Of the nearly 50 hate crime charges brought in Alleghany County in 2016-2017, only one led to a conviction — a move legal analysts say sends the wrong messages to racist perpetrators.
Pittsburgh's PublicSource reported that the one convicted hate crime in the county involved an out-of-state attendee at a "furry" convention allegedly screaming racial slurs at a black sheriff's deputy.
Forty-five others led to non-hate crime convictions, two to no charges and one case that also involves slurs being hurled at a law enforcement officer is set to go to trial in October.
According to University of Pittsburgh law professor Lu-in Wang, the county's district attorney could have a number of reasons for not pursuing "ethnic intimidation" convictions, the Pennsylvania hate crime statute.
"Prosecutors may not have all the information they need to show 'malicious intention' in each case, for example, and may instead pursue different charges that are more certain to end in guilty pleas or convictions," the report noted.
That system doesn't do much to deter hate crimes, the professor said.
"It would be good to call out hate crimes more when they happen and to show that there are consequences,” Wang told PublicSource. “One of the problems is when people think they can get away with it, then there’s no deterrence and it’s almost like you’ve gamed the system."
According to David Harris, another University of Pittsburgh law professor who specializes in police behavior, it's "unusual" that the county has brought so few ethnic intimidation charges.
"It’s one thing to be careful; it’s another to find that they have [prosecuted] basically none of them," Harris said. "You kind of wonder what would be enough.”
Read the entire report on the lack of hate crime convictions in Pennsylvania's Alleghany County via PublicSource.
