Miami Herald on stand your ground law

[Sky]

The controversial law which police have cited in their decision not to charge the man who shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin has been invoked at least 130 times statewide since 2005.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/...ground-cases.html#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy

At Wednesday’s town hall meeting in Sanford, where more than 400 people sat inside the Allen Chapel AME Church and another 200 or more rallied outside, State Rep. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, said repealing the "stand your ground" law would be a top priority for the legislature’s black caucus.

 

[MistWolf]

Zimmerman has been charged with 2nd Degree Murder and has turned himself in

 

[Sky]

Zimmerman has been charged with 2nd Degree Murder and has turned himself in

Yes he has and the article discusses the case before he turned himself in and the movement to change the stand your law ground.

Police chiefs and prosecutors have decried the law for years, but it wasn’t until the Martin shooting that notable Republicans, including the bill’s author, Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, have said the law may need to be reconsidered.

 

[MistWolf]

Stand your ground does not mean you can pursue another. Matter of fact, pursuing another may justify use of deadly force by the other party

 

[Freedom_fighter_in_IL]

As usual the media and politicians get it wrong. As MistWolf stated, stand your ground does NOT mean PURSUE which, in the case of Zimmerman, was what the idiot did. Stand your ground is paramount to personal security and the ability to defend yourself. It's hard to tell an intruder "excuse me but I need to retreat until I am cornered so I can shoot you".

 

[Kleanbore]

The duty to retreat and its elimination by legislatures and/or courts in some jurisdictions has already been discussed at great length in a number of threads.

It has nothing to do with gun discussions--it can apply if someone uses a Louisville Slugger on another person, and it even came up once in an appellate case involving a burglar who was killed by a gum ball machine.

The Florida law combines several things, one of which is the elimination of the duty to retreat; another has to do with immunity from prosecution under certain circumstances. To say that the law has been "invoked" a certain number of times does not give any information about the stand-your-ground provision per se.

There is a thread open for limited discussion of the Zimmerman case in ST&T.