(INDIANAPOLIS) – 30 civil rights groups say the hate crime bill passed by the Indiana Senate isn’t a hate crime bill at all.
The Anti-Defamation League and the Human Rights Campaign keep track of hate crime laws in all 50 states. Indiana and the four other states without a law make up what Governor Holcomb has labeled “the naughty list,” and much of the debate at the statehouse has centered on whether a law which didn’t specify targeted victim groups would be enough to get the state off the list.
Until now, the ADL hadn’t weighed in directly. But a letter to Holcomb, House Speaker Brian Bosma and Senate President Pro Tem Rod Bray makes clear the groups would still list Indiana as not having a hate crime law if it passes a Senate bill with just a general reference to “bias. The groups say that version “could actually cause harm.” They say the lack of a list would “marginalize communities of color” and minority religions.
Bosma won’t comment directly on the ADL letter. He says he’s focused on passing a bill that gets Indiana off the list. Since January, Bosma has consistently advocated a bill which doesn’t include a list of groups, but goes a little further than the Senate version, allowing judges to impose longer sentences for crimes motivated by bias against any “characteristic, belief, practice or association.” The ADL letter doesn’t address that proposal.
Every state with a hate crime law except Utah includes a list of covered groups, and the Utah Senate this week passed a bill adding a list. Utah prosecutors, and the ADL letter, say the current law has proven unenforceable.
Besides Utah, every state hate crime law lists race, religion and ethnicity as potential hate-crime targets. 10 other categories show up in at least one state law.
House Speaker Brian Bosma (R-Indianapolis, left) and Senate President Pro Tem Rod Bray (R-Martinsville) (Photo: Eric Berman/WIBC)
