Editorial: Fix 'stand your ground'
Published: Saturday, March 22, 2014 at 2:47 p.m. Last Modified: Saturday, March 22, 2014 at 2:47 p.m.
Whether Florida's stand your ground law is malevolent, misguided or merely misunderstood, it needs repair.
Legislation that would clarify the law is gaining ground in the state Senate. House leaders, too, should get on board this needed update.
The new bill (CS/SB 130) last week gained unanimous support from the Senate's Criminal Justice Committee. The measure would not repeal the controversial stand your ground law. Instead, it would address some of the unintended consequences that have emerged since the law's passage a decade ago.
The widely misinterpreted law is complex. It expanded the circumstances under which the use of lethal force is justified in self-defense. Before stand your ground, people in a public place had a duty to retreat, if feasible, rather than use deadly force in the face of a threat. Now, they can use lethal force if they reasonably perceive themselves or others to be in great danger or to prevent a forcible felony.
It also gives defendants in self-defense cases the option of invoking a stand your ground hearing a pretrial procedure at which they seek immunity from prosecution and civil liability. Evidence is presented and a judge decides.
Since the law's adoption, the controversy surrounding it has grown. A Tampa Bay Times investigation found that while the law has helped exonerate people engaged in legitimate self-defense, it also has been used to defend gang shootouts, drug deals and other criminal acts. It has been claimed in cases where the victim was unarmed, or shot in the back while fleeing, and it has been inconsistently applied, the investigation found. In nearly a third of the cases the Times analyzed, defendants initiated the fight, shot an unarmed person or pursued their victim and still went free, the newspaper reported.
The controversy grew following the 2012 case of Trayvon Martin, who was unarmed when fatally shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who said Martin had attacked him. Zimmerman did not invoke a stand your ground hearing, but the self-defense criteria were included in the jury instructions. Zimmerman was acquitted.
Afterward, Gov. Rick Scott convened a task force, which recommended changes to clarify the law's administration. Among them: Increase training and education on self-defense laws; limit neighborhood-watch patrols to observing, rather than engaging in law enforcement; remove ambiguity about detaining and investigating suspects in stand your ground cases.
The Legislature at first dismissed the recommendations. But more deaths and more doubts about stand your ground emerged. Last fall, legislators began working on potential revisions similar to those approved by the Senate panel last week.
Read the rest here: