Ahmaud Arbery case: the history and future of Georgia’s hate crime law - WSAV-TV

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) — At the time of Ahmaud Arbery’s death, Georgia was one of four states in the country without its own hate crime law.

“We witnessed a horrific, hate-filled act of violence,” Gov. Brian Kemp said in June 2020. “We saw injustice with our own eyes. Georgians protested to demand action. And state lawmakers, many who are gathered here today, rose to the occasion.”

Shortly after the video of Arbery’s killing became public, Kemp signed House Bill 426 into effect which adds additional punishments for intentionally committing a crime against someone because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, national origin or disability.

The law also requires law enforcement officers to submit a written “Bias Crime Report” when responding to incidents that may involve a hate crime.

Because Georgia had no state hate crime law at the time of Arbery’s death, those charges could only be prosecuted in federal court.

“Unfortunately, what happened in Georgia’s case is it took a crime like this to occur for the legislation to go back and look at that and kind of say ‘oh wow look, we do have a case and we’re unable to prosecute it in the way it deserves to be prosecuted,'” Dr. Chad Posick, a criminal justice professor at Georgia Southern University, told News 3.

Hate crime laws have been in effect at the federal level since 1968, when President Lyndon Johnson signed the first statute.

“That was at a time when heightened racial violence was national news every day in terms of the death of civil rights workers and leaders across the south who were finally enjoying public accommodations and access to educational institutions and the like,” explained civil rights attorney Francys Johnson.

Legal experts say the federal hate crimes trial for the men involved in Arbery’s death served as a test for the laws in place and will likely serve as precedent for the first hate crime trials in state court.

“There have been hate crimes such as the mass killings of Asian individuals in Atlanta that happened after Arbery’s case that now can be prosecuted as hate crimes at the state level,” Posick explained. “We can kind of see that dynamic play out in real-time. So this is a really significant case to lay the foundation, the groundwork for state hate crime legislation.”

Data from the U.S. Department of Justice shows there were nearly 200 hate crimes committed in Georgia in 2020, with 67% motivated by race.

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source: https://www.wsav.com/news/ahmaud-arbery-case-the-history-and-future-of-georgias-hate-crime-law/

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