Sentencing bill with hate crimes amendment passes Indiana House
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indiana lawmakers were again at odds Tuesday over hate crimes legislation.
A new list of protected characteristics is being debated, but they are not in the Senate’s original hate crimes bill. Instead, they are in a Senate drug sentencing bill approved Tuesday in a 57-39 vote.
“It’s frustrating that it takes this long,” State Rep. Phil GiaQuinta, a Democrat from Fort Wayne, said. “It’s frustrating that we’re trying to put together these different pieces and put them in a puzzle that frankly don’t fit.”
Just weeks ago, a list of protected characteristics was removed from the Senate’s original hate crimes bill, which is now in the House.
PREVIOUS: House advances drug sentencing bill with hate crimes amendment
On Monday evening, a House lawmaker introduced an amendment to a Senate drug sentencing bill. The amendment allows a judge to consider aggravating circumstances in a crime if the person committed the crime with bias due to the victim’s perceived characteristic, trait, belief, practice, association or other attribute the court chooses to consider, as laid out in Indiana code.
“If you look at the amendment, it protects all Hoosiers, any characteristic, any trait,” state Rep. Matt Lehman, a Republican from Berne, said. “Those can now be looked at, rather than specifically going down a list of what we’re going to have. That list could be five, it could be seven, it could be 72. We said, ‘Let’s craft something that protects all Hoosiers, and that’s what this does.’”
But, some fired-up House Democrats said Tuesday that’s not good enough. Indiana remains one of five states without a hate crimes law.
“Certainly things we agree on, but if we’re going to do any kind of law, we need to have a comprehensive list that covers everybody.” GiaQuinta said. “Things like gender, gender identity, age sex, those type of characteristics.”
On Tuesday morning, Gov. Eric Holcomb praised the amendment, but believed his policy is best.
“The important distinction about what occurred yesterday (Monday) is this covers all forms of hate and it does cover everyone who might be victimized. That is serious progress.” Holcomb said. “I believe my administration’s policy is my preferred language and I offered the federal language as well.”
So, what does the governor want to say to, for example, transgender Hoosiers who may feel left out by the new amendment?
“Be part of the process,” Holcomb said. “This is how this works.”
The original hate crimes bill is still technically alive in the House.
What happens next? This drug sentencing bill with the hate crimes amendment attached now goes to the Senate.
Statements
On Tuesday, Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry offered this statement on the Senate’s amended sentencing bill regarding bias crime legislation.
“There are obvious omissions in the bill as it stands today. By eliminating protections based on a victim’s gender or gender identity, we leave vulnerable many Hoosiers who we know for certain have been targets of these crimes. From a practical standpoint, these omissions reduce the strength of the law and impact the ability of law enforcement and prosecutors to investigate and prosecute hate crimes against those who are ignored by this current bill.”
On Tuesday morning, Mindi Goodpaster, vice president of public policy with United Way of Central Indiana, and David Sklar, assistant director of Indianapolis Jewish Community Relations Council, issued a statement about the amendment. They chairs of the Indiana Forward campaign.
“Senate Bill 198 does NOT create the comprehensive legislation that Indiana needs and deserves in 2019, and it does NOT meet the standards that our campaign has consistently advocated for since the beginning of the legislative session. Our campaign has continually stated that to create an effective law, a bill must include an enumerated list of characteristics that include race, religion, national origin, sex, disability, age, gender identity and sexual orientation.
“This should not be about passing half-measures to move Indiana off the list of states without a bias crimes law. It should be about Hoosier lives and enacting good public policy. While we can continue to further amend this legislation, we simply cannot accept the explicit exclusion of characteristics such as sex and gender identity from Indiana’s bias crimes bill. There is still time for our lawmakers to get this right and pass comprehensive legislation that can be supported by a bipartisan majority of both chambers. We will continue to fight until the final hours of the session to ensure that no Hoosiers are left behind in the final version of this legislation.”