Free Republic

Since George Zimmerman’s exoneration, Stand Your Ground laws have been under attack. President Obama injected race into the discussion by referring to the “pain” the black community feels over the Zimmerman verdict, and by claiming that the outcome would have been different had Trayvon Martin been white. Speaking at the NAACP convention, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder claimed Stand Your Ground laws “undermine public safety” and “sow dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods.” Both want these enhanced self-defense laws “reviewed.” (Read: “repealed.”) This rhetoric culminated in state Representative Alan Williams sponsoring a bill to repeal Florida’s Stand Your Ground.Wildly misleading...

I write this letter intending no disrespect concerning other comments about the Zimmerman trial or self-defense laws including Stand Your Ground. But, as Mr. Grossman correctly noted to his credit, these issues are being hotly debated and he invited further discussion. Other Longboat Key News readers seem to agree. The merit of such discussion, however, requires some correction of misunderstandings or inaccuracies. With all due respect, it cannot reasonably be claimed or implied that the man with the gun has all the rights and no responsibilities; that self-defense rights are not subject to restraints; that Zimmerman’s self-defense right was altered...

Attorneys for a Titusville man accused of shooting three people during a neighborhood feud say the charges against him should be dismissed under Florida's "stand your ground" law. William T. Woodward's attorneys say he'd been the target of threats and was exercising his right under the state's law to defend himself on Sept. 3, 2012.

First of a series: In addition to the several columns already published here, over the next few weeks, in a special series The Black Star News will review the George Zimmerman case to analyze what happened and to question: why did this killer of Trayvon Martin escape justice in Florida? Was the case against Mr. Zimmerman doomed from the time Florida’s Stand Your Ground law was invoked—especially, since the victim was an African-American who fits the profile of those deemed "the usual suspect" criminals? To begin analyzing this case, let’s first go back to the awful night of February 26,...

Times like these test the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.’s powerful pronouncement that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Trayvon Martin’s shooting death by George Zimmerman’s gun, the difficulty with which he was brought to trial and his subsequent acquittal on all charges have justifiably generated a maelstrom of anger and confusion. These events clearly constitute a deep miscarriage of justice. What is less clear is whether this miscarriage operates only in an especially unmistakable corner of the realm of immorality, a place which is deeply unsatisfying for its formal unenforceability. The public...

Domino’s employee Bryon Park, 54, had just returned to his vehicle after delivering a pizza to a room in a Days Inn motel in West Melbourne, Fla., about midnight Friday when Fredrick Lorenza Kelly Jr., 32, approached him with a large knife, the Brevard Times reports. Kelly allegedly threatened to kill Park if he didn’t hand over money. A police official reports Park grabbed a gun he carries in his vehicle and fired once toward Kelly, who was later pronounced dead at the scene, the Times reports. “Preliminary evidence in the case demonstrates that the intended victim of the...

An overwhelming number of Florida legislators have rejected a call for a special session to repeal the state's "stand your ground" law. The Department of State on Tuesday released a final tally. It showed 108 legislators voted against the special session while 47 voted for it. Four legislators didn't vote.... The vote was split largely along partisan lines. Seven Democrats joined with Republicans in voting no.

As a resident of Florida, I had the strange experience of hearing fairly accurate, or at least un-embellished, reports of the Trayvon Martin incident for a day or two before the national media B.S. steamroller got moving – transforming George Zimmerman into a white (later “white Hispanic”) gun nut from a posh “gated community” who hunted down an apple-cheeked 12-year-old black boy and murdered him for sport. There’s no big mystery behind why the national media got so much of this story wrong. They tend to reflexively believe stories that fit into their pre-fabricated narratives, and they accept reports from...

Weeks have passed since George Zimmerman was acquitted of killing Trayvon Martin in mid-July, but a group of young activists known as the Dream Defenders only recently ended their occupation of the state capitol building in Tallahassee, where they called for a special session of the legislature to repeal Florida's so-called "stand your ground" (SYG) law, confront racial profiling, and end the school-to-prison pipeline. They were right to do so for four main reasons: •the "stand your ground" law is badly flawed, and the evidence is overwhelming; •it was directly implicated in Zimmerman's acquittal, even though Zimmerman's lawyers did not...

With the Trayvon Martin shooting still fresh in their minds, opponents of an effort to make Ohio the newest “stand your ground” state are circulating petitions and preparing for a fight when state lawmakers return. Members of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus have been hosting rallies and circulating petitions at churches and businesses, looking to create grassroots opposition to House Bill 203, a gun bill that includes a “stand your ground” provision. County prosecutors and a variety of law-enforcement groups also oppose the provision, which would eliminate an Ohio law requiring a person to retreat before using deadly force in...

