Gay panic defense

The_Minister

What is the status of this in Ireland?

Has it ever been tried, are there any judgments saying it is legally valid?

The subjective test for provocation would seem to me to cover it.

McCrack

I've never heard of this being used as an explicit defence in this jurisdiction. There was a manslaughter trial in the early to mid '80's involving a young homosexual man beaten to death in a Dublin park for presumably making advances to other men. This defence was raised in mitigation by Counsel at sentence of the men. Gannon J accordingly gave a suspended sentence (make of that what you will). I guess it was a sign of the times and I very much doubt the same result would happen today.

The Irish test is subjective (what's going on in the accused persons head at the time of the killing) but the trial judge has the ultimate say whether he will allow the defence to go to the jury. I do think it would be stretching it in this day and age that this defence would succeed in any capacity.

The_Minister

Interesting.

I never knew about that case, and my reading of the provocation defense seemed to allow for a gay panic defense - I thought it would have come up by now

eagle_&_bear

There is a UK case on the matter. Haven't seen it mentioned in Ireland yet.

The above poster is quite correct that it would be upto the Judge to accept it when charging the jury etc but pragmatically, I don't think it would be operable.

Even if it were made comparable to provocation, and if it were effective in reducing murder to manslaughter.... counsel would somehow have to deal with the de minimus principle in self-defence (use as much force as is necessary but no more)... wouldn't they?

Would manslaughter still not be a breach of the de minimus principle?