Florida House Panel Rejects Stand Your Ground Repeal, Wants To Expand It Instead

BY NICOLE FLATOW/Think Progress

This summer, after the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, a group of protesters remained outside Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s (R) office for 31 days, demanding that he call a special session to repeal the Stand Your Ground law. Scott said he wouldn’t call lawmakers back to the capitol, but House Speaker Will Weatherford agreed to hold a hearing on a repeal bill in the fall.

On Thursday, after five hours of emotional testimony, the House’s Criminal Justice Subcommittee wholly rejected the repeal bill by a vote of 11-2, and voted in favor of a bill to expand Stand Your Ground-like immunity to those who fire or brandish a gun.

Among the speakers was Lucia McBath, the mother of 17-year-old Jordan Davis, shot dead in purported self-defense after a disagreement at a Jacksonville gas station. “My grief is unbearable at times,” she told more than 300 attendees. “I’m here as a face of the countless victims of gun violence.”

But as the Orlando Sentinel wrote in August, this outcome was a “foregone conclusion” in the conservative Florida House, particularly after Weatherford selected Rep. Matt Gaetz (R) to preside over the hearing. Gaetz is not just a stark opponent of the bill who has said from the start he would not support changing “one damn comma” of the law. He is also known as a pugnacious, social media-savvy legislator who, the Miami Herald reports, “has sponsored (and passed) some of the most conservative legislation in a conservative-dominated Legislature.”

Last year, Gov. Scott participated in a similar “farce” when he agreed to review the law in the wake of Trayvon Martin’s death. After a six-month review, a task force stacked by Scott with supporters of the bill recommended that the law remain largely the same, without even considering several studies that found these laws are associated with a significant increase in homicides, have a disproportionate impact on African Americans, and do not appear to deter crime at all.

While the committee vote halts the Stand Your Ground repeal movement in Florida for now, another bill that garnered overwhelming 12-1 committee support will move forward. The NRA-backed bill expands Stand Your Ground-like immunity to those who brandish or fire guns in self-defense. It has been marketed as a “warning shot bill,” capitalizing on outrage over a 20-year prison term for Marissa Alexander, who is serving a mandatory minimum sentence after firing a warning shot during a dispute with her abusive husband. But while Alexander’s conviction and sentence have been panned across the ideological spectrum as exemplifying overly punitive sentencing, racial disparity, and insensitivity to domestic abuse, the bill passed by the House Committee does much more than exempt Alexander’s conduct from such harsh punishment. In addition to giving judges some more discretion to depart from mandatory minimum sentences in the 10-20-Life law behind Alexander’s sentence, the bill expands immunity for violent conduct in as vague and sweeping a manner as Florida’s existing Stand Your Ground law, and could represent the newest mechanism for encouraging even more vigilantism.

At Stand Your Ground Hearing, Ted Cruz Argues Florida Law Helps African-Americans

BY REBECCA LEBER/Think Progress

With Trayvon Martin’s mother sitting just across from him, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) claimed that Stand Your Ground is beneficial for African-Americans. At the Tuesday Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing, Cruz claimed, “In Florida, the data show that African-American defendants have availed themselves of the Stand Your Ground law more frequently than Anglo defendants.” Indirectly citing a Daily Caller story that said black defendants were successful in 55 percent of fatal cases compared to 53 percent of whites, Cruz said this “isn’t about inflaming racial tensions though some might try to use it to do that.”

Shortly after Cruz described Stand Your Ground as protecting innocent victims from violent aggressors, Sybrina Fulton and Lucia McBath, the mothers of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis, delivered emotional testimony about their murdered children.

GOP witness John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, also argued Cruz’s point at length. “Poor blacks who live in high-crime urban areas are not only the most likely victims of crime, they are also the ones who benefit the most from Stand Your Ground laws,” he said according to prepared testimony. Later, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he found Lott’s argument “compelling,” and that he did not see how the law “has a racial injustice about it.”

This is an oversimplified, if not misleading, portrayal of the racial disparity in Stand Your Ground. It looks only at the rate of successful Florida claims based on the shooter’s race, which indeed is slightly higher for black shooters than white shooters.

By no means does this mean blacks “benefit” under the law.

A report from the Congressional Research Service on inter-racial shootings nationwide shows disparity at work. Without looking specifically at Stand Your Ground, CRS found a clear racial disparity in shootings that were ruled to be justified, as well as an increase in cases of justifiable white-on-black homicides after states began enacting the ALEC model legislation in 2005. According tothe report, white-on-black shootings were considered justified far more often than black-on-white shootings.

