Latest Headlines
- Cat Country 98.7 Is The 2024 CMA Radio Station Of The Year (With Gallery)
- Gonzalez Man Gets Two Life Sentences For Abusing Children
- One Airlifted After Highway 97 Rear End Crash
- Semi, Pickup Crash Closes Highway 29 For Hours In Cantonment
- Now That Matt Gaetz Has Resigned After Being Picked For Trump’s AG, Who Will Seek His Seat?
- Learn How To Break Down A Chicken At The Molino Library
- Escambia Man Dies In Two Vehicle Crash
- Flomaton Man Arrested In Atmore For Possession of Fentanyl, Cocaine
- Escambia Man Sentenced to 25 Years for Fentanyl Trafficking
- Tate High Softball’s Kara Wine Signs With The University of South Alabama
Court: Prison Guards Can Use ‘Stand Your Ground’
March 30, 2014
An appeals court Friday ruled that a correctional officer can use the state’s controversial “stand your ground” law in a case stemming from an altercation with an inmate.
A three-judge panel of the 5th District Court of Appeal sided with correctional officer Brad Heilman, who was charged with aggravated battery after an inmate was injured in an incident at Lake Correctional Institution.
A circuit judge found that Heilman could not use the “stand your ground” law in defense because of another state law that deals with circumstances when correctional officers can use force. But Friday’s seven-page opinion, written by appeals-court Judge Thomas Sawaya and joined by judges William Palmer and Wendy Berger, concluded that the Legislature intended for the “stand your ground” law to apply to correctional officers and sent the case back to circuit court.
The “stand your ground” law says people can use deadly force and do not have a duty to retreat if they think it is necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm. The law offers criminal and civil immunity in such cases.
Comments
14 Responses to “Court: Prison Guards Can Use ‘Stand Your Ground’”
I don’t think this is a good idea.
Mark, if movies are where you get your information, shame on you. Inmates yell CO, because even they have respect for the academy/state test COs have to take/pass. Correctional Officers should have the benefit of the SYG law. They knowingly walk into a neighborhood filled with felonious criminals, with little to no weapons on their belts. You should thank them for doing a thankless job and keeping your state safer for you and yours.
So I’ve read the comments and this is what I’ve learned. Correctional Officers provide care custody and control to people locked in a secure environment. So if the unfortunate happens the attacker will be caught unless they escape somehow. A Guard supervises unknown people in a unsecured environment and may have to confront a person not having no knowledge of like a contact card or face sheet. And if the unfortunate happens to them their attacker will flee. I now understand why a Guard would be offended to be compared. I am offended at least once a year when I am referred to as being white I spend a lot of time and money to be a great shade of tan:)
Prison Guard – Correctional Officer (Hey, how about “Turnkey”?)
COP – Police Officer
Secretary – Executive Assistant
Steward/Stewardess – Flight Attendant
How many of you that wish to be called a certain title, call others by the “incorrect” one?
Same job, different name. Quit being offended at a name and lighten up Francis!
BTW, I have never seen a prison movie where the inmate is screaming “Correctional Officer! Correctional Officer!”
Because Correctional Officers never do what prison guards did ere their job title was changed???
Back then they guarded felons in prisons.
Nowadays they correct misbehavior by felons in correctional institutions?
Regardless, it’s a very good reason to avoid being places where you can be fatally corrected.
David for pretty euphemisms
Sorry to bust your bubbles but “guards” work at Walmart
Curious he said some.
So can inmates use it on other inmates. Can school students without being punished by the rules they are told to follow?
i have a concern regarding some correctional officers using this “stand your ground law” during inmate/CO altercations……..behind the walls of the correctional facilities, i know that there is an unwritten modus operandi or code of law, which says that the officers protect their own, regardless of right or wrong….unless there are video cameras up EVERYWHERE to substantiate other guard (witness) testimony to the potential event that would lead to deadly force or battery, i believe that this law could be easily subjected to abuse……on the “outside” there usually are unbiased witness, forensics and other factual methods for determining a qualified justification of utilizing the “stand your ground” law…for the most part, i give the guards ample credit for doing a necessary and dangerous job that most could not do (myself included)..but, i think often its just too difficult to maintain high ethical standards once they go “inside”- and have to deal with some of the more viscious, violent inmates- lifers, especially.
Perdido fisherman, some of them do, not all, & for the ones that do, that is a character flaw for themselves & makes others look bad, but please don’t judge all
Dear Mr. Author (PACMUF),
“Prison Guards” really? Let’s upgrade our intellect just a little bit. However this is very typical of the media and I would expect nothing less. A shoddy attempt at relating a Correctional Officer using force to an old school Prison Guard whooping an innocent man. C.O.’s are charged with controlling the worlds most undesirables, Guards keep unregistered guests out of the hotels pool.
I agree with Perdido Fisherman on COs being able to use this law.
As far as God complex type LEOs go, I just stay out of their way. If you do cross paths with one just be polite and make them feel that they are in charge of the situation.
Whoa, that changes a lot of things for the better, it seems.
Good ruling! There is no reason a C.O. shouldn’t be able to use this law, they too are citizens of this state whether they are at home or on the job. The only problem i have is that some of these C.O’s and other LEO types have a god complex and feel they can violate anyones rights because they have a badge, there is not easy solution.