For the second time in the past three days, legislation requiring lawmakers to consider the racial impact of future changes to the state's criminal laws failed to pass Wednesday in the Arkansas Senate.
Senate Bill 694 by Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, fell one vote short of the 18 required for approval. The Senate's vote was 17-3 Wednesday. The vote was 13-9 on Monday.
The bill would require a "racial impact study" to be conducted through the University of Arkansas at Little Rock to assess the effect of any new or altered criminal statute to determine, among other things, if a particular racial demographic is likely to be disproportionately arrested or incarcerated because of the change.
Elliott said she doesn't know why lawmakers wouldn't be comfortable with having a racial impact study on proposed changes in criminal laws if they're comfortable having economic, environmental, fiscal and victim impact studies on legislation.
Similar legislation two years ago failed to clear the Senate by three votes. That vote was 15-10.
Metro on 03/26/2015