A federal appeals court has upheld the hate crime conviction of a Green Forest man who is serving an 11-year prison term for intentionally crashing into a car carrying five Hispanic men and injuring them.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis ruled Monday there was sufficient evidence that Frankie Maybee and two other men deliberately attacked the other vehicle after a confrontation in a convenience store parking lot.
The court upheld the 2009 Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a law that Congress approved under the power of the 13th Amendment, which calls for abolishing vestiges of slavery. The court found that attacking someone because of his or her ethnic background is constitutionally prohibited under the Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
