Brody's Notes... Matthew Shepard Hate Crime Bill Headed To The White House For President's Signature

Dennis & Judy Shepard with President Barack Obama, October 10th, 2009, HRC Dinner 

Photo Courtesy of The Shepard Family & The Matthew Shepard Foundation

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Oct 22 | In a 68-29 vote, the United States Senate today passed the Defense Authorisation Conference Report for the FY 2010 Defense budget, which included the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention  provision which had been attached to it this past July. The U.S. House on October 8th had successfully passed the conference report including the provision.

In a press release from its Denver, Colorado headquarters, a spokesperson for the Matthew Shepard Foundation made this statement:

Today, the United States Senate took an historic step toward ensuring justice for the victims of hate crimes targeted for violence due to their sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability. 

By voting overwhelmingly to extend to these often-targeted Americans our nation’s decades-old bias crime legislation, senators sent the message that hate crimes will not go unpunished, and local governments and law enforcement agencies will not run out of financial resources to provide justice to these victims and their loved ones.

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act was attached earlier this year to the annual Defense Department spending bill, and Thursday’s 68-29 Senate vote to approve the final House-Senate compromise on the defense bill now sends this important law enforcement provision to President Obama, who has vowed to sign it.

Under the legislation, federal prosecutors could step in to try violent hate-crime cases if local authorities cannot or will not secure an appropriate conviction. It also opens up federal funding for law enforcement to handle the typically high cost of investigation and judicial proceedings in such cases, and would make grants available for training and prevention programs at the local level.

The act is named to honor Matthew Shepard as well as James Byrd, an African-American resident of Texas brutally dragged to death in 1998 in a notorious hate crime. Matthew’s parents Dennis and Judy Shepard have campaigned for the legislation’s passage for more than a decade since their son’s murder in Laramie, Wyoming, in 1998 in an anti-gay hate crime.

The Matthew Shepard Foundation applauds Congress and President Obama for their steady and successful efforts throughout 2009 to bring the legislation to this point. We eagerly anticipate its final enactment and wish to thank the countless organizations and individuals who have worked tirelessly for its passage.

In a separate statement also released today, Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese remarked that,

“We’re in the home stretch.  This critical piece of legislation is on its way to the President’s desk for his signature. We look forward to President Obama signing it into law; our nation’s first major piece of civil rights legislation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.  Too many in our community have been devastated by hate violence.  We now can begin the important steps to erasing hate in our country. We applaud the leadership of our Senate allies, particularly Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Senators Patrick Leahy, Carl Levin, and Susan Collins for ensuring that the hate crimes provision remained part of this authorization bill.  We also recognize the tireless efforts of Senator Ted Kennedy on this issue; a hero for our entire community.”

The Defense Authorisation conference report removed a provision adopted in the Senate which would make the death penalty available for hate crimes.  In addition, the hate crimes provision has been renamed “The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act,” honoring the memory of another victim of hate violence – in the same year as Matthew Shepard – an African-American man who was dragged to death in Jasper, Texas.

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act gives the Justice Department the power to investigate and prosecute bias-motivated violence where the perpetrator has selected the victim because of the person's actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

It provides the Justice Department with the ability to aid state and local jurisdictions either by lending assistance or, where local authorities are unwilling or unable, by taking the lead in investigations and prosecutions of violent crime resulting in death or serious bodily injury that were motivated by bias. It also makes grants available to state and local communities to combat violent crimes committed by juveniles, train law enforcement officers, or to assist in state and local investigations and prosecutions of bias motivated crimes.