FRANKFORT, Ky. — Hate crime victims’ families spoke out in support Tuesday for a bill that would toughen up Kentucky’s hate crime laws.
In 2018, a man opened fire in a Kroger in Jeffersontown and killed Vickie Jones and Maurice Stallard.
Investigators said that man targeted African-Americans.
“We are three years out, but it still feels like yesterday,” Kellie Stallard Watson, Maurice Stallard’s daughter, said.
“We need this,” Samuella Gathright, Vickie Jones’ sister, said. “People need to be accountable for what they do.”
The man who pleaded guilty but mentally ill for their murders was also convicted of a federal hate crime, but Watson said she wishes he would have also been charged with a hate crime at the state level.
“For us to have appropriate justice, for the community to have appropriate justice, for us as victims of the family to have appropriate justice, it needs to be that a hate crime is identified and people are held accountable for what they have done,” Watson said.
Tuesday, Democratic senators from Louisville introduced Senate Bill 275.
If SB 275 passes, a person convicted of a hate crime in Kentucky would have a longer prison sentence.
“What’s on the book now, which is characterized as hate crime legislation, is not effective in any way,” Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, said. “In fact, it adds nothing. The language there adds nothing to our ability to address this in a proper way.”
A person would need to be convicted of a crime prior to being charged with a hate crime.
“If you paint a swastika on the side of a synagogue, you have to first be convicted of the crime of vandalism,” Sen. Morgan McGarvey, D-Louisville, said. “Once you’re convicted of the crime of vandalism, then you can be tried to see whether it’s a hate crime.”
Under current state law, people found guilty of hate crimes do not face longer sentences or extra fines. It only allows judges and parole boards to deny a person probation or parole.
Lawmakers have tried for the last three years to toughen up Kentucky’s hate crime laws.
They haven’t been successful yet, but McGarvey said there is bipartisan support for this legislation in the senate, so he and Neal are hopeful this will be the year.
The bill was filed Tuesday in the Senate.
It’ll now start working its way through the legislative process.
►Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the WHAS11 News app now. For Apple or Android users.
Have a news tip? Email assign@whas11.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.