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Courtesy of Sundance International Film Festival

Heartbreaking documentary on controversial Florida shooting

Sundance Film Festival (U.S. Documentary Competition)

Marc Silver

It was known as the Loud Music Trial, but centered on Floridas controversial Stand Your Ground law. In this horrific case, a middle-aged white male shot and killed a black teenager during a gas-station parking lot confrontation. Things escalated when Michael Dunn implored the teens to turn down their rap music. The awful result was that a teenage boy, Jordan Davis, ended up dead.

In a Rashomon structure, filmmaker Marc Silver sagely constructs the story from the varying viewpoints. We get to know the circumstances and both families: The son of loving middle-class parents, Davis was a well-liked middle-class teen; Dunn was a solid citizen, engaged and returning from a wedding that fatal day. It nonetheless emerges as a lose-lose tragedy the boy died and ultimately the man was sentenced to life plus 90.

This well-constructed, thoughtful documentary could be used as an instructional aide in criminal justice courses, ethics courses, as well as law-enforcement agencies. The verdict once again centers on Floridas much-debated law. In the second jury trial (the first was a mistrial), the jurors interpreted that the stand-your-ground law does not allow a person threatened to necessarily kill his or her assailant. In this instance, the jury determined that Dunn had exceeded his right to defend himself and did not avail himself of all avenues to defuse the situation.

Its sobering and heart-wrenching. There are no bad people in this story; there are differing viewpoints, in part shaped by different ages and cultures. Ultimately, it all comes down to a horrific 3/12 seconds in the lives of people out on an otherwise pleasant Sunday afternoon.

A The Filmmaker Fund/Motto Pictures production

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'3 1/2': Film Review

Updated: Friday, February 20 2015, 10:33 PM CST SOUTHEAST TEXAS - by Jessica Crawford

Democratic State Representative Garnet Coleman recently submitted a bill to modify the Castle Doctrine.

The current law allows Texans to use lethal force if they reasonably believe they are under the threat of imminent harm. Texas don't have to retreat if they believe the threat is real.

Coleman says the law could be dangerous.

"People now think that they are the police, they are the court, and they have a right to kill someone who wasn't using deadly force against them," says Coleman.

Attorney Scott Renick says Coleman's bill would only modify the law slightly.

"If you're in your own home, it doesn't really change but if you're away from your home, you're only allowed to use lethal force if there is no other option," says Renick. "What it's trying to change is you can't use lethal force in an event where there is what is a perceived threat, an example of that is the Trayvon Martin case."

In a telephone interview today, Coleman said "young men of color" become targets based on what he calls the "prejudice that society has."

Montra Scott, a Lamar University student, says he hopes Coleman's bill becomes law.

"I definitely believe it's wrong to shoot first ask questions later," he says. "It's wrong, it's wrong. I don't think it really depends on the situation I mean because in that case, it's like you're not thinking before you doing it, you're just doing it."

Here is the original post:
Lawmaker submits bill to modify Stand Your Ground Law

Update:Black Woman Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison After Attempting To Use Stand Your Ground Law
LINK TO ORIGINAL VIDEO:http://youtu.be/KlT65PliG98 Nearly five years ago, Marissa Alexander fired a gun in the direction of her estranged husband. Little did...

By: TheAdviseShowTV

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Update:Black Woman Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison After Attempting To Use Stand Your Ground Law - Video

Micki Zalatimo, who spoke during an August bond hearing for the woman who claims self-defense in her son's fatal stabbing, has argued that A'Kara Edwards' use of force against 22-year-old Alex Whipple wasn't necessary. (FILE/ANDREW KNAPP/STAFF)

About the law

The S.C. Protection of Persons and Property Act recognizes that a persons home, vehicle and business is his castle.

A person is presumed to have a reasonable fear of ... death and can use deadly force if an unlawful intruder is forcefully trying to enter a home or if the person has reason to believe that a forceful act is occurring or has occurred. But this presumption of fear does not apply if the person against whom the deadly force is used has the right to be in or is a lawful resident of the dwelling.

A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in another place where he has a right to be ... has the right to stand his ground ... if he reasonably believes it is necessary to prevent serious injury or a violent crime.

A person who lawfully uses deadly force is immune from criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits.

Source: S.C. law

Alex Whipples mother doesnt want his life reduced to the value of a 2006 Ford.

He and his girlfriend, AKara Edwards, were bickering Aug. 4 at Edwards North Charleston home. He had been drinking that morning.

Read more here:
S.C. stand your ground law key to domestic violence ...

The man who signed Florida's Stand Your Ground law is now awkwardly moonwalking backwards on an initially indiscriminate data-dump. Presidential hopeful and former Florida governor Jeb Bush is doing some damage control on his decision to publish his gubernatorial emails, which provided easy access to over 12,000 social security numbers from people who had written the governor emails.

JebEmails, the website created by Bush's team to allow people to comb through more than 300,000 emails the former governor received in office, was meant to highlight the 2016 contender's tech savvy and commitment to transparency.

Instead, it highlighted how oblivious Team Prez Bush 3 is about privacy. Whoever came up with this genius moved dropped the ball big-time in the thinking-things-through department. Due to Florida's Sunshine laws, anyone could've requested the emails from Bush's eight-year stint as governor. But this project provided an easily searchable database for these emails and the sensitive information they contained, inadvertently creating a tool for identity theft. His team is now redacting the SSNs it published.

Most of the exposed numbers (roughly 12,500) came from a spreadsheet attached to an email, meaning most of the people screwed over weren't just randomly messaging their personal information to the then-governor. The bulk of the social security numbers were from a PowerPoint email attachment about people on a family services waiting list.

Anyone who downloaded the original email files made available last week still has access to the SSNs and other personal identifying information from the people who wrote in, so there's still concern that the email dump may lead to fraud; it's too late to put that personal information-sharing genie totally back in the bottle. [The Guardian via The Verge]

Image via AP Images

Link:
Jeb Bush Is Sorry He Published Your Social Security Numbers