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ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Just miles from where the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin launched a national debate over stand your ground laws, a federal commission is holding a hearing on whether there are racial disparities in the application of the law.

The U.S. Civil Rights Commission on Friday will hold the hearing in Orlando's tourist district, about 30 miles from the Sanford gated community where the 17-year-old Martin was fatally shot by George Zimmerman.

The stand your ground law says people who are not involved in illegal activity have the right to use force -- even deadly force -- if they reasonably believe it's necessary to avoid death or great bodily harm.

Zimmerman claimed he shot Martin in self-defense. He was acquitted of any crime at his trial last year.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Experts have told a federal civil rights commission evaluating racial disparities in "stand your ground" laws that they benefited whites more than blacks, that they were unnecessary and that they caused minority men to live in fear.

But one dissenter, an African-American lawmaker from South Carolina, made the case that the law benefited black defendants by putting in place an extra hurdle toward arrest by police officers who may have hidden racial biases. Rep. Todd Rutherford's voice was in the minority Friday among the more than a dozen experts who testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

"Stand-your-ground" laws provide that an individual has no duty to retreat from any place they may rightfully be and may use any level of force, including lethal, if they reasonably believe they face an imminent and immediate threat of serious bodily harm or death.

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U.S. Civil Rights Commission Holds Hearing on Stand Your Ground Laws