Latest Headlines
- Escambia Purchasing Playground, Pavilion For New Park At Former IP Golf Course
- Century Highway 29 Construction Zone Traffic Shift Set For Thursday
- Delayed By Weather: Highway 4 Bridge Now Expected To Be Completed In September
- Lane Closures Begin For I-10 Between Highway 29 and I-110
- Cantonment Man Charged With Battery Of Two Women
- Florida Highway Patrol Rockets To Victory In National Best-Looking Cruiser Contest
- Escambia County Man Charged with Mother’s Murder
- Mark Your Calendars For Upcoming School Orientations
- Man Charged With DUI Manslaughter For 2023 Chemstrand Road Crash
- Updated: Two Dead; Five Wounded, Including 11-Year-Old, In Escambia County Shooting
Stand Your Ground Vote Could Come This Week In Florida Senate
March 13, 2017
Florida senators could vote as soon as Wednesday to approve a bill (SB 128) that would shift a key burden of proof in “stand your ground” self-defense cases.
The Senate took up the measure Thursday and positioned it for a vote.
The proposal stems from a Florida Supreme Court ruling in 2015 that said defendants have the burden of proof to show they should be shielded from prosecution under the “stand your ground” law. In “stand your ground” cases, pre-trial evidentiary hearings are held to determine whether defendants should be immune from prosecution.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, would shift that burden of proof from defendants to prosecutors. ”
This is the most serious and solemn power that our state government exercises … and the burden should be high on the government from the beginning of the case to the end,” Bradley said.
A House version (HB 245), sponsored by Rep. Bobby Payne, R-Palatka, and Rep. Jason Fischer, R-Jacksonville, is pending in the House Judiciary Committee.
by The News Service of Florida
Comments
7 Responses to “Stand Your Ground Vote Could Come This Week In Florida Senate”
REGARDING:
“if you killed someone and was found not guilty that you did not do it.”
Actually, being found not guilty doesn’t mean you didn’t kill them but that killing them was not murder.
You may have killed them in self-defense.
(It was the only reasonable way to stop them from killing you.)
You may have killed them to protect others.
(It was the only reasonable way to stop them from killing someone else.)
You may have killed them while not knowing the difference between right and wrong.
(Mental defect, low IQ, drugged by someone else, brainwashed, things like that.)
You may have killed them without realizing what you were doing would kill them.
(Think Dorothy accidentally throwing water on the Wicked Witch to save the scarecrow, not knowing water would melt her.)
You may be guilty of manslaughter or vehicular homicide or second degree murder but found innocent of first degree murder.
You may have been ordered to execute the killer or ordered to act in national defense.
David for legal distinctions
It has never been innocent until proven guilty. You are given the presumption of being innocent until proven guilty. If you are innocent until proven guilty then that would mean that if you killed someone and was found not guilty that you did not do it.
REGARDING:
“I don’t need some damn law to tell me that I can defend my life with lethal force if necessary.”
Part of the idea is that you will not then face tens of thousands of dollars in legal expenses and possible civil liability.
You do NOT want to get caught in the legal machine; it grinds up even those who get off.
David for forethought about aftermath
Maybe our representatives should also focus on laws of keeping bad guys locked up, so we wouldn’t have to shoot them in the first place. Every bad guy that gets put down ALWAYS has a rap sheet a mile long…..and then some want to make it harder to defend yourself in your home and in a court of law. How disgusting our system has become. I hope they can strengthen stand you ground, but bad guys need to stay locked up and that will help.
@Sedition– I wish a majority of folks could be that realistic about a lot of things. This entire country would thrive instead of being manipulated, sucked dry, and dismantled. Thanks for the refresher on why we should get back to basics and start over.
I don’t need some damn law to tell me that I can defend my life with lethal force if necessary.
I’ll stand my ground regardless…to hell with the politicians’ opinions.
I remember a time when it was “innocent until proven guilty”.