House Judiciary committee’s strike-all amendment to H.118 approved; third reading ordered

The House approved a Judiciary Committee strike-all amendment to H.118, an act relating to expanding the scope of hate-motivated crimes, and then ordered the bill read a third time.

The committee-reporter, the member from Williston, explained that the bill replaces language in the hate-motivated-crime statute that refers to “the victim's actual or perceived protected category” with language allowing an enhancement when the conduct is motivated by “another person or a group of persons’ actual or perceived membership in a protected category.” The amendment would broaden the operation of Vermont’s enhancement (which the reporter described as a penalty enhancement applied to an underlying offense rather than a stand-alone charge).

Committee explanation and examples: On the floor, the member from Williston used unlawful mischief as an example: if someone spray-paints an antisemitic symbol on a doorway causing less than $250 damage — ordinarily a misdemeanor-level unlawful mischief — the statute currently requires that the victim be a member of a protected class for the enhancement to apply. The amendment would permit prosecutors to seek the enhancement where the conduct is shown to be motivated by targeting another person or group in the location, even if the immediate victim is not a member of that protected class. The reporter noted that, with enhancement, penalties could increase from up to six months or a $500 fine to up to two years or a $2,000 fine.

Concerns raised: The member from Northfield asked whether the amendment’s broader language could lead to unintended outcomes in which a protected group is only a partial or tangential motivation for otherwise non-targeted criminal acts. The member described a hypothetical scenario where a defendant acted impulsively but had a partial motivation tied to frustration with a protected group; that member said the change could permit prosecutors to use enhancement in marginal cases. The reporter and committee members responded that prosecutorial discretion remains and that the committee intended to give prosecutors an additional tool.

Procedure and outcome: The floor acted on the committee recommendation; the House approved the amendment (voice vote announced by the presiding officer) and then ordered third reading by voice vote. No roll-call tally for the amendment or the third-reading order is recorded in the transcript.