EYES ON THE PRIZE: Prosecuting 'Hate Crimes', Ending Disparity of Treatment
Chapter 3 [unfinished], Prominent Political Hypocrites
Texas takes Federal money to prosecute, while George W. Bush is Governor.
1998 — James Byrd, Jr., a black man, is chained to the back of a pickup truck by three men in the east Texas town of Jasper and dragged for several miles until his body is ripped apart.
1999 — As Governor, George Bush does nothing to support the Hate Crimes bill in Texas legislature. However, the prosecution receives somewhere between $200,000 - $300,000 in Federal (DOJ) money to assist in the three prosecutions, ending November, 1999, money possible only because of the provisions dating from the 1968 laws.
You don't have to be big to be a watchdog of the fifth estate.2001 - May, Texas Governor Rick Perry, Republican, signs the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act into law, allowing for penalty enhanced sentences, but limiting 'hate crime' to a finding of fact by the Judge, as follows:
Art. 42.014. FINDING THAT OFFENSE WAS COMMITTED BECAUSE OF
BIAS OR PREJUDICE.
(a) In the trial of an offense under Title 5,
Penal Code, or Section 28.02, 28.03, or 28.08, Penal Code, the judge
shall make an affirmative finding of fact and enter the affirmative
finding in the judgment of the case if at the guilt or innocence
phase of the trial, the judge or the jury, whichever is the trier of
fact, determines beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant
intentionally selected the person against whom the offense was
committed or intentionally selected property damaged or affected as
a result of the offense because of the defendant's bias or prejudice
against a group identified by race, color, disability, religion,
national origin or ancestry, age, gender, or sexual preference.
(b) The sentencing judge may, as a condition of punishment,
require attendance in an educational program to further tolerance
and acceptance of others.
(c) In this article, "sexual preference" has the following
meaning only: a preference for heterosexuality, homosexuality, or
bisexuality.
Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 987, Sec. 5, eff. Sept. 1, 1993.
Amended by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 318, Sec. 50, eff. Sept. 1,
1995; Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 85, Sec. 1.02, eff. Sept. 1, 2001.
BIAS OR PREJUDICE.
(a) In the trial of an offense under Title 5,
Penal Code, or Section 28.02, 28.03, or 28.08, Penal Code, the judge
shall make an affirmative finding of fact and enter the affirmative
finding in the judgment of the case if at the guilt or innocence
phase of the trial, the judge or the jury, whichever is the trier of
fact, determines beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant
intentionally selected the person against whom the offense was
committed or intentionally selected property damaged or affected as
a result of the offense because of the defendant's bias or prejudice
against a group identified by race, color, disability, religion,
national origin or ancestry, age, gender, or sexual preference.
(b) The sentencing judge may, as a condition of punishment,
require attendance in an educational program to further tolerance
and acceptance of others.
(c) In this article, "sexual preference" has the following
meaning only: a preference for heterosexuality, homosexuality, or
bisexuality.
Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 987, Sec. 5, eff. Sept. 1, 1993.
Amended by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 318, Sec. 50, eff. Sept. 1,
1995; Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 85, Sec. 1.02, eff. Sept. 1, 2001.
2007 - May, LGBT Advocacy group Equality Texas call for support for a Bill in the State House (HB2612) that would study the effectiveness of of the James Byrd Act, citing the statistic that 8 of 1,500+ reported hate crimes have been prosecuted as such.
Notes (from the then Past to the now Future?):
In 1994, Bush pledged to veto any effort to repeal an anti-sodomy law, calling it "a symbolic gesture of traditional values." (Salon, 2000). By 2003, the Supreme Court itself erased Bush's pledge, although his politics of "symbolic gestures of traditional values" continued, arguably, into his Presidency, on any number of issues, including curbs on stem cell research, which was The Great National Priority in the months before 9/11 and with his direct and backhand support for a Federal Marriage Amendment.
The Salon piece is notable, too, because it foreshadows in small, local terms Bush's sometimes political incomprehension of 'victims', as might be seen from the inadequacies that became apparent in the aftermath of Katrina, whether you believe in an expansive role for the Federal government in such things or not.
