Dacula Rep Renews Calls For Passage Of GA Hate-Crime Bill

ATLANTA, GA — A state representative from Dacula who sponsored a hate-crime bill that passed in the Georgia house renewed calls for its passage in the senate.

House Bill 426, sponsored by Republican Rep. Chuck Efstration, passed 96-64 in the house in March of 2019, according to The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Efstration, an attorney from Dacula, represents District 104 and is chairman of the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee.

The Gwinnett Daily Post reports that Efstration said the Georgia senate should quickly take up the bill this summer, when it is expected to reconvene.

If the bill is passed by the senate, Georgia would join 45 other states that already have hate-crime laws.

The sentencing guidelines in the bill address anyone convicted of targeting someone based on race, religion, national original, sexual orientation, gender or disability. Punishment would be from three months to a year and a fine for misdemeanors, and at least two years in prison for a felony.

Co-sponsoring the bill are Democrats Calvin Smyre of Columbus, Karen Bennett of Stone Mountain and Karla Drenner of Avondale Estates; and Republicans Deborah Silcox of Atlanta and Ron Stephens of Savannah.

Efstration's call to pass the bill follows the arrest Thursday of a father and son charged with murder in connection with the shooting of an unarmed black man near Brunswick. Neither Gregory McMichael or Travis McMichael were charged in February at the time of the shooting. The victim, Ahmaud Arbery, would have turned 26 today.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported when House Bill 426 passed in the Georgia House of Representatives.