martybegan
Diamond Member
- Apr 5, 2010
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Motive is always an issue that the law takes into account when it comes to crime.
Pretending that it doesn't matter what motivated the crime is rather silly position to take given that motive can completely alter the verdict and the sentence.
The state of mind of the perp is ALWAYS important according to the law of the land.
But state of mind is usually something far more basic than the ideology behind a given action. State of mind usually boils down to planned, heat of the moment, and not intentional.
So if you plan to kill your wife after finding out she is cheating, its 1st degree murder, if you kill her when you catch her in the act of screwing someone else, it would usually be second degree murder, and finally you kill her during an argument caused by her cheating by pushing her and she cracks her head on the coffee table it would be manslaughter.
Hate crime laws add another layer to it, by for example, stating that if any of these crimes were committed and the person your wife was sleeping with was black, and they can prove this was a further issue in her death, then they can charge you with additonal crimes, or increase the penalties.