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‘Gay Panic’ Defenses Are Banned in N.Y. Murder Cases (Published 2019)
The state measure stops defendants from citing a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity to justify their crime.
www.nytimes.com
Since as early as the 1960s, defense lawyers have introduced the idea that people accused of murdering lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people had acted in a state of temporary insanity caused and justified by their victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
The legal strategy, known as the “gay panic” or “transgender panic” defenses, was not always effective, and as attitudes toward L.G.B.T. people shifted, it was used less often. But it has still been deployed in recent years by lawyers hoping to win a jury’s sympathy, lessen a defendant’s charges or shorten a sentence.
On Wednesday, New York became the seventh State Legislature to approve a ban on such defenses.