Michigan bans gay and trans panic defense in criminal cases

Michigan became the 20th state to ban gay and trans panic defense in criminal cases after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation this week to specify that an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity cannot be used as evidence in a defense for a crime committed against them.

The National LGBTQ+ Bar Association indicates panic defense involves an individual charged with a crime invoking the sexual orientation or gender identity of a victim to reduce or avoid criminal liability. The association lists the 1995 murder of Scott Amedure in Michigan as an instance of panic defense. Amedure, in a taping of an episode of "The Jenny Jones Show," which did not air, said he had romantic feelings for Jonathan Schmitz. Schmitz, three days later, shot and killed Amedure. A jury convicted Schmitz of second-degree murder in 1996, although his defense attorneys argued the show provoked Schmitz, according to Free Press reporting from 2017.

House Bill 4718, signed by Whitmer on Tuesday, prohibits using sexual orientation or gender identity as evidence to "demonstrate reasonable provocation," to "show that an act was committed in a heat of passion" or to "support a defense of reduced mental capacity."

"Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law of this state, an individual is not justified in using force against another individual based on the discovery of, knowledge about, or potential disclosure of the victim’s actual or perceived sex, gender identity, gender expression or sexual orientation," the bill states.

Bill sponsor state Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, D-Livonia, said the ban of gay and trans panic defense in Michigan is another step taken by lawmakers to make Michigan a more welcoming state for LGBTQ+ people. In an emailed statement, she also pointed to Michigan's expansion of its civil rights law to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, as well as a ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ minors signed into law last year.

“Now that this legislation is law, members of our queer communities are even safer, and their freedoms even more secure,” Pohutsky said.

Advocates for the LGBTQ community in Michigan had sought a ban on gay and trans panic defense, the Free Press reported last year.

A 22-page resolution adopted in 2013 by the American Bar Association urged local, state and federal government officials to ban gay and trans panic defense, stating laws allowing the defense "enshrine in the law the notion that LGBT lives are worth less than others."

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Including Michigan, 20 states and Washington D.C. currently ban gay and trans panic defense, according to the Movement Advance Project, a think tank that researches LGBTQ+ issues.

HB 4718 passed the House, in which Democrats have a narrow majority, along party lines. In the Senate, four Republican lawmakers joined Democrats in supporting the bill.

Contact Arpan Lobo: [email protected]

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan bans gay and trans panic defense