Virginia is one signature away from being the 12th state to ban a legal defense used to lobby for lighter sentences for people who murder an LGBTQ+ victim.
On Thursday, the Virginia Senate approved House Bill 2132, a piece of legislation that would end the use of the “panic” defense in criminal trials. If signed into law, the statute would apply to people accused of violently attacking LGBTQ+ people and specifically makes “oral solicitation,” otherwise known as hitting on someone, a prohibited basis for a defense. This effectively ends the practice of citing homophobia in “heat of the moment” as a defense for assaults and murders.
The bill, which passed the state Senate in a 23-15 vote, now heads to Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam for approval, having already sailed through the House by a 19-vote margin. Northam, a Democrat, is expected to sign the bill, having previously signed a LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination bill into law last year. The inclusive statewide protections are the first of their kind in the South.
House Bill 2132 was introduced by Del. Danica Roem (D-Manassas), who herself made history in 2017 by becoming the first openly transgender state lawmaker elected to office in the United States.
“It’s done,” Roem tweeted last week. “We’re banning the gay/trans panic defense in Virginia.”
The “panic” defense has long been a problem in Virginia, having been used at least eight times in recent years. Criminal justice researcher Carsten Andresen, who testified in favor of the bill, has compiled a list of about 200 homicide cases in the last few decades that used the defense, including five murders and three assaults in Virginia. Among them was the murder of Tracie Gainer, a transgender woman killed in 2002 by Mark Hayes. Hayes claimed during the trial that he “lost it” after the two had sex.
The most recent known use of the panic defense was 2011, when Deandre Moore stabbed Jacques Cowell to death. Moore, an 18-year-old football player at a local high school, told authorities that he was “threatened” by Cowell, an openly gay student at his campus. According to The Virginian-Pilot newspaper, individuals familiar with the two students alleged that they “appeared to have a physical relationship.”
Moore was sentenced to 40 years in jail, with 15 years suspended.
Roem, who was not available for comment on this story, told the Washington, D.C. NBC affiliate WRC-TV that her legislation recognizes that “someone’s mere existence as an LGBTQ person does not excuse” violence against them. State Sen. Jennifer McClellan (D-Richmond, who served as the bill’s patron in the Virginia Senate, added that the panic defense is “an abhorrent relic of discrimination in our public policy.”
