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13) A white man was accused of running his car onto the sidewalk to hit two black teenagers on bikes. James G. Langenbach, 27, was charged with a hate crime for swerving his car to hit Dontrell Langston and Austin Hansen-Tyler. Langston was in good condition while Hansen-Tyler was listed in serious condition. Langenbach originally faced two counts of intentionally causing great bodily harm to a child while armed with a dangerous weapon, and two counts of leaving the scene of an accident. The charges were upgraded to two counts of attemped murder while armed with a dangerous weapon, causing great bodily harm to a child with a dangerous weapon, and leaving the scene of an injury accident. The new charges include the hate crime provision, which can add up to 5 years in prison and $5,000 in fines to each charge. If convicted Langenbach faces up to 120 years in prison on attemped murder charges, 60 years on the assault charges and 16 years on the flight charges.

14) On February 19,1999 Billy Jack Gaither, a thirty nine year old gay man who worked at the Russell Athletics apparel company was brutally beaten to death. His throat was cut and his body bludgeoned with an axe handle. He was then thrown on top of a pile of tires and set on fire. Steven Mullins and Charles Monroe Butler were captured by police and accused of the killing. According to Butler he met Mullins playing pool and was asked by Mullins to take a ride into the woods with Gaither. Billy Jack allegedly started talking "queer stuff" according to Butler and then Mullins beat Gaither to death. In June of 1999 Mullins pled guilty to capital murder. Butler was found guilty of the same charge by a jury. In August of 1999 both were sentenced to life in prison without parole.

15) According to Karen Franklin there is no simple answer to why someone becomes a gay-basher. The first prerequisite is that the person have a propensity towards violence, probably learned in childhood or early adulthood. The next is the desire to fit into a group by proving masculinity or heterosexuality, or just not to back down or let peers down. Finally there is the ideological motive. The religious or moral motivation because of a belief that homosexuality is disgusting.

16) In 1999 there were 136 hate crimes reported to law enforcement in the state of Connecticut.

17) The Supreme Court's most recent ruling was 5-4 in favor of preventing rape victims from suing their attackers in federal court. This decision overturned a part of the Violence Against Women Act that guaranteed victims of domestic violence, assault and rape an avenue to seek justice if local prosecuters failed to take action.

18) According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports there were almost 10,000 victims of hate crimes reported in the United States in 1998.

19) The most common type of hate crime is that based on race.

20) The most common type of racial hate crime is White on Black violence.

21) The largest judgement ever awarded against a hate group was handed down on July 24, 1998 to the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The Grand Dragon Horace King and four other Klansmen were ordered to pay $37.8 million for their roles in a conspiracy to burn down the Macedonia Baptist Church. The Klan appealed the ruling in September and asked for a new trial. The judge denied the request, but reduced the size of the judgement to $21.5 million. King claimed the judgement was unfair and stated "I'm a poor man, I couldn't pay it if it was only one million dollars."