New Zealand: "Gay Panic" Defense in Hate Crimes Abolished

As a consequence of parliamentary urgency, the archaic "provocation defence" (Section 169 of the Crimes Act) was finally abolished last night. The rejection of NZ's Partial Defence of Provocation yesterday has to be the most rapid LGBT-related legislative reform to date, as well as the least contested - apart from some fundamentalist reprobates. Justice Minister Simon Power, Labour's Lianne Dalziel and Charles Chauvel, the Law Commission and Rainbow Wellington all deserve our gratitude for the ceaseless attention to the attendant injustice involved here and prompt action when the time finally came. Firstly, the law change means there will be victims' rights equality for LGBT severe assault and homicide victims. Defence counsels will not be able to use manipulative homophobia to mitigate murder to the lesser charge of manslaughter and its diminished severity of imprisonment duration. Full Story from GayNZ.com: http://www.gaynz.com/articles/publish/32/article_8227.php

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