Judiciary committee hears testimony on H.118 to expand hate-motive enhancements to group-targeted crimes

Montpelier — The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday heard testimony on H.118, a bill that would allow Vermont prosecutors to seek enhanced penalties when an underlying crime is motivated ‘‘in whole or in part’’ by bias against a group of people rather than only a particular, single victim.

Ben Dobrovsky, legislative counsel, introduced the bill and said it would broaden the existing hate-motivation enhancement so it can apply when conduct is aimed at a group’s actual or perceived membership. “What this bill proposes to do is to expand 1 of the bases in which you can prosecute someone for hate crime,” Dobrovsky said.

Supporters, including the attorney general’s office and the state’s Office of Racial Equity, described H.118 as an enhancement to underlying offenses such as unlawful mischief, trespass and vandalism rather than a stand‑alone crime. “This is an enhancement. And it’s really important to remember, this is not an actual crime itself,” said Todd Daylows, assistant attorney general and director of policy and legislative affairs for Attorney General Charity Clark.

Why it matters: Testimony and circulated examples showed incidents of vandalism and symbols placed on public property or private residences that prosecutors currently cannot enhance under the statute because the owner of the damaged property was not a member of the targeted group. Daylows and other witnesses cited spray‑painted racial…