BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 2501 Page 1 CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS AB 2501 (Bonilla) As Amended August 22, 2014 Majority vote ----------------------------------------------------------------- |ASSEMBLY: |50-18|(May, 28, 2014) |SENATE: |25-9 |(August 26, | | | | | | |2014) | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Original Committee Reference: PUB. S. 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. The Senate amendments delete language which would have prohibited reducing murder to manslaughter when a killing results from the potential disclosure of the defendant's sexual orientation or gender identity. 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 is 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 AB 2501 Page 2 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. 8)Punishes voluntary manslaughter with imprisonment in the state prison for three, six, 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. AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , 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: AB 2501 Page 3 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 that appearance or behavior is associated with the person's gender as determined at birth." 4)Makes technical, non-substantive changes. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, 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. 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 people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender." Please see the policy committee analysis for a full discussion of this bill. AB 2501 Page 4 Analysis Prepared by : Sandy Uribe / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744 FN: 0005443