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Congress Reports
This legislation would provide federal assistance to states, local jurisdictions, and Indian tribes to prosecute hate crimes. Hate crimes are defined as crimes motivated by feelings of bias because of the victim's race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. If this legislation becomes law, it would supersede current laws punishing perpetrators of the underlying crimes. In some cases, such hate crime laws would supersede Alabama laws making it impossible to impose capital punishment when a hate crime has been committed. Under this bill, a criminal who kills a person in one of the "protected" categories will be punished more harshly than criminals who kill a police officer, a member of the military, or any other person not in this "protected" category. In my view, justice should be equally available for all victims of a crime. However, under this bill, justice would no longer be "equal justice for all." It would allow different penalties to be imposed for the same crime if you are in one of these "protected" categories. As a child, I was always impressed by the fact that Lady Justice was blindfolded for a reason - justice is, or at least should be, handed down objectively, regardless of who is brought before the court. For these reasons, I did not support H.R. 1592 as I believe this bill would hinder the very rights of those it intends to protect. As I mentioned, this bill did pass the House, and it now awaits action in the Senate.
Jo Bonner, R-Mobile, serves the First Congressional District of Alabama which includes a portion of Clarke County.
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