Touro Law Review Volume 35 Number 2 Article 9 2019 How to Get Away with Murder: the “Gay Panic” Defense Omar T. Russo Touro Law Center Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.tourolaw.edu/lawreview Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Constitutional Law Commons, Criminal Law Commons, Fourteenth Amendment Commons, and the Human Rights Law Commons Recommended Citation Russo, Omar T. (2019) "How to Get Away with Murder: the “Gay Panic” Defense," Touro Law Review: Vol. 35 : No. 2 , Article 9. Available at: https://digitalcommons.tourolaw.edu/lawreview/vol35/iss2/9 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Touro Law Center. It has been accepted for inclusion in Touro Law Review by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Touro Law Center. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Russo: Gay Panic Defense HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER: THE “GAY PANIC” DEFENSE Omar T. Russo* I. INTRODUCTION In April of 2018, a jury found 69-year-old James Miller of Austin, Texas not guilty of murder for the 2015 slaying of his neighbor, Daniel Spencer.1 The jury convicted Miller of criminally negligent homicide, a crime that earned him a mere six months in jail followed by ten years of probation.2 During the night, Miller had invited Spencer, his 32-year-old neighbor, to his house where they drank and listened to music; the two were musicians.3 Miller claims that he rejected a kiss from Spencer and that Miller stabbed Spencer in a panic.4 Miller’s defense counsel argued that he acted in self-defense, in a manner known unofficially as the “gay panic defense.”5 The “gay * Juris Doctor Candidate, Touro Law Center; Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, Hartwick College, Oneonta, New York.