The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Civil Rights Groups and Clergy Express Support for Hate Crimes Bill

Feature Story by Sam Milgrom - 7/25/2007

David Ritcheson, 18, leaped off the deck of a cruise ship into the Gulf of Mexico on July 1, in what authorities have ruled as a suicide.

David's fatal plunge came 15 months after a horrific night at a party where he was beaten, burned with cigarettes, had a swastika carved into his chest, sodomized with a plastic umbrella pole, and doused with bleach while his attackers yelled, "White Power!" and left him for dead. 

David Ritcheson, a Mexican-American, was a victim of a hate crime.

In April 2007, after more than 30 reconstructive surgeries, Ritcheson testified at congressional hearings in support of the new federal hate crimes bill, the Matthew Shepard Act, which will expand coverage of existing federal hate crimes laws to include gender identity, sexual orientation, gender, and individuals with disability. 

It will also allow federal agents to step in to protect against and prosecute hate crimes when individual states will not or cannot.

In the nearly ten years since the infamous Matthew Shepard murder coverage under current federal legislation has not changed despite great efforts by civil rights groups. 

The story of David Ritcheson is unfortunately just another name added to a long list of hate crimes victims that civil rights groups say make the Matthew Shepard Act so important. 

Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), called the Act "one of the most important civil rights issues currently facing the country."

"The bill is really about simple justice, it's about prevention of violent acts that are perpetrated against innocent people because of immutable characteristics, things about themselves that they can't change, and passing this legislation sends a signal to the entire country that no one—regardless of race, sexual orientation, or gender identity, or gender, or religion or national origin—should be the victim of hate crime violence," said Henderson.

However, some religious leaders oppose the bill because they say that it will infringe on their first amendment rights of freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

Civil rights groups and many black clergy who support the hate crimes bill say that such fears are unfounded "[T]here are many African-American preachers, as well as others, who love God and love people and who support this legislation and think its one of the most sensitive, intelligent, delicate and important legislation that Congress can vote for, said Bishop Carlton Pearson, pastor of New Dimensions Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

On July 11, Senators Edward M. Kennedy, D. Mass., and Gordon Smith, R. Ore., filed the Act as an amendment to the Department of Defense (DoD) Authorization bill.  However, after a long debate about the Iraq war, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D. Nev., temporarily suspended consideration of the DoD Authorization bill.

The House of Representatives passed on a voice vote a resolution (H. Res. 535) recognizing David Ritcheson's efforts to promote federal legislation to combat hate crimes on July 23.