Legislative leaders introduced a new bill Thursday that would ensure longer prison terms for violent crimes where the victim was “purposely selected” because of their inclusion in certain groups, though the chief sponsor stopped short of calling it a “hate crimes bill.”
“I’d just characterize it as a class-protection bill,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Jimmy Hickey, R- Texarkana, shortly after he and other lawmakers filed Senate Bill 622 Thursday.
Efforts to pass a hate-crimes bill this legislative session have fallen flat in the face of stiff opposition from some Republicans who have expressed concerns about adding specific protections for people based on race, sexual orientation and gender identity.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, has repeatedly urged lawmakers to take up hate crimes legislation, to no avail so far. His nephew, state Sen. Jim Hendren of Sulphur Springs, filed a bill early in the session creating sentence enhancements for hate crimes against members of a dozen protected classes, including race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation and religion.
Hendren’s bill failed to gain any traction and Hendren himself left the Republican Party in February to become an independent.
Instead of listing specific protected classes, SB622 would apply to crimes where the victim is selected based on their inclusion in an identifiable group that shares “mental, physical, biological, cultural, political, or religious beliefs or characteristics.”
The bill would only apply to certain violent crimes, such as murder, battery and assault. Rather than tacking on additional years to a sentence for such crimes, the proposed law would require someone convicted of a targeted attack to serve 80% of their sentence before being eligible for parole.
Hickey, who sponsored the bill along with House Speaker Matthew Shepherd, R- El Dorado, and the chairs of the House and Senate judiciary committees, said the bill was written to include groups protected under similar proposals.
“If someone targets someone because they’re transgender, that’s obviously an identifiable group,” Hickey said. “If someone targets someone because they’re a Baptist or Methodist minister, that’s also an identifiable group.”
After reviewing SB622 Thursday, Hendren said he was “glad to see movement” on the issue, but declined to say he would support the bill until meeting with groups impacted by hate crimes.
“There is a lot of space between their bill and the bi-partisan bill that [Rep. Fred Love, D- Little Rock] and I filed,” Hendren said in a text. “I am not concerned about who sponsors the bill but that we pass a bill that is clear that it will provide real protections to those who have been victimized by hate crimes.”
Gov. Hutchinson’s office did not immediately respond to a request to comment on SB622 Thursday morning.
Arkansas is one of only three states in the country, along with Wyoming and South Carolina, that does not have stiffer penalties for hate crimes.
In South Carolina, a hate crimes bill moving through the Legislature this year was amended to remove protections for gay and transgender people after Republicans threatened to withdraw support for the bill, according to the Associated Press.