Committee to debate penalties for hate crimes

Today a House committee will debate a proposal to enhance penalties for crimes committed based on hate.

Last night several people gathered at Sonia James' Sandy home to call friends and encourage them to show up to support the bill and contact legislators.

Law enforcement officers have said the state's existing hate crimes law is unenforceable because it fails to define protected categories. Attempts to create protected categories have caused the proposed law to repeatedly fail.

"We've worked hard and are going to continue to work hard no matter what the outcome is," said Joshua Nowitz, spokesman for Utahns Together Against Hate.

HB50 would toughen penalties for crimes based on bias or prejudice due to perceived or actual attributes, including race, color, disability, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age or gender.

The bill will go before the Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Standing Committee. This is the second attempt to pass the bill. It died last week in a Senate committee.