Capital punishment is a great concept but liberals hate it because it works.
Hate crime laws are useful for petty crimes like simple assault, harassment and vandalism -- spray-painting swastikas on a synagogue is a different crime from spray-painting "jimmy loves suzie" on a highway overpass, even if the physical act is the same.
For violent felonies, they're pretty much irrelevant in terms of sentencing. They do provide for reporting to the FBI and statistical tracking, which may or may not be useful.
Interestingly, it seems, like the ADA, this one has boomeranged.
I used to think only white heteo males could be convicted of Hate Crimes, but it turns out more People of Color have been convicted (or had enhanced sentencing) that whites.
Liberals, gotta love 'em: their complete inability to reason leads to them screwing the very people they are trying to help.