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The nation's self-described Hmong newspaper screamed for justice in a slaying that rekindled racial tensions in northern Wisconsin and has some people convinced that hate was the prime motive.
" Hmong groups are bad,' killer admits; Hate crime still being sought," read the headline in Hmong Today as details of the crime unfolded.
Nearly four months after Cha Vang, a 30-year-old Hmong immigrant from Green Bay, was killed, many Hmong question why James Nichols of Peshtigo - a 28-year-old white man accused of murdering Vang while both were squirrel hunting - hasn't been charged with a hate crime.
The prosecutor says he won't for "strategic considerations," without explaining further.
Charging a hate crime - targeting someone because of race, sexual orientation or other ethnic factors - in the U.S. is rare; maybe only 1 percent of the cases get prosecuted, according to experts and available court records. Even when police believe a hate crime occurred, it rarely leads to a prosecution and conviction.
"Just because a crime is a black-on-white crime or a white-on- black crime or a Jewish victim or a gay or lesbian doesn't necessarily make it a hate crime," said Steven Freeman, associate director of civil rights for the Anti-Defamation League in New York.
Only a handful of murders have been prosecuted as hate crimes in the U.S., said Jack McDevitt, associate dean of Northeastern University's College of Criminal Justice. "Trying to detect motivation in somebody's behavior is very, very difficult."
The FBI says hate crime incidents in the U.S. dropped 6 percent, to 7,163 in 2005, the most recent year available, based on information submitted by local police.
Hunting confrontations
Two fatal hunting confrontations in Wisconsin between whites and Hmong, an ethnic minority that fled Laos...