Stand Your Ground Law May PROHIBIT Trayvon's Parents from Suing Zimmerman For Wrongful Death

[kpete]

Stand Your Ground Law PROHIBITS Trayvon's Parents from Suing Zimmerman For Wrongful Death

The "Stand Your Ground Law" (2005 - HB 0249) is so barbaric that it actually CREATED a Sections (plural) for the Law That:

1) Section 776.032 (2): Dissuades and discourages police from arresting a person who claims: "self-defense" under the "Stand Your Ground Law" where there are no direct eye-witnesses, and

2) Section 776.032 (3): Prohibits family of victim from suing the killer in Civil Court for "Wrongful Death."

Remember, Stand Your Ground Law says that no matter where you are, you can kill someone if you merely THINK they are going to cause you or someone "great bodily harm."

Florida "Stand Your Ground Law" Statute 776.012

"A person who is not engaged in an UNLawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.”

.............................

776.032?Immunity from criminal prosecution and civil action for justifiable use of force.—

(1)?A person who uses force as permitted in s. 776.012, s. 776.013, or s. 776.031 is justified in using such force and is immune from criminal prosecution and civil action for the use of such force, unless the person against whom force was used is a law enforcement officer, as defined in s. 943.10(14), who was acting in the performance of his or her official duties and the officer identified himself or herself in accordance with any applicable law or the person using force knew or reasonably should have known that the person was a law enforcement officer. As used in this subsection, the term “criminal prosecution” includes arresting, detaining in custody, and charging or prosecuting the defendant.

http://appealattorneylaw.com/tag/section-776-032/


MORE:
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0776/0776.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/27/1078184/-Stand-Your-Ground-Law-PROHIBITS-Trayvon-s-Parents-from-Suing-Zimmerman-For-Wrongful-Death

[HooptieWagon]

1. They can sue the HOA, and likely will. nt

[-..__...]

9. Not sure about that.

Everything I've read stated that Zimmerman was a "self appointed neighborhood watch captain", and he had no official capacity or authority bestowed upon him by the HOA to act as such.

[HooptieWagon]

23. Not what Ive read.

I think some of the info here is incorrect. My understanding is that the HOA formed the neighborhood watch, and when they asked for a captain, Zimmerman volunteered. The NW did receive some instruction/training from the SPD... to what extent I dont know. I have read this in the pazt few days, but sorry, dont have a link.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

25. Read it again

Needs to be direct causality, which from what I have read is not there.

They can try...after all, it is the US court system

[orwell]

2. It is a very poorly written law.

By basing the decision to kill on reasonable belief it becomes subjective.

Do you want to trust your life to the fear of others?

No eyewitness = he/she said - he/she dead.

This is madness regardless of the laws application to this case.

[X_Digger]

4. 'Reasonableness' gets evaluated all the way up the legal ladder..

And is the standard in all such cases, SYG or not.

[orwell]

6. But SYG puts that burden on the officer on scene.

It does not go up the legal ladder.

[X_Digger]

7. No, that's not actually true..

There's nothing in the law that says officers can't investigate, or that DAs/State's Attorney's can't charge if they have probable cause (which is the standard everywhere, regardless of SYG.)

[uponit7771]

10. Doesn't SYG lower the bar for PC to what the person "felt" at the time in regards to their saftey?

TIA

[X_Digger]

12. That's a bit hyperbolic, but I can't fault a person for catching that meme..

It falls back on the same 'reasonableness' that's always been at issue in self-defense claims:

[div class='excerpt'] He or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony

Compare to California's law:

[div class='excerpt'] Homicide is also justifiable when committed by any person in any of the following cases:
1. When resisting any attempt to murder any person, or to commit a felony, or to do some great bodily injury upon any person; or,

Or New York:
[div class='excerpt'](a) He reasonably believes that such other person is using or about to use deadly physical force.
... or
(b) He reasonably believes that such other person is committing or attempting to commit a kidnapping, forcible rape, forcible sodomy or robbery


eta: pasted the wrong section, fixed.

eta: did it again, doh.

[Johnson20]

11. X Digger how dare you

Throw facts, reason and obvious experience and knowledge before the DU Kangoroo court.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

3. Thank you Marion Hammer.

You despicable little troll.

[TheCowsCameHome]

5. Isn't this interesting

A stupid law, and now this makes it even worse.

[Blue_Tires]

8. Can't you argue Zimmerman violated Martin's civil rights?

The sad part of it is I bet dollars to yen what happened that night has jackshit to do with the SYG law, but Zimmerman is hiding behind it because it's the only legal defense he has...

[saras]

13. Well, no. Zimmerman was the assailant, and Martin had the right to stand HIS ground.

There does need to be a thorough prosecution of corrupt and racist police before the Zimmerman trial can proceed, though. But if the police involved were charged with all the conspiracy, evidence tampering, and other charges they deserve, selective immunity for testimony against Zimmerman would be plentiful.

[Johnson20]

15. Saras can you factually prove any

of your allegations or do you have a reliable, credited source?

[moriah]

18. The 911 tape, sweetie.

Zimmerman's intent to catch and hold Trayvon for the police amounted to an attempt to falsely imprison him. Which is a felony.

And a person cannot claim self-defense when they are attempting a felony.

[Johnson20]

19. I see. are you sure the 911 tape

proves the police are "corrupt and racist",...conspired and tampered with evidence. You can prove that, or are you just making assumptions, honey.

[moriah]

21. I never said anything about corrupt or racist.

Maybe I misunderstood, I thought the allegations you were referring to were the allegation in the person's header that Trayvon had a right to stand his ground.

[Johnson20]

22. No not you moriah, saras

I apologies for the confusion. This topic has everyone's emotions boiling.

[ljm2002]

14. By my reading of the law...

...it applies equally (at least) to Trayvon:

"A person who is not engaged in an UNLawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.”

Trayvon was not engaged in unlawful activity, and had a right to be where he was. Therefore, he had no duty to retreat, and had the right to meet force with force. It seems to me that the SYG law cannot apply only to Zimmerman, regardless of what he claimed was a self defense action.

[Johnson20]

16. Maybe, but

we then would still not have any factual knowledge of what escalated the use of force. Maybe X Digger has some thoughts on force escalation.

Any advanced self-defence training goes into force escalation in some detail.

[Johnson20]

17. Oh and BTW thank you for presenting fact and a good question!!!!!n/t

[X_Digger]

20. I think it's going to come down to evidence (or witness testimony about) -- who grabbed / swung etc

If Zimmerman grabbed, tried to detain, tackled, or swung at Martin, then yes, Martin would have the same defense.

Zimmerman would be the aggressor, and possibly in the process of committing a forcible felony.

http://law.onecle.com/florida/crimes/776.041.html

I don't know if Zimmerman's following or confronting Martin would be legally 'stalking' or 'harassment', so until that first physical interaction, I think neither of them could use that defense.

[anti-alec]

24. SYG is not a valid argument from Zimmerman

It's still first degree murder, depraved indifference.

The grand jury will indict Zimmerman for that..

SYG has no foundation in the Constitution. All Second Amendment guarantees you the right to bear arms.

It does not mean bear guns. I can bear a stick and consider myself armed.