Stand Your Ground Expanded to Schools by Florida Fourth District Court of Appeals

[Sebastian the Ibis]

The Florida Fourth District Court of Appeals entered an expansive Stand your Ground yesterday in T.P. v. State.

In this case T.P. was riding home from school on a school bus, and he was pulled into a seat and hit by a girl. The Court held that he was entitled to a stand your ground instruction, and reversed the trial court.


http://www.4dca.org/opinions/July%202013/07-17-13/4D12-1421.op.pdf

 

[brboyer]

The Florida Fourth District Court of Appeals entered an expansive Stand your Ground yesterday in T.P. v. State.

In this case T.P. was riding home from school on a school bus, and he was pulled into a seat and hit by a girl. The Court held that he was entitled to a stand your ground instruction, and reversed the trial court.


http://www.4dca.org/opinions/July%202013/07-17-13/4D12-1421.op.pdf

Not any kind of expansion. Simply the DCA telling the trial court to read the law as written.

The trial court rejected the application of section 776.013, misunderstanding the section to apply only to homes and vehicles. The statute is not so limited. In fact, it is extremely broad in its grant of the right of a person to protect himself or herself in any situation where the person is not engaged in an unlawful activity and is in a place where the person is entitled to be. Although the trial court’s misgivings of applying it to a fight on a school bus may be well taken, it is not the place of the trial court, or this court, to refuse to apply the plain meaning of the statute.