HARTFORD, CT - Governor Ned Lamont today announced that the package of legislative proposals he will ask the Connecticut General Assembly to ratify during the 2025 regular session will include a bill consolidating and strengthening the state’s existing hate crime statutes in order to increase the ability of police and prosecutors to charge criminals with these crimes and seek enhanced penalties.

Connecticut’s hate crimes statutes originate to 1990 when the legislature established a single crime of intimidation based on bigotry or bias. Since then, the legislature modified that law on several occasions and created numerous other statutes addressing the prosecution of hate crimes and expanding the list of protected classes.

Governor Lamont supports the overall intent of these laws and applauds their adoption, however he has received reports from police and prosecutors who’ve noted that as these laws have become modified and heightened over the years, they’ve become scattered within various sections of the Connecticut General Statutes and contain some inconsistent terminology, complicating the ability of these laws to actually be used in the prosecution of crimes.

The legislation the governor is proposing, which originates from the work of the Connecticut Hate Crimes Advisory Council, consolidates all of the state’s existing hate crimes laws into a new hate crimes chapter of the Connecticut General Statutes, which will simplify and make it easier for police and prosecutors to charge and prosecute criminals with these crimes. It also modifies the intent standard to align more closely with the hate crimes laws used in other states by removing the element that a defendant must have acted “maliciously.”

“Connecticut has led the nation in the adoption of hate crimes laws, and that is a good thing, but in order for them to be effective and for police and prosecutors to be able to use them, these laws need to be streamlined within our statutes,” Governor Lamont said. “Hate crimes are intended to induce fear and terrorize entire groups of people, and that is why the prosecution of crimes involving acts of hate must include enhanced penalties.”

The Connecticut Hate Crimes Advisory Council is an advisory body consisting of volunteers appointed by the governor who represent a wide range of community and civic groups. Recently, the group has been researching data related to the reporting of hate crimes and working with professors from UConn Law School to develop procedures and techniques in which the prosecution of hate crimes can be supported.

“Over the last couple of years, the Connecticut Hate Crimes Advisory Council has been conducting valuable research on the prevalence of hate crimes in the state, and specifically looking into how frequently these crimes get reported to law enforcement and then appropriately prosecuted,” Governor Lamont said. “The council’s research into this topic is going to help us make Connecticut’s hate crimes laws more effective.”

The following is a list of existing hate crimes laws in the Connecticut General Statutes that Governor Lamont is seeking to consolidate into one new chapter:

• Hate Crime Causing Physical Injury
• Hate Crime Causing Physical Contact
• Hate Crime Affecting Property
• Hate Crime Affecting Religious Property
• Hate Crime by Threat of Physical Contact
• Hate Crime by Threat to Property
• Hate Crime by Threatening in the First Degree with Respect to House of Religious Worship or Religiously-Affiliated Community Center
• Hate Crime by Threatening in the Second Degree with Respect to House of Religious Worship or Religiously-Affiliated Community Center
• Hate Crime by Advocacy or Urging
• Hate Crime by Deprivation of Civil Rights
• Hate Crime by Burning Cross
• Hate Crime by Noose
• Hate Crime with Mask or Hood
• Ridicule by Commercial Advertisement
• Discriminatory Public Accommodations Practice
• Discriminatory Housing Practice
• Hate Crime by False Report
• Hate Crime by False Report to Law Enforcement
• Hate Crime by False Report Resulting in Serious Physical Injury or Death
• Hate Crime by Stalking
• Hate Crime by Misuse of Emergency 9-1-1 System

Governor Lamont is scheduled to deliver his annual budget address to a joint session of the General Assembly on Wednesday, February 5, 2025. Documents containing the full details of his biennial budget proposal and other legislative proposals, including this bill on hate crimes, will be filed on that date.