A hate crime is an enhancement of the underlying crime.

For example, it may be a 2 year prison term for assaulting someone, but if there is a hate crime statute, assaulting someone specifically because they are Jewish is an enhancement getting a total of 3 years.

So yeah, shooting someone in the head is pretty hateful and _should_ get the kid pre-meditated murder but if the prosecutor can show the murder was committed _because_ the victim was gay then he can get an enhancement to the sentence.

I noticed that the defense lawyer said some pure BULLSHIT about how the "defendant and his family were hurting too".

Umm, NO YOU STUPID FUCK.

The guy who brought a gun to school and intentionally shot his classmate in the head is not hurting, he is a FUCKING MURDERER. The family that is HURTING is the family whose son is being pumped full of embalming fluid and who will never grow up, laugh, cry or breathe again. To say that "the defendant and his family are hurting too" is insulting. Goddammit I hate some lawyers.