Woman Pleads Guilty to Federal Hate Crime

Billie Davis, a 58-year-old woman, pleaded guilty to a federal hate crime for stabbing an 18-year-old Chinese American student on a Bloomington Transit bus in January 2023. The attack, which involved Davis stabbing the victim in the head seven to ten times with a pocketknife, was motivated by her belief that the student posed a threat due to her ethnicity. Davis admitted her actions were racially motivated, stating it would be 'one less person to blow up our country'. Despite her defense claiming mental incompetence, she was ruled competent to stand trial after receiving proper medication. Davis faces a maximum sentence of six years in prison, with sentencing scheduled for December 3, 2023. This incident reflects a troubling trend of rising hate crimes in the U.S., particularly against Asian Americans, which local advocacy groups attribute to increasing xenophobic rhetoric.