Hate Crimes Passed As A Summer Study Committee

Staff Report
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS—A resolution that would allow Indiana to join 45 other states with hate crimes legislation was approved unanimously in the Senate Rules and Legislative Procedures Committee Monday.

Senate Resolution 60, authored by Sen. Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis, asks for a summer committee to study current state and federal statutes that address hate crimes, current and future law enforcement training and education for recognizing and responding to such crimes.

SR 60 is a result of the fall of Senate Bill 418 earlier this session which would have allowed judges to impose tougher sentences for crimes motivated by factors such as race, religion, sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation. SB 418 never made it out of committee.

“I wanted to give the Indiana legislature one last opportunity to do the right thing this year,” Taylor said in a written statement. “This is not an issue we can just brush past and leave on the table for yet another year, too much is at stake as bias-related crimes continue to increase.”

The bill would also review appropriate sentencing options for addressing bias-motivated crimes and how Indiana courts currently address them.

“The common response when this legislation is proposed is that the courts already have the ability to add aggravators for crimes committed with a bias,” Taylor said. “I think that this study committee would determine the level of inadequacy of our current laws.”

Taylor said he hopes that the study committee will help better protect minority communities from crimes committed against them because of race, gender or skin color.

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