California Senate passes bill addressing 'panic defense' in criminal trials

National Briefs

By Staff Reporters of the Dallas Voice.
Aug 31, 2006, 18:53

The California Senate passed the “Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act” on Wednesday, August 30, 2006, sending the measure to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for his consideration.

The bill, authored by Assemblymember Sally Lieber, a Democrat and sponsored by Equality California, directs the Office of Emergency Services to create training materials for district attorneys on the use of bias-motivated defense strategies in criminal trials.

The measure also requires the Judicial Council to adopt a jury instruction telling jurors not to consider bias against people because of sexual orientation, gender identity or other factors in rendering a verdict.

The bill was named in honor of Gwen Araujo, a transgender teen murdered in Newark, Calif., in 2002. Araujo was beaten to death by four men she met at a party who had discovered she was transgender.