This archive report was first published on 16 August 2019.
On August 16, 2019, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed a law to classify killings fueled by white supremacy as domestic terrorism.
However, some counterterrorism experts have expressed concerns that efforts to define domestic terrorism risk becoming purely symbolic.
According to Mary McCord, a former top national security official in the Justice Department, states' existing domestic terrorism laws have not proven very effective in preventing crimes.
McCord stated, 'They kind of just sit there unused, because they don’t necessarily have the same experience in investigating and prosecuting terrorism cases' as federal authorities.
Brian Michael Jenkins, a senior researcher at the RAND Corporation, also questioned the proposal's impact, saying, 'A mass murderer with a manifesto is still a mass murderer.'
Indeed, it is unclear just how much effect the proposal would have, as current hate crime law covers only second-degree, not first-degree, murder, and those convicted can qualify for parole.
