Rep. Shelia Stubbs Celebrates Unanimous Passage of AB 615 In the Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety
After the Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety voted unanimously in favor of Assembly Bill 615—Relating to: creating a task force on missing and murdered African American women and girls, Representative Shelia Stubbs (D-Madison) released the following statement:
“Today was a historic day in the Wisconsin State Capitol, where legislators stood in unanimous bipartisan support of Assembly Bill 615. This afternoon, the Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety voted to pass Assembly Bill 615—Relating to: creating a task force on missing and murdered African American women and girls out of committee. With this vote, AB 615 is one step closer to reaching the Assembly floor. It has taken me two years of hard work and determination to get to this point, and I am beyond thrilled with today’s results.
My heartfelt thanks go out to my co-authors Senator Jesse James, Representative Michael Schraa, and Senator LaTonya Johnson, as well as Chairman John Spiros, Vice Chairwoman Ellen Schutt, and all other Members of the Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety, who voted unanimously in favor of AB 615. Additionally, I would like to thank all my legislative colleagues who co-sponsored the bill.
I would like to especially thank Ms. Georgia Hill, mother of missing Wisconsin woman Lasheky Hill, who testified in person for the public hearing last week. Lasheky Hill, whose story was covered by Dateline, went missing from Racine, Wisconsin on March 26th, 2023, one day before her 46th birthday. I also want to give a special thank-you to Mariah Cooley, the Midwest Advocacy Associate for Community Justice Action Fund, who came to support me during the executive session today, as well as Delta Sigma Theta, Inc. Wisconsin Delegation, the NAACP Wisconsin State Conference, the Asha Project, Minnesota State Senator Mary Kunesh, Minnesota State Senate President Bobby Joe Champion, March For Our Lives, and Black Feminist Future, who have all written with their support of Assembly Bill 615. Finally, I would like to extend my thanks to all the media outlets who have covered this bill and continue to give it the press exposure it deserves.
This bill has been a monumental effort with exceptional promise for the African American women and girls of Wisconsin, and I am overjoyed that it has made it one step closer to becoming law. However, there is more work to be done to get this bill across the finish line, and we cannot allow ourselves to lapse into complacency. We must continue to center the protection and healing of victims and their families, and we must bring our missing relatives home.
We owe it to our Black mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, and neighbors to remain vigilant and persistent in our pursuit of justice. We must continue to advocate for this legislation, for their sake. The rate of missing and murdered African American women and girls has reached a point of crisis in our state. This task force will be the key to healing the deep racial disparities in violent crime victimization in Wisconsin.”
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.
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