"your reasoning for committing the crime has to be based on some self delusion involving prejeduces/idealogy to invalidate a person just like bigots"
if i go and just knock you out on the street for no other reason but that i could, its a crime
if i go and knock you out, for no other reason then the rainbow on your shirt, meaning i assume your gay or gay supporter, then its is a ahte crime as well, i choose to let my bigotry make the choice to assault you,
there was a study about people receiving shocks, in one group the person was told that the guy giving them shocks didn't know they were, so they involuntarily being shocked, and the precieved pain would lesson over time, quoted the shockee
in the other side of the study, the shockee was told that the person shocking them was knowingly doing it and willfully and they precieved the pain to be getting worse over time
so even at a unconscious level our brains recognize intent/motive, its science figure it out, out laws and judicial systems, suck, but they represent what we as people know to be right and wrong
so lets here you argue your side,why crimes of prejudiced and ideology should not be punished more severe