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Russell Henderson's decision last month to plead guilty for his role in the brutal lynching of Matthew Shepard has once again brought into the spotlight the debate on whether there is a need for laws to deal with violent crimes motivated by racial, religious, gender, or sexual-orientation bias.
Henderson, one of two men charged in the October slaying of the openly gay University of Wyoming student in Laramie, was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison — the most severe sentence that can be imposed short of the death penalty.
As a lifelong opponent of capital punishment, I'm perfectly comfortable with that sentence. The fact that the 21-year-old Henderson and his 22-year-old co-defendant, James McKinney, were not charged with a hate crime has infuriated many queer activists, but it doesn't bother me in the slightest.
Considering the sentence that Henderson got, it would not have made any difference whether he was charged with a hate crime or not. The man will remain behind bars until the day he dies. No parole, no pardon. Period. End of story.
The same goes for John William King. In March, the self-avowed white supremacist was sentenced to execution by lethal injection for the equally brutal lynching in Jasper, Texas of James Byrd, Jr. solely because Byrd was black.
The fact that King wasn't charged with a hate crime made no difference. A predominantly white jury took less than three hours to convict King of the racially motivated crime — and less than two hours the following day to condemn him to die.
I cannot, in good conscience, approve of King's death sentence. For every 20 cold-blooded killers like King on Death Row, there is one real-life Richard Kimble who was wrongly sentenced to die for a crime he didn't commit.
Nevertheless, King, like Henderson, will remain behind bars until the day he dies. No parole, no pardon. Period. End of story.
Washington Post columnist William Raspberry made a salient point in questioning the need for hate-crimes laws. "What more might Wyoming have done to Henderson if it had convicted him not merely of murder but of homophobia-driven murder?" he wrote. "And what might...King's sentence have been if he'd also been convicted of a hate crime? Death-plus?"
Raspberry is black and grew up in Mississippi during the dark days of state-enforced racial segregation laws and unchecked racial terrorism against African-Americans, so he knows first hand the evil of violent crimes motivated by hatred.
He pointed out that even in the absence of hate-crimes laws in Wyoming and Texas, the sentences imposed upon Henderson and King are a far cry from what they would likely have received had their crimes taken place 15 years earlier.
In 1984, a gay man in the nation's capital was beaten, stomped, knifed, and urinated on by two teenagers who said the victim "made a pass at them." They were subsequently arrested, tried, and convicted. Their punishment? "Probation and 400 hours of volunteer work in a soup kitchen," Raspberry wrote.
That King and Henderson were brought to justice so swiftly and so severely speaks volumes about how far society's attitudes toward crimes of violence have changed in the last decade.
With the public's hardened 'lock-'em-up-and-throw-away-the-key' attitude — not to mention its overwhelming support for capital punishment of murderers — to enact hate-crimes laws now is a moot point. They won't make a damn bit of difference. They might even backfire by making it harder for prosecutors to obtain convictions.
All the hate-crimes laws in the world won't stop bigots from hating people because of who they are and certainly won't stop them from committing violent acts motivated by their hatred.
Only changing their attitudes — or otherwise resorting to violent self-defense if necessary — can do that.
Skeeter Sanders is an FM radio DJ who can be heard at 11:00 p.m. Saturdays on "The Point" (WNCS 104.7 Montpelier, WSHX 95.7 St. Johnsbury, WRJT 103.1 White River Junction) and at 10:00 p.m. Sundays on WGDR 91.1 Plainfield.
