Hate Crimes: Outside the realm of law?

Two weeks ago, a 16 year old Hispanic Houston student was brutally attacked and sexually assaulted by two older, white youths, including one 17 year old. The victim was severely beaten and bruised, and was in critical condition after having a pipe with a sharpened point shoved into his anus. He lost substantive amounts of blood and by the time authorities were on the scene, he was unconscious and quickly slipping. 

The perpetrators are known. The 17 year old perpetrator has a history of violence and was known by neighbors as a menace and "dangerous" even before the attacks. He is also an ardent white supremacist. He has neo-Nazi emblems emblazoned all over his body and, despite copping to his last crime, was able to get off with only limited probation. 

The crime was obviously intended as a racial attack. The Hispanic youth had allegedly been "talking with a white girl" who was related to the 17 year old. In response, he was attacked.

Now, law makers hands are tied up in charging this boy with a hate crime because no such stipulations exist. The term is purely theoretical in meaning. Shouldn't there be at least some (even non political) measures to identify hate crime attackers in the same way sexual abusers are listed. 

This crime is so hideous it meets a stronger penalty that what will surely be awarded this sick individual. I only hope our legal system is flexible enough to accomodate for the jurors' sure disdain for this violence.