Governor Cox

SB 103 (Victim Targeting Penalty Enhancements)

Libertas Institute opposes this bill.

This bill increases the level of a criminal penalty if a judge or jury finds that a person committed an offense against a victim "in whole or in part because of the [person's] belief or perception regarding an individual's ancestry, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, national origin, race, religion, or sexual orientation, or the association of that individual with another individual or group of individuals who have one or more of these characteristics, regardless of whether the actor's belief or perception is correct."

Libertas opposes this bill. Whether an assault was instigated by the aggressor's jealousy, drunkenness, anger, or partly because of a person's "perception" about the victim's personal characteristics is immaterial. Taxpayers should not be required to subsidize higher incarceration rates in pursuit of misnamed "social justice."