Push to be the 49th state with hate crime law stalls

COLUMBIA, S.C. >> It took South Carolina lawmakers only two months to act when a female college student was kidnapped and killed by a man posing as an Uber driver. The Legislature acted swiftly to prevent such crimes in the future.

By comparison, state Rep. Wendell Gilliard says, more than six years have passed since the racist murders of nine African Americans at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, and the Legislature has yet to take action to add punishment to victims of crimes motivated by bias against a particular group. That makes South Carolina one of only two states — the other being Wyoming — without a hatecrimes law.

“It was wrong what happened to that young woman,” Gilliard said of the college student. “Nobody should ever meet their demise in such a way. But when you look at the Mother Emanuel Nine, we have this bill that has been waiting patiently now for six years.”

The “Clementa C. Pinckney

Hate Crimes Act “is named for the pastor who died in the attack. Pinckney was also a state senator. The bill would add up to five years in prison for someone convicted of murder, assault or other violent crime fueled by hatred of the victim's race, sexual orientation, gender, religion or disability.

The bill currently sits in the Senate. The clock is ticking. If senators don't approve the proposal by the end of their session in May, everything goes back to square one.

“We have great senators over there,” Gilliard said. “But now we need them to stand up. Show a little backbone.”

Efforts to pass a hate crimes law in Wyoming, where the killing of gay college student Matthew Shepard led to the federal hate crimes law, have repeatedly failed including in 2021. There is no indication the issue will come up in the session that starts Monday.

Arkansas passed a hate crime law in 2021. Georgia passed its own law in 2020 four months after the killing of Ahmaud Arbery.