The same data that Florida Cruz cited also shows that killers are far more likely to go free when their victims are black. In those cases with black or Hispanic victims, the killings were found justified by the Stand Your Ground law 78 percent of the time, compared to 56 percent in cases with white victims. The racial disparity among victims has also been confirmed by other studies, like the Urban Institute’s finding that in Stand Your Ground states, white-on-black homicides are 354 percent more likely to be ruled justified than white-on-white homicides.

Florida Court Grants New Trial To Woman Serving 20 Years For Firing Warning Shot

BY NICOLE FLATOW/Think Progress

A Florida court has granted a new trial to a woman sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot during an altercation with her abusive husband.

Marissa Alexander’s sentence sparked national outrage over the perverse outcomes from mandatory minimum sentences and Stand Your Ground laws. A judge rejected Alexander’s Stand Your Ground argument that she was justified in firing the warning shot to protect herself. She was then convicted by a jury of aggravated assault, and sentenced to Florida’s mandatory minimum 20-year prison term for that offense. She is serving that sentence now.

In a decision issued Thursday, an appeals panel upheld the judge’s Stand Your Ground decision, but held that the instructions to the jury on self-defense were improper. The instructions wrongly stated that Alexander had to prove her fear of aggravated battery beyond a reasonable doubt, and improperly included an instruction about injury when there definitively was no injury caused by Alexander’s action, the court held.

Many have pointed to Alexander’s case as an example of inconsistent application of Stand Your Ground laws. While the laws that authorize use of deadly force in self-defense have led to acquittals or no charges for many male aggressors whose gunshots were fatal, Alexander was not successful in invoking the law for much less force, and in one of the few prominent cases that involves allegations of domestic violence. The judge’s failure to allow the claim comports with studies that have shown the ALEC and NRA-backed laws are discriminatory and applied arbitrarily.

But the facts of the scenario that led to Alexander’s conviction remain in dispute, including in the appeals court decision. While the three-judge panel agreed that Alexander’s gunshot did not hit or injure anyone, and that her husband had been abusive in the past, they write separate opinions to give differing versions of the threat Alexander faced that night. Two judges assert in the majority opinion that Alexander was unsuccessful in escaping the house, grabbed a gun, and fired the gun after her husband said, “Bitch, I’ll kill you” at the end of aggressive questioning over whether her newborn baby was fathered by another man. Judge T. Kent Wetherell II’s concurring opinion questions that version of the facts and points out that other conflicting testimony suggests Alexander could have left the house, and aimed the at her husband, standing with her two step-children, before firing the warning shot.

The disputed facts are difficult to parse. Alexander did not call 911 after the incident, while her husband and children fled the home. But experts testified that Alexander was suffering from battered person’s syndrome, and her husband had been arrested twice for battery charges against other women.

But unlike other Stand Your Ground defendants, who needed the NRA-backed law to authorize them to use deadly force with no duty to retreat, Alexander was not facing murder charges or even battery charges. She was facing the much lesser charge of aggravated assault, an offense that is easier to prove than homicide. This is why many have pointed to the mandatory minimum 20-year sentence that eliminates the judge’s discretion as the problem in this case. Thursday’s decision reveals that another problem was improper jury instructions on the ordinary self-defense claim — a claim that should be more than adequate for a woman who perceived domestic violence without the option of Stand Your Ground.

For 200 Hours And Counting, Sit-In At Florida Capitol Demands Stand Your Ground Repeal

By Rebecca Leber/Think Progress

For more than eight days, a group of activists and students organized by the Dream Defendershave occupied the Florida Capitol, right outside Florida Governor Rick Scott’s (R) office. The activists say they plan to occupy the Capitol until the governor calls a special session to review the state’s Stand Your Ground law, racial profiling, and the school-to-prison pipeline, and consider what they call the Trayvon Martin Act. But after meeting with the protesters last week, Scott announced he has no intention to review Stand Your Ground, which played a role in jury deliberations that led to George Zimmerman’s acquittal.

“That’s very disappointing on our part,” Dream Defenders legal and policy director Ahmad Abuznaid told ThinkProgress. “We are attempting to get Governor Rick Scott and the state leadership here to be real leaders and so far they have not stepped up to the plate. So far, we have decided to hold our own legislative session to show them how it’s done.”

Next Tuesday, Dream Defenders plan mock legislative sessions where civic leaders and juvenile experts will weigh the pros and cons of Trayvon’s law.

Their support is only building. From the sit-in’s first days of around 30 protesters, the number has grown to between 60 to 100 participants at peak times, according to Abuznaid. Now, they are attracting national attention, as groups from Baltimore, Philly, and New York, as well as Florida Democrats, bring supporters and supplies.

