Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill this week that bans the use of what is sometimes called the “gay panic” defense in cases of crimes, particularly violent offenses, against LGBTQ people.
The new law instructs courts that the discovery of a person’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression cannot be used by a defendant to justify a crime.
“This makes Michigan the 20th state to outlaw the panic defense in court,” said Whitmer Press Secretary Stacey LaRouche. “And really what this does, in effect, is it closes a loophole to prevent violence against LGBTQ Michiganders, helping to keep more people safe.”
LaRouche noted the governor has already signed laws to expand Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include LGBTQ protections and to outlaw conversion therapy for minors.
Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the LGBTQ+ Project of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, says there is no specific data on the use of the “gay panic” defense in Michigan. But he said the law is needed.
“This makes it clear to judges and to courts that this type of defense where you look at the victim, [that] somehow some characteristic of the victim might provide justification for committing a crime, is no longer acceptable,” he said. “We do know that we have a sorry history within our legal system in the past.”
The controversy over the “gay panic” defense dates back to 1995 and the murder of Scott Amedure by a friend in Lake Orion. Amedure had confessed to a crush on the friend in an appearance on a tabloid TV show. The crush, Jonathan Schmitz, said on the show that he was flattered but as a straight man, not interested. Amedure later left a suggestive note on Schmitz’s apartment door.
Schmitz then purchased a shotgun, went to Amedure’s home and shot the man twice in the chest. His defense in court was that he was profoundly embarrassed by the public disclosure of the crush.
Schmitz was charged in Oakland County with first-degree murder but convicted by a jury of the lesser offense of second-degree murder. He was released from prison in 2017.
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