Quote (Goomshill @ Mar 31 2023 07:17am)
Is there a scenario you can construct where motivation for a crime should mitigate culpability, that isn't a mitigating factor that could be isolated from an ideologically agnostic factor?
If a woman is abused and still responsible for murder we maybe say she deserves lesser charges, but that's because of factors that aren't due to a difference in viewpoint
If someone goes out and shoot up a school because they're motivated by radical trans ideology and hatred of christians, and someone else goes out and shoots up a school because they're just a violent sociopath who wants to kill people, there's no good reason why one should be worse than the other. They are both committing the same actions, with the same murderous intent, with no mitigating circumstances, same consequences. I don't see why I should look on sociopathic murders more favorably than racist murderers.
You just laid out how the intent is different.
i think the easiest hypothetical example is 2 cases of premeditated murder. man A has a cheating wife, he knows the man who's sleeping with his wife, he plans and murders the man. man B hates black people, he plans to kill a black person because he hates them all, drive around until he finds one and murders them. both could be charged as premeditated murder, one knew the victim, the other targeted a member of a group randomly.
the base logic is targeting someone based on their actions, the other is targeting them based on who or what they are. if you sleep with a man's wife that doesnt deserve a death sentence, but you did act and do something. man B's victim was just born black. but both could be charged equally.