One of Dream Defenders’ main goals is to repeal Stand Your Ground, which worsens the effects of racial bias in criminal justice. For example, white defendants who shot a black person and invoked Stand Your Ground were 11 times more likely to go unpunished as black defendants who shot a white person.

Beyond Stand Your Ground, the group is fighting for policies that end zero tolerance in the justice system for minority youth, including a civil citation program statewide that issues tickets over jailtime for first-time offenders. Miami Dade has implemented it, and activists want to see a broader application. “Its’ not enough,” Abuznaid said. “Improving one county is not enough and it’s not successful. If that was a grade in school, 1 in 67, [Scott] would be failing.”

But Scott is unlikely to budge on these issues. Having played a pivotal role in protecting Stand Your Ground, Scott has deferred to the conclusion of the task force he appointed last year to keep the American Legislative Exchange Council-sponsored law. “Look, this thing should not be politicized,” Scott said last Thursday. “I mean, we lost a 17-year-old young man in our state.”

Stevie Wonder To Stop Performing In Florida And Other Stand Your Ground States

By Alyssa Rosenberg /Think Progress

At a concert in Quebec on Sunday, following the verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, musician Stevie Wonder made a pledge to his audience: that he won’t perform in states or countries that have Stand Your Ground laws or their equivalents on the books.

“The truth is that, for those that are being lost in the battle for justice, wherever that fits in any part of the world, we can’t bring them back. What we can do is we can let our voices be heard, and we can vote in our various countries throughout the world for change and for equality for everybody,” he told the audience. “That’s what I know we can do. And I know I’m not everybody, I’m just one person, I’m a human being. But for the gift that God has given me, and for whatever I mean, I decided today that until the Stand Your Ground law is abolished in Florida, I will never perform there again. As a matter of fact, wherever I find that law exists, I will not perform in that state or in that part of the world.”

The whole video is available here:

Wonder’s decision not to play in states that have a law on the books that he finds objectionable has precedent. In 1991, he declined to play concerts in Arizona after the state refused to recognize Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, and the National Football League rescinded plans to play the Super Bowl in the state for the same reason, actions that ultimately lead to a reversal of Arizona policy. More recently, in response to Arizona’s passage of SB1070, an immigration law that would have required immigrants to carry papers documenting their status, required law enforcement officers to check on suspects’ documentation status even during minor infractions like routine traffic stops, and imposed penalties on people who provided aid or shelter to undocumented immigrants, a number of musicians decided not to play the state. The action, known as SoundStrike, was organized by Rage Against The Machine’s Zack de la Rocha, and artists including Kanye West, Los Tigres del Norte, and Nine Inch Nails all signed up. Much of SB 1070 was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2012, so it’s hard to tell how much SoundStrike mattered. But there’s no question that refusing to play a state can reinforce the idea that a place is backward or out of touch with the rest of the norms in the rest of the country.

And Wonder’s decision not to play Stand Your Ground states could also help personalize the reaction to the law, and not just by denying music lovers a chance to see the artists that they love. Just as Los Tigres del Norte explained that playing in Arizona would expose them and their fans to racial profiling, Wonder would be justified in arguing that Stand Your Ground laws pose danger to himself, his crew, and his audience. After soul musician Lester Chambers was assaulted on stage for dedicating a song to Trayvon Martin, it’s not unreasonable for musicians, particularly those without Wonder’s profile and security, to consider whether or not they might face threats or violence at smaller venues. And even more specifically, it’s perfectly reasonable for musicians of all profiles to worry about a law that might make it harder to convict someone who attacked them, a member of their band or crew, or someone in their audience.

Knowing you have the protection of the law is an important part of the working conditions you’re willing to accept, and for someone like Wonder, whose work is highly mobile, being clear about where you’re willing to draw the line is a useful thing to do. Not everyone has that luxury, but it’s great that Wonder’s willing to take some financial hits to speak up for those who have less ability to exit the states where they live and work in response to laws that make them feel unsafe. Now let’s just hope that with Wonder providing the cultural capital, Michael Bloomberg providing money through Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the the immense hunger for productive action that gnaws at so many of us in the wake of the Zimmerman verdict, this can be a moment of positive mobilization for the people in Florida who don’t have Wonder’s options, rather than simply disgust and surrender.

Report: States With Stand Your Ground Laws See More Homicides

By Rebecca Leber/Think Progress

Florida’s Stand Your Ground law and others like it have gained notoriety since the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin and a number of other similar cases. The laws, which exist in two dozen states, give gun-holders more authority to shoot and kill in self-defense and police wide latitude for interpretation.

