act based on intimidation and terror.
The former Salt Lake representative tried to restore the original language during his final term in the House in 1994-95 but gave up after he was warned that attempts to tweak the law might get it revoked altogether.
Pignanelli says that while the law isn't everything he and other supporters wanted, it can be used effectively, especially in the early stages of hate-motivated crimes.
For example, if someone paints a swastika on a Jewish family's door, he could be charged with a felony instead of a misdemeanor. The value in that, according to Pignanelli, is that it might prevent an escalation.
Pignanelli agrees with DeCaria by asserting that retaining the specific categories in the original legislation would make the law more effective both in practice and in principle.
"It would make a statement that needs to be made," Pignanelli said. "The classifications would make it clear that the state does not tolerate hate crimes."
Jeanetta Williams, director of the NAACP's Utah division, agrees there needs to a more concerted effort to stand up vigorously against hate crimes.
"Hate crimes need to be labeled a high priority," she said. "If every case was prosecuted, visibility would go up and more people would know it's a crime. Until then, I don't think the numbers will decline."
Ronald Henry knows firsthand what it's like to be a victim of the "terror" or "intimidation" that accompanys a hate crime. His family fell victim in September when somebody left a burning cross on his lawn about 3 a.m.
"I got up to get in the refrigerator - my stomach was growling - and I saw something going on out front," he said. "I thought it was just somebody visiting the neighbor so I didn't pay any mind. Then I saw the lights flashing on the ceiling through the window. I looked out and saw a 4-foot-high cross flaming. I was flashed out. I had to look twice to believe it."
Henry is black but has never experienced such a blatant act of racism, he said. The 43-year-old has lived in Utah his entire life.
"I don't know if this was a prank or what," he said. "But I don't know why anyone would care about me. I go to work, pay my taxes and clean my bathroom like everybody else."
David Thometz, state chairman of the Utah Democrats Gay and Lesbian Caucus, also agrees that Utah's hate crime laws should be stronger.
"Most people (in Utah) are still buying into the notion that we're asking for special rights or special protection. We're not. We're asking for equal protection."
Thometz objected to the manslaughter conviction handed down in 1994 in the shooting death of Douglas Koehler.
Koehler was shot between the eyes not long after David Nelson Thacker awakened to find Koehler engaging him in a sex act. Thacker kicked the other man out of the apartment but hunted him down 45 minutes later in the parking lot of a Park City ski resort and shot him.
Third District Judge David Young said a one-to-15-year maximum sentence for such a felony was too stiff and decided to sentence Thacker as if the charge were a third-degree felony. He was ordered to serve a zero-to-five-year prison sentence and a one-year firearms enhancement.
Thacker is being held at the Lone Peak minimum security facility at Camp Williams, corrections spokesman Jack Ford said. He's scheduled to be released in May 2000.
Thometz said the Koehler case is proof that gays and lesbians should be included in hate crime laws.
"Because the individual was gay, it somehow justified the perpetrator's actions. It was a mind-boggling decision. Murder is somehow OK if the victim is gay or lesbian."
While the law does address enhancements if the initial hate crime is a misdemeanor, there is not a penalty enhancement if the crime is a felony.
So, while simple assault, a class B misdemeanor, can be upgraded one level if it is motivated by bias, manslaughter, a second-degree felony, is simply manslaughter.
Gunnarson said he does think a straight across-the-board provision allowing enhancements at all levels would be a viable provision to include in the law.
Sunday: The United States has a long history of hate crimes.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Hate crimes
Utah
- There was a 37.5 percent decrease in reported hate crimes from 1996 to 1997.
- Only 19 of 118 agencies conceded to hate crime in their communities.
1995 65 30 agencies reporting
1996 64 22 agencies reporting
1997 40 19 agencies reporting
SOURCE: Utah Department of Public Safety (Bureau of Criminal Identification)
National*
.. 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996
Racial bias 62.3% 60.7% 62.4% 59.8% 60.7% 61.6%
Anti-black 35.5% 34.7% 37.1% 36.6% 37.6% 41.9%
Anti-white 18.7% 20.3% 19.4% 17% 15.4% 12.6%
Religious bias 19.3% 17.5% 17.1% 17.9% 16.1% 15.9%
Anti-Semitic 16.7% 15.4% 15.1% 15.1% 13.3% 12.7%
percent of 86.4% 87.5% 88.1% 86.2% 82.9% 79.2%
religious bias
Ethnicity 9.5% 10.1% 9.2% 10.8% 10.2% 10.7%
Sexual orientation 8.9% 11.6% 11.3% 11.5% 12.8% 11.6%
SOURCE: Anti-Defamation League
*Offenders' reported motivations in percentages of offenses