Feds May File Hate Crime Charges Against Puerto Rican Teen’s Murderer.
When President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law October 28, he could not even have imagined that just two weeks later, Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado would be murdered, his body decapitated, dismembered, and burned. But this type of hate crime is the very essence of what the hate crime bill – now law – was designed to battle. And thanks not to the Governor of Puerto Rico – who has refused to call this brutal, inhuman act a hate crime – but to a federal prosecutor, it very well may.
Mercado’s murder may in fact be the first case that takes advantage of the new Hate Crimes Prevention Act. As I wrote here just a few days ago, Juan Martinez Matos, Mercado’s confessed killer, underwent – and “failed” – a psychiatric evaluation, but is still under observation.
United States Attorney Rosa Emilia RodrÃguez says her office may file hate crime charges if local authorities do not.
Thank you to all who worked for years to bring the hate crimes bill into existence. While it’s a shame it has to be put to use so quickly, imagine where justice would be for Mercado’s family without it.