Lasers on your CCW?

[altitude_19]

Has a laser ever been brought up in court? Seriously, I'd be interested to read about it if it had.

 

[duns]

Has a laser ever been brought up in court? Seriously, I'd be interested to read about it if it had.

DeFreitas v. State, 701 So.2d 593 (Fla.App. 4 Dist., 1997). The prosecutor had asked the jury to "imagine how terrifying this laser [from the gun] would be if it was on your chest." This was a case where the defendant was accused of pointing a gun at some people, i.e. aggravated assault with a firearm. It is not clear to me whether the laser was influential in the conviction and sentence to 3 years. At appeal, the remark about the laser was deemed impermissible and improper conduct on the part of the prosecutor. For this and other reasons, the conviction was overturned.

So it seems a prosecutor would likely try to make the offense seem worse by bringing up the laser but would not necessarily get away with it.

 

[altitude_19]

So it wasn't an argument of excessive force and has only been made in a case about brandishing/assault without discharge. Sounds easier to defeat than the "super deadly hollowpoint" argument. I'm comfortable with that. Pretty interesting, all the same.