The following is the report on H.118, which I cosponsored, that Representative Angela Arsenault delivered on the House Floor last week.

[H.118] proposes to expand the scope of Vermont’s hate crime statute to cover conduct directed at third parties and groups of people based on their actual or perceived membership in a protected category.

Before I dive into the bill, it’s important to understand that Vermont’s hate crime statute operates as a penalty enhancement rather than a separate criminal charge with its own penalties. A person who commits an underlying crime that is motivated by the victim’s membership in a protected category – like race, color, religion, national origin, and others – may be sentenced to additional time in prison, an additional monetary fine, or both if this statute is invoked.

As an example, let’s take the crime of unlawful mischief and look at how the hate crimes statute can play a role.  

A person can be charged with unlawful mischief if they intentionally cause damage to property.  For instance, if someone spray paints an antisemitic symbol on another person’s doorway and it causes less than $250 in damage, that person could be charged with unlawful mischief. If the person is charged and the prosecutor can prove that the person’s action was motivated by the occupant’s membership in a protected category, the prosecutor could choose to use the hate-motivated crimes statute to enhance the underlying unlawful mischief penalty.  The unlawful mischief penalty is imprisonment of not more than six months or a fine of not more than $500, or both. With the hate crimes enhancement, the penalty could be up to two years in prison or a fine of not more than $2,000, or both.

Turning to the bill language itself, section one of H.118 amends the hate-motivated crimes statute by replacing the phrase: “the victim’s actual or perceived protected category” in subdivisions (a) and (b), with “another person’s or a group of persons’ actual or perceived membership in a protected category” as the basis on which to impose the statute’s enhanced penalty.  This change broadens the reach of the statute to cover conduct directed at a third person or group of persons rather than just a singular victim.  

Looking to the example I gave before, let’s say the door that was spray painted was in a rental apartment building and the tenant whose door was spray painted is Jewish. But the owner of the building is not Jewish. Under the current statute, the hate crimes enhancement could not be used because the victim – the owner of the building – is not Jewish. H.118 would make it possible to use the enhancement because there is evidence that another group of persons in the apartment building – the Jewish family – was targeted because of their religion, which is one of the protected categories in the hate crimes statute.

Finally, in section two, the bill states that this change goes into effect on July 1, 2025.

Madam Speaker, H.118 is an important expansion of Vermont’s hate-motivated crimes statute because it more accurately captures the conduct that such a statute is intended to penalize. We must, whenever possible, find appropriate ways to express through our laws what is and is not acceptable in our society. Hateful conduct is not acceptable. This bill helps ensure that such conduct can be named and prosecuted. 

Your House Judiciary Committee heard from the following witnesses:

• The director of policy and legislative affairs at the Vermont Attorney General’s office, 
• A policy and research analyst from the Office of Racial Equity
• The executive director of the Vermont Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs
• Legislative attorney for the Dept. of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs
• Legislative Counsel from the Office of Legislative Counsel
• The Deputy Defender General and Chief Juvenile Defender from the Defender General’s office
• The advocacy director for ACLU of Vermont 
• And the president of Vermont Law and Graduate School. 
• H.118 passed out of House Judiciary with a vote of 11-0-0 and we ask for this body’s support.