Hate crimes; associational relationships, penalty. (SB1203)

Introduced By

Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D-Midlothian) with support from co-patron Del. Betsy Carr (D-Richmond)

Description

Hate crimes; associational relationships; penalty. Redefines the categories of victims whose intentional selection for a hate crime involving assault, assault and battery, or trespass for the purpose of damaging another's property results in a higher criminal penalty for the offense to include a person's actual or perceived race, color, ethnicity, religious conviction, national origin, gender, sex, disability, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation or a person's actual or perceived association with another person or group of a certain actual or perceived race, color, ethnicity, religious conviction, national origin, gender, sex, disability, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation. The bill adds these categories of victims whose intentional selection for a hate crime involves malicious wounding and makes such crime punishable by a term of imprisonment of not less than five years, nor more than 40 years. The bill also redefines these categories for the purposes of reporting hate crimes to the central repository of information maintained by the Virginia State Police, for civil actions to recover damages for vandalism, and for interactive computer service liability. Read the Bill »

Outcome

History