Bipartisan groups of lawmakers are pushing for hate crime bills in South Carolina and Arkansas, two of the three lawless states that penalize crimes motivated by prejudice.
The leaders of both Republican-led states have long resisted hate crime bills, saying existing laws are adequate to punish crimes.
But many lawmakers say they feel an urge to take a political stand after the assassination of George Floyd and other blacks this year. The Georgia legislature passed a hate crime bill in a matter of weeks last June, following the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery.
The Georgia bill, which became law with the signature of Republican Governor Brian Kemp, increases the sentence in cases where the victim was selected based on race, religion, sexual orientation or other prejudice. It also creates a hate crime database.
South Carolina and Arkansas lawmakers considered Georgia law a model capable of attracting broad bipartisan support in a historically conservative state.
The legislatures of both states meet in early January.
Some business groups say a hate crime bill is next to pandemic-related aid at the top of the business community’s legislative agenda.
“I always say that the laws in our books reflect the values of our state,” said Ted Pitts, chief executive of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce. “It is time for South Carolina to show that we do not tolerate hate crimes. “
The organization sent lawmakers a letter in early December saying that a hate crime law “would encourage potential businesses to settle here, workers to live here, tourists who will visit here and families will thrive here”.
People attended a remembrance meeting in June for the nine blacks killed during Bible study in 2015 by a self-proclaimed white supremacist in Charleston, SC
Photograph:
Josh Morgan / Associated Press
In Arkansas, Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson was flanked by a coalition of business and legislative leaders at a news conference in August to announce the introduction of a hate crime bill. He said that such a law would send a “correct and consistent message in our state and nation that hatred should not be tolerated”.
South Carolina, Arkansas and Wyoming do not have a law that punishes crimes based on prejudice, according to the United States Department of Justice.
In Wyoming, a state advisory committee supported by the United States Civil Rights Commission said in a July report that the state needed to do more to reduce hate crimes. The commission recommended passing a hate crime law, but the Wyoming proposal did not get the same public support as in South Carolina and Arkansas.
Some religious groups in both states are opposed to the projects, which they say are at risk of eroding First Amendment protections on freedom of expression.
“It goes into the arena of punishing people for what they believe in,” said Jerry Cox, president of the Family Council, a conservative group based in Little Rock, Ark. “We have all learned that you can believe anything you want, and we cannot punish you for that. “
South Carolina Rep. Beth Bernstein, a Democrat who heads a bipartisan House subcommittee on criminal justice reform, said that hate crimes laws do not punish people for saying what they believe, but for committing prejudiced crimes .
She said she was optimistic that a bill would pass the House fairly quickly in January and February, but was unsure of her prospects in the Senate, where Republicans increased their lead in the November elections.
“The priorities may have shifted to pro-life and pro-gun issues,” said Bernstein.
South Carolina Republican Governor Henry McMaster, a former United States attorney, was legal with a hate crime bill in the past, but said he would wait to decide whether to sign or veto one based on the merits of the bill.
“We have a lot of laws that deal with what you would call hate crimes,” he said of charges such as murder and assault at a news conference in early December. “Whether improvement is needed is another question.”
Hate crime laws are long overdue, said Rep. Wendell Gilliard of South Carolina, a Democrat who represents the district of Charleston where Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church is located, where nine black faithful were killed in 2015. One man White, Dylann Roof, was convicted of federal hate crimes and other charges and sentenced to death in 2017.
“Nobody should be harmed or maimed because of who they are, what they are, their race, their sexual orientation,” said Gilliard. “Everyone has the right to life. We are not God. We cannot judge people at these facilities. “
Write to Valerie Bauerlein at [email protected]
Copyright © 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8