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Stand Your Ground Panel: Keep Law Mostly Unchanged
February 23, 2013
The panel charged by Gov. Rick Scott with reviewing the state’s ’stand your ground’ self-defense law did not recommend any major changes to the statute, although it did make suggestions for tweaks by the Legislature in the upcoming session. The basic premise of the law isn’t challenged in the final report released Friday. Scott’s Task Force on Citizen Safety and Protection included lawmakers, prosecutors, defense attorneys, representatives of minority communities and law enforcement.
Scott appointed the panel amid outrage over last year’s shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teen who was killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Sanford. Zimmerman wasn’t arrested for months, until after national protests.
Senate Democratic Leader Chris Smith, who asked to be on the task force but wasn’t appointed, said he’d expected this result.
“When you put a task force together of people who wrote the bill and full of people who support ’stand your ground,’ I knew that the task force wouldn’t come up with anything earth-shattering,” he said.
The law basically allows those who feel their life is in danger in public to meet the threat with deadly force. If they claim that was the situation, they can go to a hearing before a judge and get a ruling on that issue without ever going to trial.
The task force issued a draft report in December that urged lawmakers to look more carefully at a few areas of the law that might be vague.
Smith, who convened his own task force after being left off Scott’s, has maintained that the law gives cover to those who attack others for revenge or as part of a crime.
“Anyone who looks at all of the data and all of the misuses of ’stand your ground’ – from Miami, where people are chasing someone down the street and stabbing them to death, to Tampa, where people are getting shot on playgrounds, all the way to Tallahassee, where gangs are using ’stand your ground’ as they shoot up the streets – anyone who looked at that data realistically would have come out with stronger recommendations, as my task force did,” Smith said.
Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, the original sponsor of the bill and a member of the task force, said the statewide hearings and public debate helped to clarify that the law doesn’t cover those who assault someone they have pursued.
“The greatest benefit of the task force was a thorough review of what our self-defense law is and is not. I think it has brought understanding,” Baxley said. “I think moving forward, we’ll all see ways to make clearer application.”
The panel wants lawmakers to look more carefully at the part of the law that says the presumption of justifiable self-defense doesn’t apply when the person who uses defensive force is engaged in “unlawful activity.” Also at issue: how law enforcement officers should proceed in situations in which shooters claim to have stood their ground in self-defense.
Baxley said people will always try to claim that ’stand your ground’ covers their cases.
“And there will always be close calls near the foul line no matter where you put that line,” he said. ”But to automatically arrest people and detain them and they have to go on defense and prove their innocence is not consistent with our standard of legal care, which says you are innocent until proven guilty of something.”
Smith said Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs and a co-sponsor of the law who also sat on the task force, will file a bill to make minor changes in the upcoming session.
The panel held a public meeting in Pensacola on November 13, 2012.
By The News Service of Florida
Comments
8 Responses to “Stand Your Ground Panel: Keep Law Mostly Unchanged”
REGARDING:
“Zimmerman cannot follow someone and when he instigated the confrontation, then claim stand your ground. Martin had every right to defend himself.
It’s called neighbor WATCH, not neighbor follow and shoot a guy walking down the street because you don’t like the way he’s dressed.”
I joke about lynching Z because so many KNOW exactly what he did wrong — from thousands of miles away. They KNOW he instigated the confrontation even though walking in the area of another isn’t confrontation. They KNOW he keyed on his attire, even though it is only mentioned when operator asked for a description. He had said he was calling because of the way TM kept looking into dwellings along the way.
“Defend yourself” doesn’t include beating up folks following you.
SIMILARLY:
“- – - getting out of the vehicle was in direct violation of a lawful order and highly increased the probability of a confrontation.”
He was already out of his vehicle when dispatch mentioned that was a bad idea. The operator asked him to meet law enforcement. We don’t actually know he wasn’t doing that when the confrontation happened even some KNOW he continued to stalk.
Had the person he was following turned out to be a rapist. a serial murderer or an arsonist, nobody would have harped on him following. We do know rapists, killers, arsonists, vandals and other violent criminals exist. To be told we should never be allowed to leave our vehicles or our homes is to give more freedom to killers than to honest citizens. But, of course, they are already freer, they aren’t bound by any laws or conscience. It can get frustrating.
It would be nice to know the truth without just imagining it.
David for truth and freedom
Great Law, proud to be a Floridian , God Bless this state!!!!!
Its times like this that I am proud to be a Floridian!
It’s settled:
Stand your ground — good
Zimmerman — bad
no need for trial, lynch now
He had every right to follow him and report his ‘watch’ to the LEO’s, but getting out of the vehicle was in direct violation of a lawful order and highly increased the probability of a confrontation. As far as the court case, if they can prove his head was intentionally bashed into the ground by the deceased the wannabe cop will walk.
“mith, who convened his own task force after being left off Scott’s, has maintained that the law gives cover to those who attack others for revenge or as part of a crime.”
Partial truth to that.
As society crumbles , carry and practice with what you carry.
Thank the liberals who have destroyed the foundations of our once great country.
No turning back,
Zimmerman has partially ruined it for us normal real citizens.
But no turning back and it usually happens that way.
Zimmerman bashers , remember OJ got away with it (in the criminal trail anyway)
Stand Your Ground is a very well written law and should stay as is. If not abused, it allows each of us to protect ourselves without threat of prosecution. I have a concealed carry permit and do carry almost all of the time and have since 2000. However, even as a CCL holder, I know when to draw and when not to.
George Zimmerman is a cop-wannabe and should have NEVER followed Travon Martin. He is an idiot who put himself in that situation. However when he got punched so hard his nose was broken, getting his head bashed on a concrete sidewalk and then feeling Martin reaching for his gun, I would have shot him too.
A fair jury will aquit Zimmerman but he will be sued in civil court and lose everything. This incident should be a reminder to all about how and when to use deadly force. Another idiot like Zimmerman will ruin everyone else’s right to the Stand Your Ground law.
The “stand your ground ” law does apply in the Zimerman case. It should be applied to Martin who was being pursued by Zimmerman. Zimmerman cannot follow someone and when he instigated the confrontation, then claim stand your ground. Martin had every right to defend himself.
It’s called neighbor WATCH, not neighbor follow and shoot a guy walking down the street because you don’t like the way he’s dressed.
The cops in Sanford should have charged Zimmerman immediately and not had the governor appoint special prosecutors to do their job. That’s what really stinks. The stand your ground law is fine. It’s the investigators that need to understand when someone can use it and when they can’t. Zimmerman was the last one who should have been able to claim self defense.
He’s proven himself to be a liar when he lied to the judge about his finances, so I dont believe his side of the story.
Hopefully, this guy will get what he deserves, a life sentence for killing an innocent teenager.