BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 2501 (Bonilla) - Voluntary manslaughter.
Amended: April 24, 2014 Policy Vote: Public Safety 5-2
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: August 4, 2014
Consultant: Jolie Onodera
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 2501 would prohibit the use of the so-called
"panic defense" to support a finding of sudden quarrel or heat
of passion which is necessary to reduce a charge of murder to
manslaughter.
Fiscal Impact: Potential future increase in state incarceration
costs (General Fund) to the extent the provisions of this
measure result in convictions for the more serious offense of
second-degree murder vs. voluntary manslaughter. One additional
commitment to state prison every two or three years would result
in additional state costs in the range of $90,000 to $120,000
after 10 years, assuming an in-state contract bed cost of about
$30,000 per year.
Background: Existing law provides that manslaughter is the
unlawful killing of a human being without malice. Manslaughter
can be of three kinds: voluntary, involuntary, or vehicular.
Under existing law, voluntary manslaughter is the unlawful
killing of a human being upon a sudden quarrel or heat of
passion. (Penal Code (PC) § 192(a).)
Pursuant to California Criminal Jury Instructions (CALCRIM), a
killing that would otherwise be murder is reduced to voluntary
manslaughter if the defendant killed someone because of a sudden
quarrel or in the heat of passion. A killing occurs upon a
sudden quarrel or in the heat of passion if:
The defendant was provoked;
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,
The provocation would have caused a person of average
disposition to act rashly and without due deliberation,
AB 2501 (Bonilla)
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that is, from passion rather than from judgment. (CALCRIM
No. 570.)
Voluntary manslaughter is punishable by imprisonment in state
prison for three, six, or 11 years (PC § 193(a)). In contrast, a
conviction for second-degree murder is punishable by a state
prison term of 15 years to life (PC § 190.).
This bill seeks to address the concern that evidence that a
defendant in a criminal case killed the victim in response to
discovery of the victim's gender or sexual orientation has been
introduced in an attempt to defend against a charge of murder
and may be used to appeal to bias on the part of members of the
jury. This bill seeks to address how that concern may be
addressed consistent with the right of an accused person to
present all relevant evidence in his or her defense.
Proposed Law: This bill would prohibit the use of the so-called
"panic defense" to support a finding of sudden quarrel or heat
of passion, which is necessary to reduce a charge of murder to
manslaughter. Specifically, this bill:
Provides that for purposes of determining sudden quarrel
or heat of passion for the charge of voluntary
manslaughter, the provocation was 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 under
circumstances in which the victim made an unwanted
nonforcible romantic or sexual advance towards the
defendant, or if the defendant and victim dated or had a
romantic or sexual relationship.
Provides that nothing in this section precludes a jury
from considering all relevant facts to determine whether
the defendant was in fact provoked for purposes of
establishing subjective provocation.
Prior Legislation: AB 1160 (Lieber) Chapter 550/2006, made
legislative findings and declarations expressing disapproval of
the use of a "panic defense" by defendants in order to appeal to
the societal bias of a juror based on the victim's actual or
perceived gender or sexual orientation, and required the court,
upon the request of a party, to instruct the jury that their
decision should not be influenced by bias against a victim.
AB 2501 (Bonilla)
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Staff Comments: To the extent the provisions of this bill result
in convictions for more serious offenses than otherwise would
have occurred under existing law, the Department of Corrections
and Rehabilitation (CDCR) will incur additional state
incarceration costs for longer prison terms. Future costs cannot
be known with certainty and would be dependent on various
factors including the number of defendants impacted, as well as
the difference in prison term actually imposed on each defendant
vs. the term the defendant would have otherwise served in the
absence of this measure.
Should one defendant be impacted every two or three years under
the provisions of this bill, CDCR would incur increased
incarceration costs of about $90,000 to $120,000 annually after
10 years, based on the estimated in-state contract bed cost of
about $30,000 per year. These costs would not be incurred until
the completion of the prison terms the defendants would have
otherwise served.