Push returns for South Carolina to add hate crime law

By JAMES POLLARD
Associated Press/Report for America

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A bill that would make South Carolina the 49th state with a hate crime law is making its way through the House. A subcommittee Thursday unanimously advanced Rep. Wendell Gilliard’s proposal. The pursuit of enhanced state penalties for hate crimes got renewed attention after an avowed white supremacist murdered members of the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the U.S. South in 2015. But no such proposal has become law in the years since. The bill allows harsher punishments for perpetrators of violent crimes motivated by their perception of someone’s race, color, religion, sex, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, or physical or mental disability.