Tampa Bay Times: "Stand your ground" defense more likely to prevail if victim is black

[Gravitycollapse]

• Those who invoke "stand your ground" to avoid prosecution have been extremely successful. Nearly 70 percent have gone free.

• Defendants claiming "stand your ground" are more likely to prevail if the victim is black. Seventy-three percent of those who killed a black person faced no penalty compared to 59 percent of those who killed a white.

• The number of cases is increasing, largely because defense attorneys are using "stand your ground" in ways state legislators never envisioned. The defense has been invoked in dozens of cases with minor or no injuries. It has also been used by a self-described "vampire" in Pinellas County, a Miami man arrested with a single marijuana cigarette, a Fort Myers homeowner who shot a bear and a West Palm Beach jogger who beat a Jack Russell terrier.

• People often go free under "stand your ground" in cases that seem to make a mockery of what lawmakers intended. One man killed two unarmed people and walked out of jail. Another shot a man as he lay on the ground. Others went free after shooting their victims in the back. In nearly a third of the cases the Times analyzed, defendants initiated the fight, shot an unarmed person or pursued their victim — and still went free.

• Similar cases can have opposite outcomes. Depending on who decided their cases, some drug dealers claiming self-defense have gone to prison while others have been set free. The same holds true for killers who left a fight, only to arm themselves and return. Shoot someone from your doorway? Fire on a fleeing burglar? Your case can swing on different interpretations of the law by prosecutors, judge or jury.

• A comprehensive analysis of "stand your ground" decisions is all but impossible. When police and prosecutors decide not to press charges, they don't always keep records showing how they reached their decisions. And no one keeps track of how many "stand your ground" motions have been filed or their outcomes.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/florida-stand-your-ground-law-yields-some-shocking-outcomes-depending-on/1233133

[Egalitarian Thug]

1. Gee, I'm shocked, shocked I tell you!!!

Are they implying that the residents and systems of Crackerland might have some kind of pre-judging thing that precludes a fair assessment of possibly criminal events?

[LeftyMom]

2. You don't say.

[Avalux]

3. This is exactly why the State Dept. must take this up.

The law is flawed and it must be stopped because it's spreading through the states like wildfire.

[Ruby the Liberal]

4. "...make a mockery of what lawmakers intended"

Do go on...

[JRLeft]

5. I already knew it.

[Sparkly]

6. It's just, "I'm scared of you, so I can kill you."

Period. ANYbody they claim to fear might cause them injury is prey. The victim can even be unarmed. The "fearful" one can have a loaded gun. The balance still goes to the shooter, cuz he was scared and stood his ground in self-defense.*



*Provided shooter is white and victim is black.

[Gregorian]

7. So doesn't that make it a racist law. Doesn't that violate some kind of equal protection thingie?

I don't fucking know. I'm no lawyer. But I do have common sense.

[Gregorian]

8. So it's a law that in essence advocates violence.

I had a dream the other night that president Palin had declared war on France. That's not much more far fetched than giving people the right to shoot each other.

[kestrel91316]

9. We need a federal civil rights commission to look into those statistics and do something about

these laws if that's that case.

But I won't be holding my breath. Even most of our elected Dems seem content with the situation as it is.

[Baitball Blogger]

10. Someone is telling the truth.

[Crunchy Frog]

11. Open season on people.