BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 2501
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          CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
          AB 2501 (Bonilla)
          As Amended  August 22, 2014
           Majority vote
           
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          |ASSEMBLY:  |50-18|(May, 28, 2014) |SENATE: |25-9 |(August 26,    |
          |           |     |                |        |     |2014)          |
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           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  








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            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:









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             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.
           









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          Analysis Prepared by  :    Sandy Uribe / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744 


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