“The sentences are to be served consecutively, Story County court records show,” continued the Associated Press. For the hate crime of burning an LGBT rainbow pride flag, Martinez received a full 15 years.
For the crime of harassment, he received just 30 days. “A man has been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for burning an LGBTQ flag that was flying at a church in central Iowa,” reports the Associated Press.įor the crime of reckless use of explosives or fire, 30-year-old Adolfo Martinez received one year in prison. Anybody who steals someone else’s private property and then burns it to smoldering ash deserves some kind of punishment under the law, but do they deserve a full 16 years in prison if this act of vandalism is charged as a “hate crime?” One Iowa man now finds himself at the center of that controversial question.
