Stand Your Ground

[Rant]We all are aware of the Trayvon Martin killing and that the killer used the Florida “Stand your ground law as his defense. I don’t want to discuss the killing, but rather the law itself.

The major flaw that I see in the law is that the person killed cannot dispute the killing. The person who pulled the trigger can commit murder and just claim self-defense. There is no trial, no judge and no jury… the perpetrator only has to say he was in fear for his life.

As a trans-person, I could be coming out of a restaurant and be confronted by a person who attacks me because I’m trans, defend myself and the other person pulls out a gun and kills me. All he has to do is show his bruises from me protecting myself. I can’t argue otherwise because I’m dead. Far fetched you say.

'Stand your ground' law protects those who go far beyond that point
Tampa Bay Times
By Ben Montgomery
April 1, 2012

Since its passage in 2005, the "stand your ground'' law has protected people who have pursued another, initiated a confrontation and then used deadly force to defend themselves. Citing the law, judges have granted immunity to killers who put themselves in danger, so long as their pursuit was not criminal, so long as the person using force had a right to be there, and so long as he could convince the judge he was in fear of great danger or death.

The article goes on to say that there was over 140 cases where the killer initiated the confrontation. Here in Connecticut a person has to use every reasonable means available to retreat before using deadly force. I see that as being reasonable, you should have to use all your possibilities to avoid killing, deadly force should be your last choice. Killing should not your first choice, which the stand your ground law does.

The “Stand Your Ground” law does not make any sense. Florida is not the only state that has this law and it has been used many times to justify senseless killings. The article goes on to say,

In May, Carlos Catalan-Flores, 26, a security guard at a Tampa strip club called Flash Dancers, confronted men who were drinking beer in the parking lot. One of the men threw a beer bottle at Catalan-Flores' head and prepared to throw another. Rather than taking cover inside the club, or using his baton or pepper spray to protect himself, Catalan-Flores drew his weapon and began firing. Several of the six shots hit the man who threw the beer.
[…]
The court has even ruled that the statute can protect someone who shoots a retreating person. In overturning a ruling against Jimmy Hair, who shot a man who was retreating from a fight, a judge in Tallahassee wrote that the statute "makes no exception from the immunity when the victim is in retreat at the time the defensive force is employed."

I deplore the killing of Trayvon Martin, I condemn the law that allow senseless killings. Let us not just focus our anger at the murder of Trayvon Martin, but let us work to change the law that the killer hide behind.[/Rant]