On 13 Jan 1994 The Ohio Supreme Court reversed this decision in light
of a subsequent Federal Supreme Court decision.


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From: kadie@herodotus.cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: [UPI] High court strikes down ethnic intimidation law
Message-ID: <1992Aug27.194232.18207@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Sender: news@m.cs.uiuc.edu (News Database (admin-Mike Schwager))
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 19:42:32 GMT
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Copyright 1992 by UPI.  Reposted with permission from the ClariNet
Electronic Newspaper newsgroup clari.clari.local.ohio and
clari.news.groups.jews.  For more info on ClariNet, write to
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	COLUMBUS, Ohio (UPI) -- The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled the state's
ethnic intimidation law is unconstitutional because it is an
infringement of the right of free speech.
	The ethnic-intimidation statute is a type of statute that enhances a
charge such as menancing or criminal damaging to a felony level, says
Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters.
	He pointed out that felony charges carry heavier fines and jail
sentences.
	``The Legislature thought racially motivated crimes deserved a
stiffer penalty,'' said Deters.
	The Ohio Supreme Court, in its decision, apparently disagreed.
	``Enhancing a penalty because of the motive ... punishes a person's
thought, rather than the person's act or criminal intent,'' the court
said in an opinion written by sssociate justice Herbert Brown.
	``We express our abhorrence for racial and ethnic hated and
especially for crimes motivated by such hatred,'' he said.
	``We fully accept the premise which prompted the enactment of the
legislation before us: that bigotry, whether expressed merely in words
or by violence, does harm to its victims and to society as a whole.
	``The ethnic intimidation statute is a well-intentioned response to a
society-threatening nroblem,'' Brown wrote.
	Officials of the regional office of the Anti-Defamation League of
B'Nai B'rith criticized the decision.
	``Contrary to the reasoning of the Ohio Supreme Court, we do not
believe that Ohio's hate crimes law punished bad ideas,'' the league
said in a statement.
	Ohio Attorney General Lee Fisher, who wrote the law when he was a
member of the state Senate, is considering an appeal to the U.S. Supreme
Court.



--
Carl Kadie -- kadie@cs.uiuc.edu -- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign