A woman who stabbed a Chinese student she saw on a public bus up to 10 times has been sentenced to six years in prison in federal prison.
Fox59 reports the judge sentenced Billie Davis Wednesday following her guilty plea three months ago.
The victim who has not publicly been identified is a student who was on her way to Indiana University in Bloomington.
According to WTHR, David told another passenger she feared the Chinese student would blow up the bus because she is Asian.
The student says she had got up to exit through the back door when Davis attacked her repeatedly in the head.
“Racially motivated violence has no place in our society,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The sentence imposed for this heinous hate crime should send a strong message that perpetrators of hate-fueled violence will be held accountable.”
Law & Crime reports that Davis calmly sat down in the bus following the attack. When she exited, another passenger followed her and alerted police to her whereabouts.
Davis described her victim to police as ” “some Asian f—ing c—,” according to prosecutors.
The university’s Asian Culture Center commented shortly after the attack.
“We should not be fearing for our lives on public transportation. Taking the bus should not feel dangerous. The fact that the perpetrator announced that race was the motivation for her attack sends a jolt through our Asian community.”
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This “another passenger” who identified and reported the perpetrator to police is a hero. In view of the current tension between America and China, we must be extra vigilant.
Why wasn’t Billie Davis prosecuted and sentenced for attempted murder? The hate crime charge should be an additional charge and not the only charge. Despite the overwhelming evidence and witnesses, the state dismissed all charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery, and battery by means of a deadly weapon.
Even though the sentence for a federal hate crime can be up to life in prison, the judge sentenced this white person to a mere 6 years for trying to violently kill a human being just for being Asian and bragging to police about it. She could be out in just a few years with “good behavior”. Indiana needs to step up and refile those original charges.
Why do people who attempt to kill or injure Asians get sentences that are very different to sentences for hate crimes against someone white?
A California man was sentenced to only 12 months in federal prison as a hate crime for intentionally driving into a crowded crosswalk of peaceful protesters while yelling “go back to China” at a Stop Asian Hate rally. An Ohio man could get sentenced only up to 22 months after pleading guilty to a federal hate crime for physically assaulting an Asian American student at the U of Cincinnati. Now Billie Davis gets just 6 years for attempting to murder someone just for being Asian.
But a Massachusetts man got 7 years for threatening an interracial couple over social media (no physical contact) as a hate crime. A NJ man is facing a possible 5 years as a hate crime for posting threats (no physical injury) on social media to attack white people. Two Native Hawaiian men were given 4 and 6 year sentences (in addition to the lesser sentences in HI state court) as a federal hate crime for physically assaulting a white man. A NJ man was sentenced to 40 YEARS in prison as a hate crime for carjacking and assault against 5 white Jewish men.