SC lawmakers will try again to pass hate crime bill with some newfound support
With newfound support from the business community, South Carolina lawmakers will renew their push for passing hate crime legislation, which would add enhanced penalties for someone who commits a crime against someone based on their demographic information.
This week, lawmakers filed several pieces of legislation related to hate crimes in both the House and the Senate, which could end South Carolina’s standing as one of only three states without enhancements for crimes committed for reasons of hate due to reasons such as a person’s religion, race or sexuality.
While the state can still charge someone for a crime committed because of hate, they cannot add enhanced penalties. Currently, South Carolina prosecutors have to rely on their federal counterparts to prosecute those cases under federal hate crime laws.
Democratic lawmakers in both the House and Senate pushed for the passage of hate crime enhancements last year. Neither the Senate bills nor the House bills ever made it out of committee.
Republican lawmakers have resisted passing hate crime legislation, saying that federal hate crime laws are sufficient and that South Carolina doesn’t need to add any new laws to the books. Others have said all people should be protected equally under the law, and hate crime enhancements only apply to certain kinds of victims.
One of the state’s more vocal opponents of passing hate crime legislation in the past has filed his own bill on the topic this year. S.C. Sen. Greg Hembree, R-Horry, filed a hate crime bill that mirrors federal hate crime legislation.
Hembree, who maintains that he is “not crazy about hate crimes laws,” filed the bill due to the political “reality” that a hate crime bill passage could be on the horizon, he said. He added that he doesn’t think that hate crime enhancements will be widely used, and that they are “mostly a feel good, political law.”
“We’re one of the last states not to have one, so if we are going to get one, let’s get a good one,” Hembree said.
Hembree’s bill could make the process of prosecuting a hate crime easier because law enforcement and prosecutors would adhere to the same standard as they would in a federal hate crimes case, he said. There is also plenty of case law that would show how the bill would be properly applied, he added.
Additionally, his bill “has already passed federal constitutional muster,” he said.
Hembree’s hate crime bill isn’t the only one on the books. Democrats have filed several of their own.
Most of the bills would add enhanced penalties for crimes committed because of someone’s actual or perceived race, color, ethnicity, national origin, cultural or social identity, ancestry, religion, gender, political affiliation, sexual orientation or disability. Another bill, filed in the House and supported by several Black lawmakers, would also extend sentencing enhancements to crimes committed against the homeless.
Some bills specifically would add enhancements for the intent to assault, intimidate or threaten a person. One bill, introduced by Sen. Gerald Malloy, D-Darlington, would allow prosecutors to consider someone’s murder due to their actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability part of an aggravating factor.
House bill H.3247, which was sponsored by several Black lawmakers, comes with a penalty of a fine between $2,000 and $10,000 and additional prison time between two and fifteen years. Senate Bill S.14 increases the penalty of a felony crime by up to five years, for a Class A misdemeanor, up to four years and for other misdemeanors, up to three years.
Not all prefiled bills have been made public yet, so more legislation tackling hate crimes could be released in the next week.
Some Democratic lawmakers feel there will be more support from Republicans for passing hate crime legislation during the upcoming session, thanks to support from the business community.
On Dec. 1, the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce and more than 80 business leaders from across the country called on lawmakers to pass hate crime legislation. The endorsement came on the heels of a tumultuous year, where protesters took to the streets in cities across America, including Columbia, to call for social justice and equity following the death of George Floyd, a black Minneapolis man who died after a police officer knelt on his neck. That movement drew the attention of business and chamber leaders.
“The time has come to pass a hate crime bill this coming session,” Chamber President and CEO Ted Pitts said in a statement. “The state’s business community looks forward to working with the House, the Senate, and the Governor to quickly pass a meaningful bill that shows South Carolina does not condone crimes motivated by hate.”
Pitts was joined by several prominent businesses, like AARP, AT&T, American Airlines, the Bank of America, CVS Health, IBM, Michelin, Sonoco, Toyota, Coca Cola, UPS, Verizon, Volvo and Wells Fargo. He was also joined by local organizations like Benedict College, Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, Colonial Life, Nephron Pharmaceuticals, Nexsen Pruet and several local chambers of commerce.
On top of the support from the business community, Republican House Speaker Jay Lucas formed a new House committee last year focused on criminal justice training and reform, which was also tasked with examining a possible hate crime bill.
S.C. Rep. Beth Bernstein, D-Richland, plans for file a bill that already has bipartisan support that came out of that committee. The bill has yet to be released with other bills prefiled in the House, but a copy of the proposed legislation would add penalties for crimes committed based on their actual or perceived race, color, creed, religion, sex, gender, age, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation or disability.
For a violent crime, an offender could face an additional five years sentence and a fine of up to $10,000 more. For stalking or harassment, the penalty could increase by up to three years and $5,000, and for malicious injury offenses, it could increase by up to one year and $1,000.
It would also allow a victim of a hate crime to file a civil law suit against the perpetrator. In that case, a court could order a perpetrator to pay a fine of up to $25,000 for each violation.
