08-02-2013, 11:14 AM
Florida: Speaker of the House open to SYG revisions
This is a good piece about why lawmakers in Florida should consider revisiting SYG laws in the state, despite the heavy gun-owner and NRA influence there. Not repeal, just revisit and amend.
Florida House Speaker (Republican) Matt Reed has made a public statement that he's open to doing so. The article cites examples of cases where the SYG law protected shooters from what seem to be very clear cases of manslaughter, at least, due to the difficulty in disproving the "reasonableness" of an individual's fear.
Snip:
Florida’s stand-your-ground law needs improvement — though not repeal — for the sake of fairness, safety and credibility with a public it was meant to protect. It needs change, regardless of the George Zimmerman case or any protests that followed.
As written and interpreted, the stand-your-ground law gives greater weight to a shooters’ convenience than to life itself. It bars police from detaining killers who claim self-defense, undermining investigations and the system’s credibility.
It immunizes shooters from civil wrongful-death lawsuits, even if they recklessly shoot bystanders or fire from a distance at someone running away. Courts must presume shooters’ claims of fear were “reasonable” and have cited the law in freeing suspects who should have faced charges.
Whose values could those conditions possibly represent? No one I know.
Fortunately, the Republican speaker from Wesley Chapel said Tuesday he is open to change.
“I think there’s been some misapplication of the law,” Weatherford told the Tampa Tribune. “To me, there’s nowhere in that ‘stand- your-ground law’ that says the aggressor who physically starts an altercation then has the right to claim self-defense.”
No, Mr. Speaker, it doesn’t specifically say so. But combined with case law and other Florida statutes, that’s just what this law has done.
Full story:
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/2013...ground-law
This is a good piece about why lawmakers in Florida should consider revisiting SYG laws in the state, despite the heavy gun-owner and NRA influence there. Not repeal, just revisit and amend.
Florida House Speaker (Republican) Matt Reed has made a public statement that he's open to doing so. The article cites examples of cases where the SYG law protected shooters from what seem to be very clear cases of manslaughter, at least, due to the difficulty in disproving the "reasonableness" of an individual's fear.
Snip:
Florida’s stand-your-ground law needs improvement — though not repeal — for the sake of fairness, safety and credibility with a public it was meant to protect. It needs change, regardless of the George Zimmerman case or any protests that followed.
As written and interpreted, the stand-your-ground law gives greater weight to a shooters’ convenience than to life itself. It bars police from detaining killers who claim self-defense, undermining investigations and the system’s credibility.
It immunizes shooters from civil wrongful-death lawsuits, even if they recklessly shoot bystanders or fire from a distance at someone running away. Courts must presume shooters’ claims of fear were “reasonable” and have cited the law in freeing suspects who should have faced charges.
Whose values could those conditions possibly represent? No one I know.
Fortunately, the Republican speaker from Wesley Chapel said Tuesday he is open to change.
“I think there’s been some misapplication of the law,” Weatherford told the Tampa Tribune. “To me, there’s nowhere in that ‘stand- your-ground law’ that says the aggressor who physically starts an altercation then has the right to claim self-defense.”
No, Mr. Speaker, it doesn’t specifically say so. But combined with case law and other Florida statutes, that’s just what this law has done.
Full story:
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/2013...ground-law