Editing Gay panic defense (section)

==== Use of the gay panic defense ====
The gay panic defense is invoked as an affirmative defense, but only to strengthen a more "traditional criminal law defense such as insanity, diminished capacity, provocation, or self-defense" and is not meant to provide justification of the crime on its own.<ref name="Lee2008">{{cite journal |url=https://scholarship.law.gwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1796&context=faculty_publications |title=The Gay Panic Defense |last=Lee |first=Cynthia |date=2008 |journal=UC Davis Law Review |volume=42 |pages=471–566 |access-date=June 1, 2019 |archive-date=June 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190621184318/https://scholarship.law.gwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1796&context=faculty_publications |url-status=live }}</ref> While using the gay panic defense to explain insanity has typically not been successful in winning a complete acquittal, diminished capacity, provocation, and self-defense have all been used successfully to reduce charges and sentences.<ref name="Lee2008" />

Historically, in US courts, use of the gay panic defense has not typically resulted in the acquittal of the defendant; instead, the defendant was usually found guilty, but on lesser charges, or judges and juries may have cited homosexual solicitation as a mitigating factor, resulting in reduced culpability and sentences.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272428333 |title=Excusing Murder? Conservative Jurors' Acceptance of the Gay-panic defense |last1=Salerno |first1=Jessica M. |last2=Najdowski |first2=Cynthia J. |last3=Harrington |first3=Evan |last4=Kemner |first4=Gretchen |last5=Dave |first5=Reetu |date=February 2015 |access-date=June 1, 2019 |quote=The gay-panic defense is a specific type of provocation defense in which the defendant claims that the crime in question was the result of a sudden and intense passion provoked by the victim's unwanted same-gender sexual advance. It is primarily used by straight men claiming that they found the experience of an unwanted same-gender sexual advance so upsetting that they temporarily became enraged and lost control of their own behavior (Lee, 2008). Chen (2000) argues that the acceptance of a gay-panic defense implies acceptance of a nonviolent same-gender sexual advance as an adequate trigger to cause a person to fall into an uncontrollable state of panic. If jurors collectively agree that the reaction was reasonable, they can find the defendant guilty of a lesser offense, which often results in a lesser sentence (Lee, 2008). |journal=Psychology, Public Policy, and Law |volume=21 |number=1 |pages=24–34 |doi=10.1037/law0000024 |s2cid=145623462 |archive-date=April 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210403184624/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272428333_Excusing_Murder_Conservative_Jurors%27_Acceptance_of_the_Gay-Panic_Defense |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1995, the [[tabloid talk show]] ''[[The Jenny Jones Show]]'' filmed an episode titled "[[Revealing Same Sex Secret Crush]]". Scott Amedure, a 32-year-old gay man, publicly revealed on the program that he was a [[secret admirer]] of Jonathan Schmitz, a 24-year old straight man. Three days after the episode was filmed, Schmitz confronted and killed Amedure.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/30/us/national-news-briefs-jury-selection-begins-in-jenny-jones-lawsuit.html|title=National News Briefs; Jury Selection Begins In 'Jenny Jones' Lawsuit|date=March 30, 1999|website=[[The New York Times]]|language=en-US|access-date=January 14, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911041806/http://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/30/us/national-news-briefs-jury-selection-begins-in-jenny-jones-lawsuit.html|archive-date=September 11, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> Schmitz was tried for the first-degree [[murder of Scott Amedure]]; however, he was convicted on the lesser offense of second-degree murder after asserting the gay panic defense.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/12/gay-panic-defence-tactic-ban-court|title=After decades of 'gay panic defence' in court, US states slowly begin to ban tactic|last=Dart|first=Tom|date=May 12, 2018|website=[[The Guardian]]|language=en-US|access-date=January 14, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180605192052/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/12/gay-panic-defence-tactic-ban-court|archive-date=June 5, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>