Wadea Al Fayoume was stabbed 26 times Saturday by his family’s landlord in Plainfield Township, Illinois per: https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/17/us/6-year-old-boy-palestinian-boy-chicago-profile/index.html
For this question, Assume that all statements in the CNN article are true facts, do the facts support a hate crime charge?
Does the Wadea Al Fayoume stabbing qualify as a hate crime?
According to Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Fitzgerald and the Will County Sheriff, this incident it does qualify as a hate crime. A TV news report from today (Tuesday, October 17, 2023) states:
Earlier Monday, Czuba made his first court appearance on murder, attempted murder and hate crime charges. In detailing the charges Sunday, the Will County Sheriff’s Office determined “both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis.”
The Illinois hate crime statute states in the pertinent part:
A person commits hate crime when, by reason of the actual or perceived race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, gender, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, citizenship, immigration status, or national origin of another individual or group of individuals, regardless of the existence of any other motivating factor or factors, he or she commits assault, battery, aggravated assault, intimidation, stalking, cyberstalking, misdemeanor theft, criminal trespass to residence, misdemeanor criminal damage to property, criminal trespass to vehicle, criminal trespass to real property, mob action, disorderly conduct, transmission of obscene messages, harassment by telephone, or harassment through electronic communications as these crimes are defined in Sections 12-1, 12-2, 12-3(a), 12-7.3, 12-7.5, 16-1, 19-4, 21-1, 21-2, 21-3, 25-1, 26-1, 26.5-1, 26.5-2, paragraphs (a)(1), (a)(2), and (a)(3) of Section 12-6, and paragraphs (a)(2) and (a)(5) of Section 26.5-3 of this Code, respectively.
720 ILCS 5/12-7.1(a).
The remainder of the statute sets forth which penalties apply in which circumstances for violations of the statute, and defines the term sexual orientation.
The defendant allegedly committed battery, assault, or aggravated assault against the mother (who lived) allegedly motivated by religion or national origin. Therefore, this constitutes a hate crime under Illinois law (assuming that the facts alleged in the media regarding this incident are true).
The stabbing of the child, because the child died, is murder, which is not eligible for being classified as a hate crime in Illinois law.