RIVERVIEW, FL - Hillsborough County detectives are investigating a domestic related fatal shooting at an apartment complex in Brandon. Authorities say they received a 9-1-1 call around 6 a.m. this morning indicating a man had been shot during a violent domestic altercation at the Sherwood Forest apartments at 10103 Sherwood Lane. When deputies arrived they found a man shot to death and two women with facial injuries that apparently occurred during a fight with the man. Officials say their preliminary information indicates that the man who was shot, showed up at his girlfriends apartment, forced his way in to her...

There is no question that George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin. There is no question that things would have ended better if Zimmerman had heeded counsel from 911 personnel and restrained himself from following Martin into the bowels of the residential complex. There is no question that Zimmerman had juiced himself into fear and hysteria on the speculation that Martin was “on something” and was necessarily “up to no good,” but a bag of Skittles and a can of Arizona iced tea is hardly loot from a terminating burglary. However, there is big contention about what happened when Zimmerman caught up...

TALLAHASSEE — After sitting in at the Florida Capitol for 31 days — since just after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin — the group called the Dream Defenders ended its protest Thursday with the help of civil-rights icon Julian Bond. Leaders said they'll carry their campaign against the "stand your ground" self-defense law and what they consider other forms of racial bias to the polls, trying to defeat the elected officials who opposed their demands. That includes Gov. Rick Scott, who is up for re-election next year. The Dream Defenders announced a voter-registration drive,...

DETROIT (WJBK) - Michigan's "stand your ground" law is practically the same as the Florida law, and there are a lot of people hoping that a review leads to it being repealed. However, we spoke with one Detroit man who said "stand your ground" quite possibly saved his life and without a doubt kept him out of prison. "If it wasn't for [the] 'stand your ground' law, right now I would be in jail, and my life could've been taken at that point," said Darrell Standberry. It happened nearly two years ago, but Standberry remembers like it was yesterday the...

Stand Your Ground: A big hypocrite in the IRS scandal targeting Tea Party groups sets his sights on a conservative think tank, asking its suspected supporters: "Are you now or have you ever been a conservative?" Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin is on a witch hunt that threatens anew the free speech rights of Americans who don't hold his views or those of the Obama administration. This time he has targeted the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a group of state legislators who promote free markets, limited government and federalism, ahead of a "stand your ground" hearing Durbin announced after George...

Florida Sit-In Against ‘Stand Your Ground’ By LIZETTE ALVAREZ TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The college and high school students arranged themselves in the colonial-style chairs and on the green carpet, a portrait of the state’s Old Capitol building above them, as they exchanged stories about their lives and the travails of the “black and brown youth” in Florida. One young woman whose parents were both drug addicts spoke about how she had defied the odds; she will graduate from college next year. A young man mentioned that he was one of the few in his family who had not ended up...

Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin is facing a firestorm of criticism after sending letters to hundreds of organizations trying to find out the depth of their relationship with the American Legislative Exchange Council. The senator’s interest in ALEC is based on the stand your ground legislation that has become a focal point for liberal activists and lawmakers after the George Zimmerman trial in Florida. But his hometown newspaper, The Chicago Tribune, editorialized that the inquiries looked like “Durbin’s enemies list.” In the August 6 letter sent to think tanks and corporations, Durbin wrote, “I am seeking clarification whether organizations that...

For Immediate Release FSA President, Sheriff Grady Judd, today announced, “The right to self-defense is well-established in law.  The Florida Sheriffs confirmed this position by voting unanimously, at the 2013 Florida Sheriffs Association Summer Conference, to support the Stand Your Ground law as it is currently written.  Our current judicial system is comprised of multiple checks and balances to ensure fair and equitable application of all laws, including Stand Your Ground.”  Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity, and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a...

Across the country, laws that pertain to the use of deadly force have come under scrutiny in the wake of the George Zimmerman trial, but not all the laws are the same. That is why Indiana’s law likely won’t be changing any time soon. Indiana does have legislation in the Indiana Code that would be considered “Stand Your Ground.” It means that a person in Indiana does not have a “duty to retreat” and is allowed to use deadly force in certain scenarios. Indiana’s legislation is different than Florida’s in a few key areas, but it also shares a lot...

Two different conservative organizations with whom we’ve got contacts have received letters from Sen. Dick Durbin’s office today which look an awful lot like the actions that precipitated the IRS scandal. Apparently there’s a massive fishing expedition afoot. This came to the our buddy Kevin Kane at the Pelican Institute… Dear Mr. Kane, I write to seek information regarding your organization’s position on “stand your ground” legislation that was adopted as a national model by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).