The American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section has passed a resolution to protect victims of so called gay and transgender ‘panic’ legal defenses and will take the resolution to the association’s annual meeting in August.
The passing of the resolution by the Criminal Justice Section, which supports members of the LGBT community by no longer allowing defense attorneys to use victims’ identities or their sexual orientation against them in court, was welcomed by the US National LGBT Bar Association.
‘This resolution puts an end to a longstanding injustice in our legal system and gives a voice to countless lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender victims of violence, a voice we never hear because they are no longer here to speak for themselves,’ said D’Arcy Kemnitz, executive director of the LGBT Bar.
Gay and trans ‘panic’ defense tactics ask a jury to find that a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity provoked the defendant’s excessively violent reaction to the point that they were not fully responsible for their actions.
The ‘Panic defence’ law was a throwback to the British Empire and has been superseded in the UK by hate crime legislation, which can lead to an actuarial increase in a sentence – rather then a reduction – if homophobia is found to be a motive in a crime.
But panic defence is still used in a number of former colonies and protectorates. New Zealand is ridding itself of the law. Two years ago two Australians who killed a man in a graveyard claimed it; one of the assailants claiming he was just trying to “help out a mate”.