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Criminal Law Keyed to Kennedy
United States of America v. Miller
Citation:
767 F.3d 585 (2014)Facts
Sixteen members of the Bergholz Amish community were charged with hate crimes. From September 6 to November 9, 2011, these Bergholz community members committed five separate attacks on nine different individuals, slicing off the men’s beards and cutting the women’s hair. Religious and personal ties connected the nine victims of these attacks to the Bergholz community. Some were parents of Bergholz residents, some were friends, and some were associated with family members who had left Bergholz for other Amish districts. Also linking the victims was that they participated in overturning the Bergholz excommunications and that, in the eyes of the assailants, they were “Amish hypocrites.”
All sixteen defendants were convicted, and they appealed, arguing that they the phrase “because of” requires but-for causation – a showing that they would not have acted but for the victim’s actual or perceived religious beliefs.
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