Over a 10-year period there was an 8 percent increase in homicides in the states that passed Stand Your Ground laws, according to new research from Texas A&M University. The law did not deter burglary, robbery or assault either.

As to why this is the case, economist Mark Hoekstra told NPR that Stand Your Groundencourages more lethal force by lowering its costs:

“One possibility for the increase in homicide is that perhaps [in cases where] there would have been a fistfight … now, because of stand your ground laws, it’s possible that those escalate into something much more violent and lethal.”

In some instances the National Rifle Association has literally subsidized this cost by handling perpetrators’ legal bills in Stand Your Ground cases.

‘Stand your ground’ cited in shooting of whiny Little Caesars Pizza customer

By David Edwards/Raw Story

A Florida man is using the state’s “stand your ground” law as a defense after he shot a customer who was complaining about slow service at a St. Petersburg Little Caesars Pizza restaurant.

Randall White, 49, was in line waiting for his pizza on Sunday when he began complaining that he wasn’t being served fast enough. According to the Tampa Bay Times, 52-year-old Michael Jock was also in line and scolded White for whining.

The two began arguing and it eventually “became a shoving match,” police spokesperson Mike Puetz said.

After White allegedly raised his fist, Jock pulled out a .38 Taurus Ultralight Special Revolver and fired a shot into the man’s torso. A second shot also hit White in the torso. One round became lodged in the restaurant wall.

When police arrived, Jock told them that the shooting had been justified under Florida’s “stand your ground” law, which says that gun owners do not have a “duty to retreat.”

“He felt he was in his rights,” Puetz explained. “He brought it up specifically and cited it to the officer.”

Jock, who had a concealed-carry permit, told police that White had an object in his hand, but later abandoned that story under police questioning.

“We determined it did not reach a level where deadly force was required,” Puetz said.

Jock was arrested by St. Petersburg Police and charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and shooting at, within or into a building. He was released by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office after posting $20,000 bond.

White later told the Tampa Bay Times that he felt lucky just to be alive.

“There are arguments every day, but how many people pull out a gun?” he observed. “He was in my face and I pushed him. His life was not being threatened.”

White admitted that he had been agitated when he started complaining that his thin-crust vegetable pizza had taken more than the 10 minutes the restaurant promised.

“Twenty minutes later, I’m like, ‘Where’s my pizza?’” White recalled, adding that he still had a bullet fragment in his back but he “got lucky.”

“To me, that stand your ground rule … people are twisting it. He’s twisting it. I walked in to get a pizza and I got shot … I’m hoping the law prevails. We’ll see.”

Marion Hammer: The NRA Lobbyist Behind Florida's Stand Your Ground Legislation

By Chris Brown/media matters

Following the tragic shooting of Trayvon Martin troubling questions about the role of Florida's "Stand Your Ground" legislation have emerged. The legislation expanded the circumstances in which people can claim use of deadly force was defensive, which some in the media have suggested could undermine an effort to prosecute Martin's killer George Zimmerman. Sanford, Florida's police chief has said that because Zimmerman claimed self-defense, under that statute he could not be arrested.  

No figure has done more to promote the gun lobby's push to expand the boundaries of the legal use of deadly force than former NRA president and chief Florida lobbyist Marion Hammer, who was the force behind the passage of Florida's statute. Martin's death hasn't caused her to rethink the wisdom of "Stand Your Ground." On Tuesday, she told the Palm Beach Post that Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) would "waste time" if he were review the legislation:

NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer, who pushed for the law, agreed [with Rep. Dennis Baxley's defense of the bill]. She said the call for action is premature, because the law allows an arrest to take place after an investigation. "So for law enforcement to rush to judgment just because they are being stampeded by emotionalism would be a violation of law," she said.

"This law is not about one incident. It's about protecting the right of law-abiding people to protect themselves when they are attacked. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the law. And if the governor wants to waste time looking at it he can knock himself out." 

Hammer isn't just any NRA lobbyist. According to the NRA, Hammer "exemplifies activism" to the extent the organization annually gives out a "Marion P. Hammer Woman Of Distinction Award." Beyond her support for what critics have dubbed "shoot first laws," Hammer has expressed extremist positions and used inflammatory rhetoric during other legislative battles.

In 2005 Hammer successfully pushed "Stand Your Ground" through the Florida legislature, which was then the first state in the nation to pass such legislation. During the debate over the bill's passage, she repeatedly mocked opponents for engaging in "hysterics." The NRA's chief lobbyist Chris Cox was quick to credit Hammer's lobbying effort. In the NRA's American Hunter magazine Cox wrote:

Thanks in no small part to the tireless efforts of our own former President Marion P. Hammer, law-abiding Floridians may now stand their ground and defend themselves against attack by violent criminals without fear of criminal prosecution or civil lawsuit. 

