Georgia legislature approves hate-crimes bill

The Georgia legislature approved hate-crimes legislation after being one of four states in the country without a law explicitly against hate crimes, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Tuesday.

After the vote, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s (R) office said he “commends the General Assembly’s bipartisan work and will sign” the bill. 

If approved by the governor and his legal team, the bill — originally passed by the Georgia House last year — would give sentencing guidelines for anyone convicted of targeting a victim based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender, mental disability or physical disability.

Under the bill, somebody convicted of a hate crime would face an added 12 months for a misdemeanor or at least two years for a felony charge. 

Georgia passed hate-crimes legislation in 2000, but in 2004 it was rejected by the state Supreme Court. Once the bill passed Wednesday is finalized, Arkansas, South Carolina and Wyoming will be the only states in the U.S. without hate-crime legislation. 

The bill originally included protections for police officers, which Democrats in the state legislature negotiated with Republicans to remove from the final text. As part of the compromise, anyone found guilty of committing a crime against a first responder specifically because of their occupation could face between one and five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.  

There has been a renewed push for state lawmakers to pass such a law since February, when Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed by a group of white men while jogging in south Georgia. 

In a New York Times op-ed video earlier this month, Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, urged the Georgia legislature to pass the bill.

Earlier this month a white police officer shot and killed Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man, at an Atlanta Wendy’s.

The state also faced weeks of unrest prior to Brooks’s death, following the May 25 death of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis police custody.