Action Alert: Ask Your State Senator to Support Clarifying Washington's Hate Crime Law

An important piece of legislation is making its way through the Washington State Senate that fixes a gap in the state's malicious harassment statute. With cut-offs and deadlines looming, I need your help to get SB 6398 voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on SB 6398 this Friday. This bill clarifies the definition of "threat" in the state's malicious harassment statute - Washington State's hate crime statute.

Under current law, a person can be convicted of malicious harassment if they threaten to harm of a victim who is also a member of one of the protected classes (race, religion, ethnicity, etc). However, the court of appeals has interpreted this to only include future threats and not immediate or near future threats. In malicious harassment cases, it is an immediate threat that prosecutors usually prosecute. SB 6398 changes the definition of threat to include immediate as well as future threats and codifies current prosecutorial practice.

SB 6398 is supported by the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, Anti-Defamation League and the King County Prosecutor.

Please take a moment to ask your state senator to support SB 6398 - clarifying the definition of threat to include future threats.