In Florida on this date in 2007, the state's Senate Criminal Justice Committee passed a hate crime's bill (SB 1458) that would provide extra protection under Florida's hate crimes law, leading to stiffer penalties for committing crimes, including assault, against homeless people. SB 1458 would mandate a minimum three-year prison sentence for those convicted of aggravated assault or aggravated battery on a homeless person, and crimes committed because the victim was homeless would be racketed up one level of severity. Some Republican committee members, namely, Senator Nancy Argenziano (Dunnellon) and Senator Mike Bennett (Bradenton) opposed the measure which was being debated after two murders of homeless men in Daytona Beach (in 2005) and in Fort Lauderdale (in 2006). In his opposition to the bill Bennett stated the tired, often used and incorrect argument that every violent crime is due to some level of hate. Using this logic Bennett might agree that an armed bank robber has hatred in his heart toward bank employees and that his hatred toward those employees provoked him to commit the bank robbery. Republican Senator Jim King (Jacksonville), however, supported the measure that is scheduled to be heard by two more Senate committees.

On this date in 2007 in Georgia, the state's Senate Judiciary Committee voted 7-2 to move a hate crimes bill toward passage. Sponsored by Senator Vincent D. Fort (a Democrat from Atlanta), who has tried to re-establish a hate crimes law since 2004 when the then-prevailing state hate crime law was struck down by the Georgia State Supreme Court for being too vague, the current bill would allow a judge to increase the sentence of anyone convicted of a crime due to bias based on the victim's race, religion, gender, national origin or sexual orientation by up to 50 percent, if the underlying crime is a felony and so long as the total sentence does not exceed the maximum allowed for the underlying crime. Different from other hate crime legislation, which typically increases punishment beyond the maximum of the original charge, the Georgia bill, if passed, would drop the number of states without hate crime laws to six. As of March, 2007, Georgia, along with Wyoming, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Indiana, are the only states that did not have hate crime laws.

On this date in 2009 in a Sacramento, California federal court, two white men, Joe Grivette, 27, of Paradise, California, and Eric Loren Clawson, 26, a Chico, California, native and mixed martial arts fighter who relocated to Colorado and then San Francisco, were indicted on federal hate crime charges for allegedly assaulting an African-American man, Carl Whitfield, 26, of Chico, while hurling racial slurs at him at Riley's Bar and Grill on West Fifth Street in Chico on July 6, 2008. The attack was unprovoked and Mr. Whitfield was knocked unconscious by Clawson who sucker-punched his victim. In mid-March, 2010, Joe Grivette, 29, pleaded guilty to concealing a felony for his role in the attack. On March 24, 2010, a jury found Eric Clawson, 28, guilty of a race-based federal hate crime for attacking Mr. Whitfield. Clawson could have received up to ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine; however, it was announced on September 9, 2010, that Eric Clawson was given a 37-month prison sentence and three years of post-incarceration supervision for not only committing the hate crime, but also for committing one count of mail fraud (a crime unrelated to the hate crime he committed). Joe Grivette was also seperately charged with mortgage fraud, and on March 15, 2010, Grivette pleaded guilty to a charge of misprision of a felony for his role in the attack on Mr. Whitfield.

In the Lafourche Parish jail in Thibodaux, Louisiana, on this date in 2009, the last of three alleged race-based hate crimes occurred, crimes said to have been orchestrated by an African-American inmate, Terry Wheaton, 44, of Raceland, Louisiana, and directed at white inmates. The other two alleged incidents were said to have occurred between March 10-12, 2009. Wheaton was handed a 20-year prison sentence on April 2, 2009 after pleading guilty to charges of distribution and possession with the intent to distribute cocaine, and he was also handed a two five-year prison sentences after pleading guilty to two counts of possession of cocaine. Wheaton and ten other Lafourche Parish jail inmates were arrested for hate crimes and second-degree simple battery on the race-based incidents that left three white inmates unconscious.

On this date in 2011 in Bowling Green, Ohio, a man assaulted Randle T. Agschliman, 23, of Bowling Green, by punching him in the face because the perpetrator thought Mr. Agschliman was gay. Within two days the police closed the case, and we have no information about whether or not the Bowling Green Police Department classified this assault as a hate crime. This is an example of hate crimes not being taken seriously by law enforcement.

In Bolingbrook, Illinois on this date in 2011 at the Will County Adult Detention Facility Nicholas J. Miller, 30, of Bolingbrook, in custody while awaiting trial for allegedly committing a hate crime in Bolingbrook in August 2010, allegedly assaulted another detainee. Nicholas Miller was charged with misdemeanor battery charge for that alleged attack. Miller had a March 30, 2011, court appearance scheduled for two previous Class 3 felony charges: committing a hate crime in a park or community center; and, aggravated battery in a public place. We have no further information about his hate crime charge. It is not uncommon for those charged with hate crimes to have criminal histories and/or to be charged with future crimes.