Digging under the hood of the Florida Stand your ground law

A white man shoots his wife’s lover in the back when he caught them in his living room in march 2013. His defense? He thought the lover was raping his wife. He used the Stand your ground law as defense.

Three yrs ago a black woman aimed her gun away from her physically abusive husband and fired a shot in the air. The husband testified he used to repeatedly assault his 5 ft 2 wife. That she did NOT aim gun at him. That she did what she had to do to protect herself. She used stand your ground law. And she was sentenced to 20 years. She was told she could have fled.

Sometimes there are no two sides. One side is wrong.

Daily Kos: Stand Your Ground? Black Woman Fires Shot Gets 20 Years - White Man Kills And Goes Free - WTF

re: Digging under the hood of the Florida Stand your ground law

Mods could you change gun to ground in title? Thanks!

Re: Digging under the hood of the Florida Stand your ground law

Is There Racial Bias in “Stand Your Ground” Laws? | Criminal Justice | FRONTLINE | PBS

Re: Digging under the hood of the Florida Stand your ground law

Wrong examples i think. In the first case when husband came home, his wife was with lover, she yelled rape rape, so her husband shot her lover who was escaping the house.

Anyways, anyone who threatens and points gun at others to harass, not for self defense, vendetta, robbery etc should face the consequences. That also includes shooting in air to intimidate someone. As bad as it may sound but wife is wrong here unless she did it for self defense. if he beats her regularly then he should face charges for that but no one has right to threaten him with the gun.

Re: Digging under the hood of the Florida Stand your ground law

Here is another link re the guy who shot his wife’s lover. An excerpt that may be relevant.

Detectives said that when Wald phoned 911 he said he shot a man who had been “fornicating” with his wife, failing to ever mention the word “rape.”

“If the same thing happened again, I would do the same thing,” Wald said on the stand. “I didn’t think I did anything wrong. I had a problem, I found someone raping my wife. I took care of it. I got a gun and I shot him.”

Stand-Your-Ground law acquits Florida man who killed wife’s lover ? RT USA

And here is excerpt about the black lady. Yes she was a domestic abuse victim. Repeatedly. By her own husbands admission. And the kicker - she gets 20 yrs. That seems fair.

"Three years ago after a 31-year old mother of three, Marissa Alexander, acted in self-defense killing and injuring no one, she received a 20-year conviction. Within 12 minutes, the jury found her guilty of aggravated assault, even though her estranged abusive husband admitted in his deposition, she had every right to do what she did.

The Miami Herald reported: The “victim,” in this twisted tale of Florida justice, was Rico Gray, a 245-pound Jacksonville truck driver with a proclivity for domestic violence.

The “criminal,” the woman sentenced to 20 years of hard time on May 11, was his wife, Marissa Alexander, five feet, two inches tall and slight enough, as Gray mentioned in his pre-trial deposition, that on two occasions he tossed her from their house without much physical exertion. “She’s a little person so it doesn’t take much for me to pick her up and tote her out my front door … You know, I pretty much picked her up and throwed her out.”

“I honestly think she just didn’t want me to put my hands on her anymore so she did what she feel like she have to do to make sure she wouldn’t get hurt, you know. You know, she did what she had to do.”

He said, “The gun was never actually pointed at me. When she raised the gun down and raised it up, you know, the gun was never pointed at me. The fact is, you know … she never been violent toward me. I was always the one starting it. If she was violent toward me, it was because she was trying to get me up off her or stop me from doing.”

Gray’s deposition might have read like a confession of a husband charged with domestic violence, but it was Marissa Alexander who was convicted in April 2010, after a Duval circuit judge rejected her Stand Your Ground defense. The judge decided that Alexander could have fled instead of running into the garage and fetching the pistol from her car. “This is inconsistent with a person in genuine fear of his or her life,” the judge ruled —illustrating, if nothing else, that the effectiveness of the controversial self-defense statute varies wildly from one Florida circuit to the other."

Re: Digging under the hood of the Florida Stand your ground law

If the woman ran to her car in the garage and then returned with the pistol to fire this “warning shot” then the judge is not wrong to say that she could have fled the scene…

The real dispute here seems to be when/what is considered “standing your ground”.

Re: Digging under the hood of the Florida Stand your ground law

I believe context matters. She was the victim of repeated domestic abuse. To not take that into consideration and sentence her to 20 years is a joke. In the other case, per 911 tapes, the husband stated the lover was fonicating with his wife. And he shot him. Goes scot free. Because in the stand he used rape.

Zimmerman followed Martin per 911 AGAINST the 911 operator instructions. But goes scot free. One can connect the dots.

Re: Digging under the hood of the Florida Stand your ground law

I agree that context matters but sometimes certain sentences are doled out to set a precedent.
Can you imagine how many wives would run for guns to “warn” their physically abusive husbands if she was allowed to walk?

Having said that, I also agree that 20 years is excessive.

Re: Digging under the hood of the Florida Stand your ground law

Standing Your Ground law makes sense to me and I totally agree with it.
It is designed to allow a person to protect himself and others actively without fear of prosecution.

Ofcourse, any law can be abused and manipulated and that is when the law steps in.

Re: Digging under the hood of the Florida Stand your ground law

@Muzna

The physical threat the abused experience is real. This guy picked her up and tossed her out the door a couple of times. The judge could and should have set a precedent by taking her circumstances into account. And given her probation. When the husband pleads the case in support of his wife, that says it all. Unfortunately, minorities, esp African Americans, seem to be at the receiving end of such precedents.

As for this leading to wives to run for guns AND fire them harmlessly in the air to ward off their abusive spouses, that is not necessarily a bad things, is it?

And the white guy allowed to walk after stating he shot the person who was fornicat…g with his wife, he is allowed to walk. And Zimmerman, after being told not to chase Trevon by 911 operator, does exactly that. And he walks.

At the very least, one can conclude the law is applied differently for African Americans. Fair minded folks should show solidarity with the adversely affected minorities.

Good discussion. Thanks!

Re: Digging under the hood of the Florida Stand your ground law

Southie saheb…there is not one iota of doubt in my mind that the law is applied differently for African Americans.

Sadly I don’t see this changing in the near future.