The FBI are getting involved with the Marco McMillian case

The FBI are getting involved with Marco McMillian's death.

Here's more:

The agency "will assess evidence to determine whether federal prosecution is appropriate," Deborah Madden, an FBI public affairs specialist, said Wednesday.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and the National Black Justice Coalition, both separately urged the federal government Tuesday to seek potential hate crime charges in a case that has grabbed national attention.

But what, exactly, constitutes a hate crime? What is Mississippi's track record on reporting and prosecuting them? And does the homicide of Marco McMillian, 33, who also was black, fit the profile?

"A hate crime is motivated by animosity toward a particular group of persons rather than a particular person," said Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, a Montgomery, Ala.-based nonprofit group that tracks hate, intolerance and discrimination.

Mississippi has a hate-crime law that covers race, religion and gender but doesn't extend to sexual orientation. However, local and state agencies can seek assistance to pursue a federal hate crime under the Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which does cover homosexuality.

Or the FBI can come in to investigate at the request of an outside source, as in the McMillian case.

The FBI defines a hate crime as a "criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation."

I hope they could solve this