[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 17647]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      MATTHEW SHEPARD ACT OF 2007

  Mr. SMITH. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about the need for 
hate crimes legislation. Each Congress, Senator Kennedy and I introduce 
hate crimes legislation that would add new categories to current hate 
crimes law, sending a signal that violence of any kind is unacceptable 
in our society. Likewise, each Congress I have come to the floor to 
highlight a separate hate crime that has occurred in our country.
  On April 12, 2007, in Crothersville, IN, Coleman King and Garrett 
Gray beat a man to death for allegedly making a sexual proposition to 
one of them. As the two young men were returning to Gray's house from 
an errand that day, they picked up 35-year-old Aaron Hall. The two men 
told police that Hall had propositioned King; in retaliation, King and 
Gray began to beat Hall. The two men allegedly struck Hall until his 
eyes were swollen shut and he was spitting blood. They then carted him 
off to a ditch, continued to beat him and left him for dead. The two 
men drove back to the ditch with a shotgun later that day in order to 
make sure Hall was dead, but found him instead several days later dead 
in a nearby field, where he had apparently crawled.
  I believe that the Government's first duty is to defend its citizens, 
to defend them against the harms that come out of hate. The Matthew 
Shepard Act is a symbol that can become substance. I believe that by 
passing this legislation and changing current law, we can change hearts 
and minds as well.

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