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Super-Charged ‘Stand Your Ground’ Bill Could Make It Even Harder To Prosecute More George Zimmermans

CREDIT: ASSOCIATED PRESS
CREDIT: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Since Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law was adopted in 2005, vigilantes like George Zimmerman, who shot and killed unarmed 16-year-old Trayvon Martin, have claimed self-defense and avoided conviction. Ten years later, the man who co-sponsored the original legislation wants to make it even easier for defendants to get away scot-free.

State Rep. Dennis Baxley, a vocal proponent of gun rights with deep ties to the NRA, introduced a bill two weeks ago that would make Stand Your Ground claims virtually invincible. Normally a defendant claiming self-defense must prove he was attacked or threatened, but the new legislation would instead place the burden on the state to prove that he was not.

In other words, people like George Zimmerman, who has bragged about killing Martin and retweeted a photo of the teenager’s dead body last Friday, would not have to prove that he killed Martin in self-defense. The state would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt why Zimmerman didn’t.

Lawmakers previously passed a law that shifted the burden of proof to prosecutors in 2014, but the state’s Supreme Court rejected the change this summer. Florida has been bulking up its infamous law to make it one of the strongest self-defense laws in the country. Defendants have no duty to retreat before using force in one’s residence, vehicle, or dwelling.

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To date, 32 other states have enacted Stand Your Ground laws with varying degrees of protections for defendants. All of them are extensions of the Castle Doctrine which gives people the right to defend their homes with deadly force. Since 2005, when Florida passed the first of its kind “Stand Your Ground” law as we know it today, some states — including Texas and South Carolina, and Louisiana — have expanded the scope of the “home” to include one’s car or place of employment. In at least two states, deadly force can be used against a perpetrator who is actually fleeing the scene. Other states, such as New York, require defendants to retreat before resorting to lethal force or restrict deadly force to one’s home.

Stand your Ground promotes vigilantism and declares open season for killing people of color like Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, who was shot and killed by Michael Dunn for playing loud music. And when Marissa Alexander was sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot during a domestic dispute with her abusive husband, her case highlighted how people of color don’t reap the benefits of Stand Your Ground legislation. Research also shows that states with Stand Your Ground laws have more homicides than ones that don’t.

As of May, 10 states were attempting to repeal or weaken their respective Stand Your Ground legislation.