Saturday, July 24, 2010
Kentucky’s Hate Crime Law Confusing
KENTUCKY....
Kentucky’s hate crime law excludes homicide, manslaughter, reckless homicide and kidnapping from crimes qualifying for enhanced penalties. The exclusion surfaced in the case of Michael Stone, a white man convicted of stabbing to death Lamartez Griffin, a 17-year-old black teenager, in 2004. Senior Judge Geoffrey Morris ruled Stone could not be convicted of a hate crime because of the way Kentucky’s law is written. Morris researched the law and concluded Kentucky may very well stand alone in having those exclusions in the hate crime law. The loophole came to the attention of the Jefferson Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office after Stone was convicted at a retrial in April of killing Griffin in July 2004.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 7:27 PM 
