Courtroom chairs (Photo: Jason Doiy/ALM)

In January, Gov. Murphy signed legislation that eliminates "gay and trans panic" as a defense to charges of criminal homicide. Under N.J.S. 2C:11-4 (b), before amendment, criminal homicide had constituted manslaughter when what otherwise would be considered murder under N.J.S. 2C:11-3 is "committed in the heat of passion resulting from a reasonable provocation." Under the amendment, a provocation will no longer be "objectively reasonable if it is based on the discovery of knowledge about, or potential disclosure of the homicide victim's actual or perceived gender identity or expression or affectional or sexual orientation, including under circumstances in which the victim made an unwanted, non-forcible romantic or sexual advance toward the actor, or if the victim and actor dated or had a romantic or sexual relationship."

In New Jersey, manslaughter involving heat-of-passion provocation is a crime of the second degree punishable by five to 10 years' imprisonment while murder is a first degree crime, punishable by thirty years to life imprisonment.

This change was in response to a notorious case in New York where James Dixon pleaded guilty to manslaughter based on his defense of rage when he tried "to hit" on a transgender woman. "Feeling his manhood threatened," Dixon viciously beat the 21-year-old victim, who died of her injuries. Avoiding a murder trial, James Dixon received a 12 year sentence for his plea to manslaughter based on the heat of passion defense.

Members of the transgender community are too frequently the victims of violence. With this new legislation, a victim's sexual orientation or gender expression will not be used as a justification for defendant's behavior. Blaming the victim will no longer be sanctioned. We support this new law and applaud its addition to legal efforts to protect the LBGTQ+ community.