Georgia Lawmaker Introduces Hate-Crime Legislation
State Rep. Meagan Hanson announced Wednesday that she’s filing a bill that would create state hate crime laws.
Ross Terrell / WABE
Georgia is one of five states without a hate-crime law. The state Supreme Court struck down the law in 2004 after it was considered too vague mainly because it didn’t identify who was protected.
State Rep. Meagan Hanson, R-Brookhaven, announced Wednesday she’s filing a bill that would create state hate crime laws.
Hanson said her bill would increase the penalty for certain types of crime.
“If it’s found to be a hate crime then there would be an extra sentence added or an extra amount of time added depending on the type of crime,” she said. “The bill sets out what that additional penalty enhancement would be.”
She said the bill also addresses the problems the court found 13 years ago.
“We are identically modeling the federal legislation as far as the protected classes go,” Hanson said. “And of course we added reporting requirements and then some training for law enforcement to make sure it is equitably applied across the state.”
A copy of the bill was not available at the time of her announcement.
Matthew Wilson, an openly gay Democrat who plans to run against her this year, and Bryan Ramos, another political opponent, said they were wary of Hanson filing a bill now.
Her Twitter account has two tweets from 2011 and 2013 that could be considered negative about transgender people.
She didn’t return our request for comment in time for this story.
Arkansas, Indiana, South Carolina, and Wyoming are the other states without hate crime laws according to the Anti-Defamation League.
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