Sun 17 May 2009 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Gay Labour MP Charles Chauvel has drafted a Private Members' Bill to repeal the partial defence of provocation, sometimes dubbed the 'gay panic defence'. Private Members' Bill: Charles Chauvel Under current law, an advance by a gay person can be considered provocative enough to at least partially justify a physical attack on that person. The defence is currently able to be presented in court, and can be used to reduce a murder charge to a lesser one of manslaughter. "The partial defence of provocation is an anachronistic relic of New Zealand's legal past, and superfluous in New Zealand's current criminal legislative framework", says Chauvel. The Crimes (Abolition of Defence of Provocation) Amendment Bill seeks to repeal section 169 of the Crimes Act 1961, normally used to defend the actions of men reacting to unfaithful partners or homosexual advances. "Issues of provocation can now be sufficiently dealt with as mitigating factors in sentencing without reducing a murder charge to manslaughter, as the current Act allows for," Chauvel explains. A harrowing short film about the gay panic defence was shown at the DocNZ Film Festival earlier this year. An Ordinary Person presented several real cases of Kiwi men defending themselves in murder trials by alleging their victims made a gay advance on them - resulting in shorter jail sentences. In 2007 the Law Commission released a report calling for Section 169 of the Crimes Act to be repealed. LGBT network Rainbow Wellington said at the time: "We believe that this change in the law is urgent. "It is a strange clause in the Act which seeks to use anger and violence as a defence. It has in practice been used largely to support current prejudices." Chauvel is progressing another bill - dealing with loan sharks - so colleague Hon Lianne Dalziel, Opposition Spokesperson on Justice, will progress the Crimes (Abolition of Defence of Provocation) Amendment Bill.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Sunday, 17th May 2009 - 1:25am