Mitchell vs. wisconsin
On June 11, 1993, the United State Supreme Court upheld Wisconsinıs penalty enhancement law, which imposes harsher sentences on criminals who ³intentionally select the person against whom the crime...is committed..because of the race, religion, color, disability, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry of that person.² Chief Justice Rehnquist deliverd the opinion of the unanimous Court. This paper argues against the decision, and will attempt to prove the unconstitutionality of such penalty enhancement laws. On the evening of October 7, 1989, Mitchell and a group of young black men attacked and severely beat a lone white boy. The group had just finished watching the film ³Mississippi Burning², in which a young black boy was, while praying, beaten by a white man. After the film, the group moved outside and Mitchell asked if they felt ³hyped up to move on some white people². When the white boy approached Mitchell said, ³You all want to *censored* somebody up? There goes a white boy, Go get him.² The boy was left unconscious, and remained in a coma for four days. Mitchell was convicted of aggravated battery,
Motive, however, is used to establish guilt or innocence, and is not in itself a crime. The ordinance is therefore fatally overbroad and invalid on its face. However, many of these rulings are of questionable constitutionality themselves. There are probably more Supreme Court cases that favor Wisconsinıs position than there are that support Mitchellıs argument. The stateıs flag desecration statute was ruled unconstitutional by the Court. ² Second, the Mitchell ruling not only affects eveyoneıs free speech rights with a general constriction of the interpretation of the First Amendment, but the ruling makes way for further constrictions. Paul, ³If a hate speech law that enumerated some categories is invalid because, in Justice Antonin Scaliaıs opinion in St.
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