Is Killing Liberals a Hate Crime?

The suspect in last weekend’s Knoxville church shooting told police that “liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country.” But Tennessee, like the federal government and most states, doesn’t extend hate-crime law to political affiliation, explains Chris Wilson in Slate. In fact, legal experts say politically motivated hate crimes are rarely prosecuted.

Tennessee authorities are investigating the church shooting as a hate crime because the suspect also confessed to targeting gays, and state law only specifically mentions “race, religion, color, disability, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, or gender.” But a few states—including West Virginia, Iowa, and Oregon, along with DC—consider political violence a hate crime. (More church shootings stories.)