Florida Disgraces Trayvon Martin Legacy, Moves to Expand Stand Your Ground

[Judi Lynn]

FEBRUARY 14, 2017
by MICHAEL J. SAINATO




Photo by Social Justice – Bruce Emmerling | CC BY 2.0


Florida’s current Stand Your Ground Law, initially enacted in 2005, permits individuals to utilize deadly force in self-defense, without any obligation to retreat. Under the current law, individuals who use deadly force must defend their use of it under the law before trial.

On February 7, a bill proposed by NRA backed Florida State Senator Rob Bradley (R-Fleming) that would expand the Stand Your Ground law passed the Judiciary Committee by a 5-4 vote along party lines. The bill would shift the responsibility to the prosecution for why an individual “beyond a reasonable doubt” are not eligible to claim immunity under the law.

The bill, and the possibility it could pass into law given that Republicans hold the Governorship and the State Legislature, has provoked immense criticism from its opponents, who worry the bill would open Florida’s gun laws to more killings without consequence. The Miami Herald reported, “Bradley’s proposal drew immediate backlash from prosecutors and opponents of Stand Your Ground who fear the changes could flood the courts and make it easier for criminals to go unpunished. The plan also raises among critics renewed constitutional questions of double jeopardy in that requiring a burden of proof of ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ would essentially force prosecutors to try a case twice, once before trial and then at trial itself.”

Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law gained national attention in 2012 when George Zimmerman, a neighborhood restinpowerwatch captain in Sanford, Florida, killed unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman had a record of frivolous 911 calls, and a 911 dispatcher told him not to confront Martin, who did nothing wrong but looked “suspicious” to Zimmerman. But under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, Zimmerman was not arrested that night and ultimately was freed of any responsibility for murdering Trayvon Martin.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/14/florida-disgraces-trayvon-martin-legacy-moves-to-expand-stand-your-ground/

[DetlefK]

1. You know, legally it was Trayvon Martin who stood his ground against Zimmermann.

Martin had every right to go about his way and then this stranger starts a fight with him.

Except that Trayvon Martin cannot invoke "Stand Your Ground" in court to defend his actions because he's dead.

[1965Comet]

2. "You know, legally it was Trayvon Martin who stood his ground against Zimmermann."

Of course, we cannot know that. Rachel Jeantel and Zimmerman both testified that Martin had gotten completely away from Zimmerman when Martin was running for his father's house. Zimmerman was then on the phone with dispatch for two whole minutes more after losing sight of Martin. Then, somehow, Martin re-appears near where Zimmerman lost him (something like 20 yards from Zimmerman's truck, where the fight occurred).

Martin was out of sight for two minutes, and could easily have gone the 100 more yards or so to his father's house. The fact that he didn't go back there, and in fact went back to the scene of the fight, shows that he just might have been the one to start the fight after all.