All-inclusive list may have been why Indiana GOP Senators pulled bias crime bill

In particular, judges would have been able to extend a criminal sentence if they found the motivation for the crime was due to race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, disability, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation or ethnicity.

"Some felt the language should be modified to include all Hoosiers, not just a special group of Hoosiers," said Senate President Pro Tempore David Long, R-Fort Wayne. "Some were just fine with the bill as is. Some believe that Indiana already allows an increased criminal sentence to apply in a bias crime situation, which is true."

In 2003, the Indiana Supreme Court agreed that racial motivation could be an aggravating circumstance in a sentencing of Alex Witmer, 18, of Elkhart County.

Witmer shot and killed a 17-year-old boy, Sasezely Richardson, after Witmer told a friend that he could earn a spider web tattoo by killing a black person. A judge sentenced him to 65 years for murder and cited, among other factors, the selection of his victim including the racial motivation of the crime.

Long pledged a hate crimes bill would be revisited in the 2019 session.

The Senate Republican caucus had been discussing the bill privately for the past days, Long said.

The bill's author, Sen. Susan Glick, R-LaGrange, said eight amendments had been proposed by senators indicating there would be no consensus.

"It's disappointing because I think it needs to be addressed but by the same token, we don't want to go forward with language that we can't agree on or at least get a majority opinion by the Senate and the House," Glick said.

Glick's Senate Bill 418 was set to be heard Tuesday morning by the Senate Committee on Corrections and Criminal Law, chaired by Sen. Michael Young, R-Indianapolis.

"I'm just ashamed," said Byron Ratcliffe, criminal justice committee chair for the Greater Indianapolis NAACP.

The committee has approved a hate crimes bill twice before, one was passed by the Senate.

The recent bill had been heard a week earlier but there were clear differences among supporters.

A New Haven mother, whose son was reportedly beaten in June in a racial attack, said she did not support the bill as written. She wanted more groups included.

A Terre Haute lawyer said the list should include police and law enforcement workers who can be targeted for violence because of their job.

On Tuesday, as the more than two-hour committee meeting came to a close - with no discussion of the bill - Young announced, "Unfortunately, I asked the members, the parties that were here last time if they would get together and see if we could work out something. I never heard back from either side with any language."

Current law does not limit factors that a judge may consider in sentencing but it does not delineate those.

After the committee meeting, Young explained the differing views confronting the bill. Some Hoosiers believe the current law is enough, he said.

"Other people believe that because of the type of harm committed against certain groups and certain people, that we need to have a list. Then there's people that are concerned that if you have a list, then someone else is not on the list.

All Hoosiers, he said, are currently protected against bias crimes. "We don't have the specific names, but they're covered."

Others noted the debate over the inclusion of gender identity in the list of aggravating factors.

"It was one of the significant issues, certainly," Glick said. "I think the list of characteristics is all encompassing. I really believe that many people read that the list and see ... in their minds it only applies to this race, or this religion or these people. And in fact, all of us have a gender identity ... and in some cases, even multiple races."

Sen. Gregory Taylor, D-Indianapolis, who is a member of the corrections committee, said, “A bias crimes bill was part of the Indiana Senate Democrats’ legislative agenda and our efforts to get this bill passed will not be stopped because of the inaction of one committee.

He added, “I was told on the Senate floor last year that a bipartisan effort would be made to ensure a bias crimes law would be passed this legislative session. Those conversations ended when session began."