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‘Gay panic defence’ cited by alleged murderers

SX – October 7, 2009

Two men charged with murder in Queensland have invoked ‘gay panic defence’ in court proceedings, arguing that they are not guilty of murder, as the man they killed had made unwanted homosexual advances.

Richard John Meerdink, 40, and Jason Andrew Pearce, 37, are jointly charged with murdering Wayne Robert Ruks, 45, in the grounds of Maryborough’s St Mary’s Catholic Church last July.

Both have entered pleas of not guilty – with Pearce admitting only to manslaughter – citing a gay advance on the part of Ruks, The Courier-Mail reports. Read more and comment

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Spain: Gay Panic Defense Wins Acquittal In Horrific Double Murder

March 4, 2009

Andres Duque is reporting a gruesome story out of Spain where a man was just acquitted of his confessed murder of two gay men because of his claim of “homosexual panic.”

The details of the case are horrific, if familiar. The murderer was picked up by one of the two men at the bar where he worked and came home for a meal with the couple. When sex appeared to be in the picture, he stabbed the two to death. Read more

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Spain: Outrage at acquittal of man who stabbed gay couple 57 times and set their bodies on fire

March 2, 2009  Read more

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But Your Worship, he made a pass at me

SX • August 6, 2008

The Homosexual Advance Defence, or “the HAD” as it is more commonly known, is a legal defence that surfaced in Australian criminal jurisdictions in the early 1990s. The basic premise is that if a homosexual man makes an unwanted sexual advance towards a straight man, he is “provoking” that man.

So, should a straight man then murder a homosexual man who has made a pass at him, the HAD can be engaged to have the charges reduced. Read more
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Beat stabbing ‘wasn’t gay panic’

SSO • January 28, 2009

The manslaughter conviction of a schoolboy for the fatal stabbing of Gerard Fleming wasn’t downgraded because of a homosexual provocation defence, NSW Attorney General John Hatzistergos has said.

Acknowledging community concerns about the three-and-a-half-year non-parole sentence, Hatzistergos said “it is important to note that the Court, including the jury, saw this case as a ‘tragedy arising from a failure to communicate and a misunderstanding’, rather than one involving homophobic motives.” Read more

Read the Supreme Court Decision

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Operation Taradale

Finding and Recommendations:

Inquest into the death of John Alan RUSSELL
Inquests into the suspected deaths of Ross Bradley WARREN &
Gilles Jacques MATTAINI

Operation Taradale Findings • March 9, 2005

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‘Homosexual Panic’ and the Mercenary Killing

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Australia’s Criminal Justice System Fails Lesbians and Gay Men

Murdoch University • July 1996

This paper discusses Australia’s criminal justice system and the way it relates to the ’sexual orientation’ of a party. Research is presented which seeks to underscore the extent of the difficulties faced by lesbian and gay men within that system. Exam ination is made of the broader social context within which Australia’s criminal justice system operates. Read more

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Review of the ‘Homosexual Advance Defence’

Attorney General’s Department New South Wales • August 1996

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Male Honour, Provocation and the Homosexual Advance

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“Homosexual panic” and the mercenary killing

AIC Research and Public Policy Series (Australia).

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The Homosexual Advance Defence and the Law/Body Nexus: Towards a Poetics of Law Reform

For some years now, the familiar story of a (homicidal) heterosexual hero overpowered by a predatory ‘poofter’ has played to critical acclaim in Australian criminal courtrooms.

Judges and juries alike have listened with unquestioning awe to tales of bodily impeachment and male honour, as defence barristers have constructed this primal, almost cinematic, narrative of Australian heterosexual masculinity under attack.

The familiar narrative referred to is the Homosexual Advance Defence (‘the HAD’), and this paper is a contribution towards the growing body of legal theory dedicated to its critique (and eradication). Read more

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Provocation And The Homosexual Advance Defence: The Deployment Of Culture As A Defence Strategy

I point to the recent embodiment of heterosexism and homophobia in provocation law, the so-called ‘Homosexual Advance Defence’ (‘HAD’), as irrefutable evidence of a provocation doctrine replete with heterosexist cultural judgments. Read more

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