Georgia Court Throws Out Hate-Crimes Law

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Georgia Court Throws Out Hate-Crimes Law
DiversityInc.com news brief
10/26/2004

The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously threw out the state's hate-crimes
law
Monday, calling it overbroad and "unconstitutionally vague."

The law called for stiffer criminal penalties for crimes where a victim
is
chosen because of "bias or prejudice." But, unlike similar laws in
other
states, it does not specify which groups might be victims.

The 7-0 ruling on the 4-year-old law came in the case of a white man
and
woman convicted of an assault on two African-American men in Atlanta's
Little Five Points neighborhood.

Angela Pisciotta and Christopher Botts were accused of beating two
brothers,
Che and Idris Golden, in 2002 while screaming racial epithets. The two
later
pleaded guilty to aggravated assault. The trial judge sentenced them to
six
years in prison, plus an additional two years under the hate-crimes
law,
which allowed up to five years to be added to a sentence because of
bias or
prejudice.

Pisciotta and Botts appealed to the state's highest court in April.
Their
lawyers argued that the hate-crimes statute should be struck down
because
almost any crime involving prejudice falls under its scope.

The court wrote Monday that it "by no means" condones the "savage
attack ...
or any conduct motivated by a bigoted or hate-filled point of view,"
but
that the broad language of the law didn't pass constitutional muster.

The law's author, Sen. Vincent Fort, an Atlanta Democrat, said he would
start working on a new version of the law for the upcoming legislative
session, which convenes in January. (AP)

http://www.diversityinc.com/public/9846.cfm