Nearly two years ago, in September 2012, a federal jury in Cleveland answered "yes" to that question after three weeks of deliberation. The jury convicted Sam Mullet Sr., bishop of a renegade Amish clan, and 15 of his followers for forcibly cutting off the beards of Amish men in nighttime home invasions in 2011. The jury struggled with two big questions: Was cutting off a beard temporary disfigurement? And were the attacks motivated by religion?
Federal prosecutors sought to convict the defendants of hate crimes under the 2009 Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act. This statute defines a hate crime as bodily injury inflicted because of a victim's actual or perceived religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, national origin, or disability.
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