On this date in 1999, a jury of 11 white persons and one black person, sentenced John William King to death for the brutal murder of James Byrd, a 49-year old Black man who was dragged to his death on a country road in Jasper, Texas, where King had hoped to start a white supremacist hate group. Two days earlier the jury deliberated just two hours before reaching its Guilty verdict. King became a member of a white supremacist prison gang when he was imprisoned in Tennessee County, Texas, for violating the terms of his probation at the age of 20. Read more about this prominent hate crime at our June 7, February 23, September 23, and November 18 calendar pages.

On this date in New York City, in 2009, police arrested an African-American man, Hakim Scott, 25, of the Bronx, for the brutal gay-bashing and anti-Latino bashing of two straight Latino men, Jose Sucuzhañay, a real estate agency co-owner in Brooklyn, and his brother Romel. Mistaken for a gay couple, the Ecuadorian brothers were attacked as they walked arm-in-arm in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn on December 7, 2008. Jose suffered severe head injuries in the attack; he was declared brain dead on December 9, 2008, and he died on December 12, 2008. Eyewitnesses said Jose was repeatedly beaten with an aluminum baseball bat and repeatedly kicked by his assailants; they also said anti-gay and anti-Latino slurs were hurled at the Sucuzhañay brothers by two black attackers immediately before the assault. Romel, who was in the country briefly to visit his brother, escaped serious injury. Authorities arrested a second African-American suspect, Keith Phoenix, 28, also of the Bronx, on February 27, 2009, in Yonkers. Scott and Phoenix were each charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime and assault as a hate crime. Both Scott and Phoenix have previous criminal histories, and both originally claimed self-defense. However, during their trials they accused each other of the attack on Mr. Sucuzhañay. Phoenix's cousin, Demetrius Nathaniel, testified that Phoenix used anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs immediately before the attack on the Sucuzhañay brothers which Mr. Nathaniel told jurors he witnessed. On May 6, 2010, a jury convicted Hakim Scott of first-degree manslaughter in the death of José O. Sucuzhañay; but, Scott was acquitted of the hate crime charges against him. Scott faces up to 40 years in prison for his manslaughter conviction. On May 11, 2010, Justice Patricia M. DiMango of the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn declared a mistrial in Keith Phoenix's first murder trial after she announced that the jury was hopelessly deadlocked. His second trial began on June 15, 2010, and on June 28, 2010 Keith Phoenix was found guilty of second-degree murder as a hate crime and attemped assault as a hate crime by a Brooklyn jury. On August 5, 2010, Keith Phoenix was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the second-degree murder as a hate crime, and to a 12-year concurrent sentence for attempted assault as a hate crime. Thus, he received a total of 37 years to life in prison. Also on August 5, 2010, Hakim Scott was sentenced to 25 years in prison for first-degree manslaughter, and to a 12-year concurrent sentence for attempted assault. Thus, he received a total of 37 years in prison.

In Framingham, Massachusetts, on this date in 2009, Kenneth R. Kuchinsky, 38, of Holliston, Massachusetts, was arrested and charged with a hate crime for allegedly kicking a man Kuchinsky perceived to be Russian and for allegedly yelling anti-Russian remarks at the victim in front of the Salvation Army. Kuchinsky—who is said to have called the arresting police officer a "Jew mother fucker" and who is also said to have made anti-Native American remarks when arrested—was charged with assault and battery with the purpose of intimidation (a hate crime), assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (his foot), and disorderly conduct. Kuckinsky was arraigned on February 26, 2009, out of the Framingham District Court and he pleaded not guilty.

On this date in 2010 in San Antonio, Texas, a white San Antonio police officer, Craig Nash, 39, was arrested on charges of with sexual assault and official oppression for allegedly raping a transgendered woman while on duty (he was not charged with a hate crime, however). Nash, a six-and-a-half-year veteran with the San Antonio Police Department, is said to have picked up his victim, who is a prostitute, at Guadalupe and Zarzamora streets and then to have driven her to an unknown location where he is said to have forced her to engage in multiple sexual acts. She immediately reported the alleged attack, and police linked Nash's police cruiser using GPS tracking to the area where the victim said she was assaulted. Two days later on February 27, 2010, a second person came forward and alleged that Craig Nash had sexually assaulted him in the summer of 2008. Nash was suspended indefinitely from the San Antonio Police Department on March 19, 2010. In August 2009 Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, filed an internal affairs complaint against Nash. The complaint alleged that Nash had used "abusive language" toward a group of people who were trying to help a woman who was being assaulted by her boyfriend on June 28, 2009. However, San Antonio Police Department determined the complaint did not warrant disciplinary action. There are complaints yearly by transgendered individuals who are raped by police officers. To our knowledge these attacks are never deemed hate crimes.