The Stand Your Ground law is most widely associated with the Feb. 26 shooting death of Trayvon Martin [1], an unarmed 17-year-old killed in Florida by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain who claimed he was acting in self-defense.
But as a recent Tampa Bay Times investigation [2] indicates, the Martin incident is far from the only example of the law’s reach in Florida. The paper identified nearly 200 instances [3] since 2005 where the state’s Stand Your Ground law has played a factor in prosecutors’ decisions, jury acquittals or a judge’s call to throw out the charges. (Not all the cases involved killings. Some involved assaults where the person didn’t die.)
The law [4] removes a person’s duty to retreat before using deadly force against another in any place he has the legal right to be – so long as he reasonably believed he or someone else faced imminent death or great bodily harm. Among the Stand Your Ground cases identified by the paper, defendants went free nearly 70 percent of the time [5].
Although Florida was the first to enact a Stand Your Ground law, 24 other states enforce similar versions [6]. Using the Tampa Bay findings and others, we’ve highlighted some of the most notable cases where a version of the Stand Your Ground law has led to freedom from criminal prosecution:
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DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
2 comments:
Common sense and discretion are optional,but should be mandated by law to accompany the stand your ground law.Because such things cannot be guaranteed,laws such as this one will never work well.Most of us recall when right on red became law in Md.For the first couple of weeks wrecks were occurring everywhere due to a lack of common sense and discretion.
300 is right, and the perps are wrong. I gotta get out of Maryland.
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