Hate Crimes Targeting People Based on Political Speech (as in the Charlie Kirk Murder)
The charges in the Charlie Kirk case include:
VICTIM TARGETING ENHANCEMENT: In violation of Utah Code Ann. § 76-3-203.14(2), Tyler James Robinson intentionally selected Charlie Kirk because of Tyler James Robinson’s belief or perception regarding Charlie Kirk’s political expression.
The Utah hate crimes sentencing enhancement statute indeed includes “political expression” alongside race, religion, and the like as covered “personal attributes,” and provides,
A defendant is subject to enhanced penalties under Subsection (3) if the defendant intentionally selects … the victim of the criminal offense because of the defendant’s belief or perception regarding the victim’s personal attribute or a personal attribute of another individual or group of individuals with whom the victim has a relationship….
Some other jurisdictions do the same, though I can’t say how many; my quick search pointed to D.C., Iowa, and West Virginia. Some states also impose civil liability for violence targeting people based on, among other things, their political affiliation; consider, for instance California’s Ralph Civil Rights Act of 1976:
All persons within the jurisdiction of this state have the right to be free from any violence, or intimidation by threat of violence, committed against their persons or property because of political affiliation, or on account of any characteristic listed or defined in subdivision (b) or (e) of Section 51 [California's public accommodations antidiscrimination statute], or position in a labor dispute, or because another person perceives them to have one or more of those characteristics. The identification in this subdivision of particular bases of discrimination is illustrative rather than restrictive.
I leave it to others to decide whether it’s good to set up special hate crimes enhancements, and to include targeting based on political expression; I just wanted to report that these laws do exist in some jurisdictions.
The post Hate Crimes Targeting People Based on Political Speech (as in the Charlie Kirk Murder) appeared first on Reason.com.
Source: https://reason.com/volokh/2025/09/16/hate-crimes-targeting-people-based-on-political-speech-as-in-the-charlie-kirk-murder/
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