On June 7, 1998, James Byrd Jr., 49, of Texas accepted a ride from three white men, who then severely beat him, urinated on him, and shackled him by the ankles in the back of their pickup truck, they dragged him three miles into the countryside and dumped his body in front of an African-American cemetery (Graczyk). Just over a year later, a jury sentenced gang leader John King to death by lethal injection ("Man Executed for Dragging James Byrd's Death"). While this particular case may give the impression that perpetrators of hate crimes receive adequate punishment, nearly a decade later, one particular case demonstrates the inequity in the application of hate crime punishments: in 2007, Sean Kennedy of Charleston, South Carolina, left a bar around 3:45 a.m. and was confronted by Stephen Moller, who called him a "faggot" and then punched him so hard in the face that his facial bones broke and he fell backwards onto the floor, breaking his skull and dislocating his brain from his skull. brainstem. Kennedy was taken off life support later that day. Moller was initially charged with her death, but the charges were reduced to manslaughter without the hate crime attachment, and he was sentenced to just 5 years. With good behavior and other benefits, Moller served just over 1 year for the death of Sean Kennedy (Algren). Lawmakers must clearly define and identify a hate crime and demand harsher punishments for such crimes because past and current laws are deficient, unequally applied, and too broad to be applied and enforced appropriately. The FBI began investigating “hate crimes” in the early 1920s when the first case against the Ku Klux Klan was opened. In 1990, the FBI passed the Hate Crime Statistics Act,...... middle of document... 2011. 30 Oct 2011.execution_1_lawrence-russell-brewer-john-william-king-shawn-berry?_s =PM:JUSTICE>.Shepard, Judy. "Matthew Shepard Foundation » Our Story." Matthew Shepard Foundation -. Matthewshepard.org. Network. 06 December 2011. "Rodney King Beating: March 19, 1991." Prop1.org, March 19, 1991. November 02, 2011..Turley, Jonathan. “Prosecutors Consider Hate Crime Charges in Clementi Case.” jonathanturley.org. October 3, 2010. October 26, 2011. .Wellman, Christopher Heath. “Hate crimes deserve harsher punishment.” At issue: What is a hate crime? Ed. Robert Winters. Detroit, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2007. 24-36.