Quote:
Originally Posted by shinerbock
Well do hate crime statutes provide for additional punishment or just additional consideration in sentencing?
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The way most aggravating factor/mitigating factor or sentence enhancement procedures work, sentencing starts with a statutory presumptive sentence for each crime. Then the judge or jury determines whether any of the delineated aggravating factors or mitigating factors are present. If aggravating factors in the jurisdiction include something along the lines of "the offense was committed against a victim because of the victim's race, color, religion, nationality or country of origin," then the judge or jury will consider whether the evidence in a particular case supports the existence of that factor in the case.
If aggravating and mitigating factors are found to be present, and if in the opinion of the judge or jury, the aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors, the sentence can be made longer than the presumptive. If the mitigating factors outweigh the aggravating factors, the sentence can be made shorter than the presumptive.
Either way, there is usually a scale that's followed, so that the degree of deviation from the presumptive is not completely at the whim of the judge and so that there's some uniformity in the system. At least, that's how it's supposed to work. Mileage may vary.