The group “Better Idaho” has delivered petitions with more than 1,500 signatures to U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson calling for federal hate crime charges to be filed against the four men who beat Steven Nelson to death, after luring him to a meeting at Lake Lowell through an ad in a gay publication. Nelson, 49, was robbed, stripped, kicked and beaten and left for dead; he died a few hours later at a hospital.

Jordan Brady, research director for Better Idaho, a web-based nonprofit that bills itself as “a communications shop for progressive ideas,” said Olson’s office accepted the petitions and said they’d be reviewed. “Steven’s death wasn’t a robbery gone wrong, and it wasn’t an accident,” Brady said at a news conference in the state Capitol today. “It was a group of people who chose to rob, humiliate, and brutally murder someone who was hand-picked because of their sexual orientation.”

He noted that Idaho’s hate-crime law, enacted in 1983, doesn’t cover hate crimes motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity, and called for amending it to add that. “Thirty-three years later, this law no longer reflects the values of our great state,” he said. “It’s time for our laws and values to be aligned.”

He said federal hate crime laws apply only in such violent felonies as murder and rape – but they could apply in this case.

Olson told Eye on Boise, “Individuals have been charged in the case, and the FBI has participated in the investigation from the outset.” She said her office will be reviewing the FBI’s findings to determine if the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 applies. “We’ll be looking at the facts,” Olson said.

Regarding the petitions, she said, “I’m always pleased to see that there are citizens who take an active interest in the enforcement of the federal civil rights laws. That tells me there is great citizen interest.” Olson said her office will bring charges if they determine they determine they can “prove it in court beyond a reasonable doubt.” She added, “The FBI and my office are going to give this a good, hard look, and I’m confident we’ll get to the best decision for the facts of the case.”

Brady said, “It took an immense amount of hate to fuel this attack. But it didn’t start that night at Lake Lowell. Hate is a learned behavior that darkens thoughts and minds every time someone is told that some people don’t deserve the same rights, protection and dignity as everyone else. And that’s what our state laws are telling us today. This is a time not only for mourning, but for action.”

The Idaho Human Rights Commission proposed adding sexual orientation to Idaho’s hate crime law back in 1999; it was HB 36 that year. But the measure was killed in the House State Affairs Committee on a 14-7 vote after much debate; the committee’s narrow meeting room overflowed with television cameras and more than 50 onlookers.

No bill has been introduced since then to change Idaho’s hate crime, or “malicious harassment” law, though there have been numerous unsuccessful attempts to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity under the Idaho Human Rights Act. If Idaho’s hate crime law were amended, it could cover malicious harassment against gays that falls short of the level of violence required to invoke federal hate crime statutes, such as property damage, threats and intimidation.