Donald Trump’s candidacy has upended conventional politics, reshaped news coverage and produced broad cultural effects that have reverberated beyond America.
But one thing it hasn’t done yet is change the basic constructs of criminal law and procedure.
This week, former Pennsylvania State University student Nicholas Tavella, 20, pleaded guilty to charges of felony ethnic intimidation, misdemeanor terroristic threats and summary harassment, among others. He was accused last December of attacking a fellow student on the basis of that student’s ethnicity, reportedly asking the victim if he was “from the Middle East,” grabbing him by the throat and threatening to put a bullet in his chest.
So what does any of this have to do with Trump?
Well, after Tavella admitted to police that his attack was racially motivated, his lawyer, Wayne Bradburn, tried to get the felony charges dismissed by claiming Tavella had been inspired by the Republican presidential nominee.
As the Centre Daily Times reported:
Tavella’s attorney, Wayne Bradburn, requested Sinclair throw out the felony charge of ethnic intimidation, because the statute requires the defendant had “malicious intent.”
In Bradburn’s defense, he cited the “Paris attacks, which took place three days prior,” and that it may have been “his love of country,” and “Donald Trump rhetoric covered in the media that may have incited fear of suspicious individuals.”
The “Donald Trump inspired me to do it” defense may seem like a novel legal theory. But because hate crime or “ethnic intimidation” laws typically require a high standard of proof, it wasn’t the craziest gambit ever trotted out in a courtroom.
Alas, the Republican nominee is capable of a lot of things, but getting Tavella off the hook apparently wasn’t one of them. The former student is now scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 18.
Bradburn did not return The Huffington Post’s request for comment.
The Huffington Post is documenting the rising wave of anti-Muslim bigotry and violence in America.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularlyincitespolitical violence and is a