Fri 10 Jul 2009 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
A high-powered gay lawyer and now MP says the current partial defence of provocation, or gay panic defence, often used in court to justify violent attacks, is a travesty and must be done away with. Law change needed: Charles Chauvel In 2007 the Law Commission flagged the provision as needing revision and Labour's Charles Chauvel says he believes the Commission was "absolutely right about an aspect of our criminal law which provides justification for lashing out and violence against people." Unable to speak specifically about the manslaughter verdict delivered last night after Hungarian tourist Ferdinand Ambach was charged with brutally murdering elderly gay Onehunga man Ronald Brown, lest it is considered he is trying to influence the sentencing later next month, Chauvel says the partial defence of provocation part of the Crimes Act 1961 "lets people know they can get away with murder, and it's time we did away with the provision." Opposition Spokesperson on Justice Lianne Dalziel is likely to put the Chauvel-drafted Crimes (Abolition of Defence of Provocation) Amendment Bill up as a Private Member's Bill towards the end of this month. It is understood she has been waiting for the high profile Ambach and Weatherston trials, both incorporating provocation in the defence arguments, to finish before submitting the Bill. Chauvel says he believes there is strong public support for the Bill. "People are strongly in favour and realise the current provision is a travesty," he explains, adding that politicians should take note of public opinion and that members of the public should make their views known to Government MPs. In 2007, gay National MP and now Attorney General Chris Finlayson said he supported such a change to the Act, although he believed a broad review of the the Crimes Act 1961 is preferable to the then Labour Government’s "piecemeal approach to law reform."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 10th July 2009 - 1:07pm