Zarana Sanghani
Staff Writer
For almost seven years, Dorothy Dixon has avoided an area only one block from her home because she says every day, on that spot, she sees her husband holding her son's dying body.
On the evening of June 7, 1991, four men followed, shot and killed Tarron Dixon while he was walking home alone. The next day his mother had planned a party to celebrate Tarron's return home from Operation Desert Storm where he served as a military officer.
"(The killer) was getting a tattoo for a (skinhead) gang, and he had to shoot a black man to get brotherhood (into the gang)," Ms. Dixon said at the Hate Crime Conference held Thursday at the University of Houston Law Center.
Several speakers discussed the appropriate procedure to prosecute, record and prevent hate crimes such as Tarron's murder.
Mike Anderson, Harris County assistant district attorney, said a hate crime is any crime that is committed against an identifiable group. The laws in most states allow for prosecutors to ask for enhanced penalties for criminals convicted of hate crimes.
For example, if the crime committed is a third degree felony, a prosecutor who proves that the offense is a hate crime can ask for the penalty designated for a second degree felony.
Opponents of the penalty enhancement statutes say hate crime offenders should not be singled out, said UH law professor Irene Rosenberg. They believe the victim's race, gender, etc. should not be a factor in deciding the criminal's punishment.
Hate crimes do more than simply violate the victims' rights the way other crimes would, said Michael Lieberman, from the counsel for the Anti-Defamation League.
"These crimes are designed to intimidate and terrify not only the victim, but anyone who could stand in the victim's shoes," Lieberman said.
People who "have the same immutable personal characteristics know that (those) characteristics can make them the target of a hate crime," he said.
FBI Special Agent Don Clark explained that hate crimes have a special intention other than just causing damage to property or person.
"Why don't people burn parallelograms on the front lawns of black families' homes?" Clark asked. "Because no one would understand, but everyone knows what it means when a cross is burned on the front lawn."