Bias Crime Bills House 1076 and Senate 306

From Indiana Equality website:

On January 16th, 2008, by a vote of 8 to 3 - House Bill 1076, the Bias Crimes bill authored by Representative Greg Porter and co-authored by Representatives Ralph Foley, Jon Elrod and Clyde Kersey, has successfully passed out of the House Courts and Criminal Code Committee and is now eligible for second reading by the full Indiana House of Representatives in the coming days.

All Hoosiers have a stake in an effective response to violent bigotry. Bias crimes demand a priority response because of their special emotional and psychological impact on the victim and the victim's community. The damage done by bias crimes cannot be measured solely in terms of physical injury or dollars and cents. Bias crimes may effectively intimidate other members of the victim's community, leaving them feeling isolated, vulnerable and unprotected by the law. By making members of minority communities fearful, angry and suspicious of other groups -- and of the power structure that is supposed to protect them -- these incidents can damage the fabric of our society and fragment communities.

Bias crimes laws punish actions, not speech or thought
The criminal justice system focuses on intent or motive all the time, particularly in sentencing. For example, the legal distinction between murder and manslaughter rests on whether the killer intended to kill, and whether it was premeditated.
Bias crimes send a message of terror to an entire group, and are therefore unlike a random act of violence. Bias crimes laws recognize the particular social threat of bias-motivated violence.

Proposed bias crimes legislation

The proposal would amend Indiana's sentencing law to add the following as aggravating circumstances for persons who commit "bias crimes," specifically the person who committed the offense knowingly or intentionally: (A) selected the individual who was injured by the offense; or (B) damaged or otherwise affected property by the offense; because of the color, creed, disability, national origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex of the injured individual or of the owner or occupant of the property. The proposal also creates a private cause of action.


From Indiana Equality Blog:

The Full List of Testifiers:· Ms. Clare Pinkert (Midwest Area Civil Rights Counsel; Anti-Defamation League)· Mr. Carl Brizzi (Prosecutor, Marion County)· Ms. Barbara Bolling (President, Indiana State Conference, NAACP)· Ms. Betty Williams (person with disabilities from Richmond, IN)· Connie Thurman (United Auto Workers)· Rev. E. Anne Henning-Byfield (President Elder, Indiana Annual Conference, 4th District, AME Church)· Ms.Karen Pulliam (President, James C. Kimbrough Bar Association, Lake County)· Fred Hash (Indiana Coalition on Housing and Homeless Issues)Murial Ryan (Terre Haute Branch, NAACP)

See also Senate Bill 306 which passed t