Charleston Church Attack Survivors Push for Hate Crimes Law
By JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Two survivors of a 2015 racist massacre that killed nine of their friends at a Charleston church say South Carolina’s lack of a hate crimes law is an insult to what they suffered through at their Bible study.
Wyoming and South Carolina are the only U.S. states without a law giving stiffer penalties for crimes motivated by someone’s race, sexual orientation, religion or disability.
Polly Sheppard and Felicia Sanders told a group of state senators Tuesday it sends a message that the state isn’t serious about stopping the kind of wickedness that led to the massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal.
The House and a Senate subcommittee have approved the bill, which died on the Senate floor last year.