Joe is angry about the political disorder both at home and overseas. He believes that Muslims are the cause of the world's troubles. While walking past the local Muslim mosque he sees an individual exiting the front door

Question

Joe picks up a stone and throws it at the individual, striking him in the forehead. A passerby observes the incident and calls the police. Joe is arrested and charged with assault. Upon conviction at trial, the prosecutor seeks to enhance Joe's punishment by establishing that the assault was a hate crime based on Joe's hatred of Muslims. However, the evidence established that the victim was actually not a Muslim but a Hispanic male who had been hired by the mosque leaders to repair the plumbing. What effect will the fact that Joe's intended victim was not a Muslim have upon the court's view of the act as a hate crime?
A) The mistake in identity does not matter because Hispanics are a minority group just like Muslims, so Joe's actions still constitute a hate crime.
B) Joe's mistake will have no effect on determining whether the act constituted a hate crime if the prosecution can establish that a reasonable person in Joe's situation would have made the same mistake in identity as Joe.
C) The mistake in identity has no effect on determining whether or not Joe's actions constituted a hate crime.
D) The mistake in identity makes it impossible to consider the act a hate crime because the victim was not, in fact, a Muslim.

Answer 1

C