BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2501
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 2501 (Bonilla)
As Amended April 24, 2014
Majority vote
PUBLIC SAFETY 5-1 APPROPRIATIONS 12-0
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|Ayes:|Ammiano, Jones-Sawyer, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bocanegra, |
| |Quirk, Skinner, Stone | |Bradford, |
| | | |Ian Calderon, Campos, |
| | | |Eggman, Gomez, Holden, |
| | | |Pan, Quirk, |
| | | |Ridley-Thomas, Weber |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Melendez | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Prohibits the use of the "panic defense" to support a
finding of sudden quarrel or heat of passion, which is necessary
to reduce murder to manslaughter. Specifically, this bill :
1)States that for the purposes of determining sudden quarrel or
heat of passion for purposes of voluntary manslaughter, the
provocation is not objectively reasonable if it resulted from
the discovery of, knowledge about, or potential disclosure of
the victim's or defendant's actual or perceived gender, gender
identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation including:
a) Circumstances in which the victim made an unwanted,
non-forcible, romantic or sexual advance towards the
defendant; or
b) Circumstances where the defendant and the victim dated
or had a romantic or sexual relationship.
2)States that nothing in this section precludes the jury from
considering all relevant facts to determine whether the
defendant was in fact provoked for purposes of establishing
subjective provocation.
3)Defines "gender" as including "a person's gender identity and
gender-related appearance and behavior regardless of whether
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that appearance or behavior is associated with the person's
gender as determined at birth."
4)Makes technical, non-substantive changes.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides that murder is the unlawful killing of a human being,
or a fetus, with malice aforethought.
2)Provides that murder is divided into two degrees, and that a
willful, deliberate and premeditated killing is first degree
murder.
3)Punishes murder in the first degree with life without the
possibility of parole or a term of 25 years to life, and
punishes murder in the second degree with a term of 15 years
to life.
4)Provides that a person who commits first degree murder that is
a hate crime shall be punished by a term of life without
parole.
5)Provides that manslaughter the unlawful killing of a human
being without malice.
6)Provides that manslaughter is divided into three kinds,
voluntary, involuntary and vehicular, and that voluntary
manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human being upon a
sudden quarrel or heat of passion.
7)States a killing occurs upon a sudden quarrel or heat of
passion if:
a) The defendant was provoked;
b) As a result of provocation, the defendant acted rashly
and under the influence of intense emotion that obscured
his or her reasoning or judgment; and,
c) The provocation would have caused a person of average
disposition to act rashly and without due deliberation,
that is, from passion rather than from judgment.
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8)Punishes voluntary manslaughter with imprisonment in the state
prison for 3, 6, or 11 years.
9)Defines a hate crime as a criminal act committed, in whole or
in part, because of one or more of the following actual or
perceived characteristics of the victim: disability, gender,
nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation,
and association with a person or group with one or more of
these actual or perceived characteristics.
10)Defines "gender," for purposes of hate crimes as "sex, and
includes a person's gender identity and gender-related
appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically
associated with the person's assigned sex at birth."
11)Provides that the court in its discretion may exclude
evidence if its probative value is substantially outweighed by
the probability that its admission will: (a) necessitate
undue consumption of time; or, (b) create substantial danger
of undue prejudice, of confusing the issues, or of misleading
the jury.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, if the proposed limitation on a defense is ever
demonstrably used to avoid an acquittal or a reduced charge
(manslaughter), there would be increased costs for state
incarceration, assuming a second-degree murder conviction. For
example, if this bill resulted in a second-degree murder
conviction every three years (15-years-to-life), rather than
manslaughter (3, 6, or 11 years), annual costs could exceed
$200,000 in less than 10 years. It is not clear, however that
the so-called panic defense has ever been successfully used to
solidify a charge of manslaughter rather than murder.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "AB 2501 ensures that
defendants cannot use the so-called 'panic defense' - where they
argue that a state of panic provoked their malicious act - in an
attempt to lower a charge from murder to manslaughter or to
escape conviction. Such defenses have been well-documented in
murder cases. A panic attack defense allows a criminal
defendant to claim that violence against the LGBT community is
understandable or acceptable due to the victim's orientation or
gender identity. AB 2501 makes it very clear that it is never
acceptable, and that there is no place for prejudice against
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people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender."
Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion
of this bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Sandy Uribe / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744
FN: 0003648