Sunday, July 14, 2013

Stand Your Ground in Florida - Unless You're Black

A (Black) Florida Mom has just been awarded a 20-year prison sentence - yes, you read it right, 20 years - for firing warning shots at an abusive husband. This despite invoking Florida's infamous Stand-Your-Ground law which allows the victim of an ongoing crime (which can simply be feeling threatened) to immediately retaliate with lethal force in self-defense, instead of having to first attempt to run for safety and resort to violence only when all possibilities of escape have been exhausted. 

How does this square with the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case, where the guy who trailed and killed a 17 year old black kid - simply because he thought the kid wearing a hoodie was looking suspicious - was acquitted?? In the Martin case, the shooter also invoked the Stand-Your-Ground law and won! Maybe it's just a coincidence that in both cases the law's been interpreted to the detriment of black protagonists.

But it seems to me that in  Florida the stand-your-ground law applies to black people only if they're the person facing a gun not holding one.

1 comment:

Blue said...

Law has many loopholes...to convict a person you have to be absolutely sure and dnt knw if it was negligence on part of medical examiner, prosecutor or investigating officers that crucial evidence against the culpritwas missing. Moreover, what surprised me was an all women jury...an all women jury?with just one black n rest white females...decision came as anticipated !