Kentucky’s hate crime law may be the only one in the country to exclude homicide, manslaughter and reckless homicide from crimes qualifying for enhanced penalties.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky’s hate crime law may be the only one in the country to exclude homicide, manslaughter and reckless homicide from crimes qualifying for enhanced penalties.
The exclusion surfaced in the case of a white man convicted of stabbing and killing a black 17-year-old in 2004. Senior Judge Geoffrey Morris on Friday ruled that Michael Stone could not be convicted of a hate crime in the death of Lamartez Griffin because of the way Kentucky’s law is written.
The Courier-Journal reported that Morris researched the law and concluded that Kentucky "may very well stand alone" in having those exclusions, as well as kidnapping, in the hate crime law.
"Clearly, our legislature should consider broadening the hate crimes statute to include any and all crimes where the primary motivation behind the crime is the victim’s race, color, religion, sexual orientation or national origin, and it should permit the jury to enhance a defendant’s penalty," Morris wrote.
The loophole in the law came to the attention of the Jefferson Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office after Stone was convicted at a retrial in April of killing Griffin in July 2004.
Jefferson County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Van De Rostyne told Morris in June that Stone, who had a shaved head and tattoos of a Confederate flag and a white-power symbol, and four other white men had used racial slurs while attacking Griffin, and he should be convicted of a hate crime.
But since Kentucky’s hate-crimes law does not include homicide as a qualifying offense, Stone’s actions could only be considered a hate crime if his victim had lived. Van De Rostyne asked Morris to find Stone guilty of a hate crime regardless, arguing that the law also doesn’t specifically prohibit a homicide being deemed a hate crime.
Morris ruled Friday, however, that "a court must refer to the words used in a statute, and not speculate on what the legislature might have intended, but did not express."
The case has Van De Rostyne working on a revision to the law to close the exceptions and hopes to have someone sponsor the amendment in the January legislative session. He could not be immediately reached for comment on Monday.
Kentucky’s hate-crime law, passed in 1998, allows a judge at sentencing to refuse motions for early release, probation and shock probation.
More importantly in the Stone case, the state parole board may deny early release to those found to have committed a hate crime, which is defined as an offense motivated by race, color, religion, sexual orientation or national origin.
Van De Rostyne said Stone is already eligible for parole because of the time he has served. Stone was initially convicted in March 2005 and sentenced to 18 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of first-degree manslaughter and tampering with physical evidence.
That conviction was overturned last year when the Kentucky Supreme Court affirmed a 2007 Kentucky Court of Appeals ruling that Stone should be tried again because of prejudicial testimony heard by the jury.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
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