Later that year, Hammer presented Florida's legislation before a task force of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC subsequently adopted Florida's bill as model legislation which they promoted throughout the country using their network of conservative state legislators. The effort was quite successful. According to the Legal Community Against Gun Violence, 24 states currently have "Florida-style" laws, with seven others having similar laws that allow expanded self-defense claims in specified locations. 
Hammer's lobby efforts also attracted controversy last year as she successfully pushed NRA-authored Florida legislation that prohibited pediatricians from asking their patients about guns kept in their homes. The bill muzzled the ability of doctors to ask children and their parents about gun safety issues such as proper storage and other issues related to children's access to guns. Hammer objected complaining that pediatrician questions about guns constituted "privacy intrusions." The original version of the bill "fined physicians up to $5 million and sentenced them to up to five years in prison" before the Florida legislature made amendments.

Health care experts warned the bill would result in "more children injured and killed from firearms." In September U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke, an appointee of George W. Bush, blocked enforcement of Hammer's doctor gun-related gag order on First Amendment grounds. 

Other controversial actions by Hammer have been documented by MeetTheNRA.org, a website maintained by the Educational Fund To Stop Gun Violence.  Hammer has pushed to allow guns on university campuses and keep them from being banned in hospitals and nursing homes. In 1996, Hammer joked in a New York Times profile that a possible solution to ending the gun debate was to "get rid of all liberals."

Hammer's push against closing loopholes in Florida's concealed carry law demonized opponents as "a modern-day Gestapo movement." From MeetTheNRA.org:

 

In 1988, Hammer distributed a newsletter to members of the Unified Sportsmen of Florida--an NRA affiliate organization--accusing state legislators who favored closing loopholes in a concealed carry law of supporting "a modern-day Gestapo movement." One of the loopholes the legislation sought to correct allowed violent individuals to possess firearms pending a criminal judgment. Republican State Senator John Grant called for Hammer's resignation and said, "I think Marion Hammer has lost any effectiveness that she might have or any credibility she might have with legislators on both sides of the issue." Republican State Senator Malcolm Beard added, "I never have been for gun control. But this letter from a lobbyist is filled with half-truths." The Republican Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Criminal Committee, Bob Johnson, said Hammer possessed, "the lowest standard of integrity I have ever seen for a lobbyist in Tallahassee."

Stand your ground law stirs national outcry

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Opponents Of Florida’s 2005 ‘Stand Your Ground’ Law Predicted ‘Racially Motivated Killings’

By Judd Legum/Think Progress





SANFORD, FL — Nearly one month after shooting and killing Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman remains a free man. The Sanford Police maintain that Zimmerman’s conduct was legally justified under Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” legislation, enacted in 2005. The law eliminated the duty to avoid a confrontation and authorized the use of deadly force if there is a “reasonable belief” it is necessary to “prevent death or great bodily harm.”

Since the shooting on February 26, facts have emerged that suggest there may have been a racial element to Zimmerman’s violent conduct against a 17-year-old African-American. Zimmerman called the police to report Martin’s “suspicious” behavior, which he described as “just walking around looking about.” Zimmerman was a very frequent caller to 911, almost always reporting young black men.

Seven years ago, opponents of the “Stand Your Ground” legislation predicted it could lead to racially motivated killings. From Reuters, April 2005:

“For a House that talks about the culture of life it’s ironic that we would be devaluing life in this bill,” said Democratic state Rep. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach. “That’s exactly what we’re doing.” [...]

Critics say the measure could lead to racially motivated killings and promote deadly escalations of arguments.

“All this bill will do is sell more guns and possibly turn Florida into the OK Corral,” said Democratic state Rep. Irv Slosberg of Boca Raton. 

These objections, apparently, did not persuade Rep. Dennis Baxley, the bill’s chief sponsor and someone who hasn’t show a great deal of empathy for racial sensitivities in the past.

Baxley is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and has advocated for the production of a Florida license plate honoring “Confederate Heritage.” He also argued against removing a racial slur from the Florida state song.

Regarding his advocacy on behalf of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Baxley has said he is primarily concerned with preserving the state’s history. Speaking of his push for a Confederate license plate, Baxley said, “I hope it will be seen in the proper light. There has to be something done to preserve history, or there won’t be any history left to preserve.” He also noted that he sponsored legislation to create a license plate honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

After Trayvon Martin’s death, Baxley has continued to adamantly defend the law.