Stand Your Ground Editorial Essay

Stand Your Ground Editorial In 73% of cases with the stand your ground law in effect, defendants with a black victim faced no penalty for their actions, while 59% with a white victim faced no penalty according to the February 2013 Tampa Bay Times. Under the stand your ground laws, too many killers walk free, because of lack of evidence, or lack of witnesses because they most of the time are the only ones left that really know what happened the night of their incidents. While sometimes the law can be helpful, and save the defendants life, I think many of the times in puts a fake amount of power into their hands, and it gives them a false confidence, where they believe they can do anything they want. In many cases as well, their victim didn’t even have a weapon, and they claimed they were in danger for their life, which can’t be true. Stand your ground laws should be repealed, and put back to the state of a duty to retreat, so there is no gray area on whether or not they are in danger for their life. In the case of Zimmerman v Florida, stand your ground was discussed by the defense, to be their lead to set Zimmerman free in the litigation. His victim Trayvon Martin (who was African-American) was unarmed the night of the killing, where Zimmerman shot him fatally once in the chest. He was charged with Second degree murder, and was later acquitted of these charges, and it brought out an outcry from the African-American community, including the NAACP. However, though none of us know what happened that tragic night, we do know that Trayvon Martin was unarmed, and was doing nothing illegal. George Zimmerman initiated the contact with Martin, so therefore should throw out the stand your ground law from the discussion. I believe this is one example of a killer walking away free unrightfully under the stand your ground law in Florida. Another young woman in Florida named Marissa Alexander was convicted 20 years for three counts of aggravated assault for firing a warning shot at her husband, who had physically abused her in the past. She used the stand your ground law in her defense, and it ended up failing her. She had given birth to her baby, days before the incident, and was put in jail for 20 years for firing only a warning shot, that caused no bodily harm to anyone. According to the July 2013 Los Angeles Times Alexander even had a restraining order against the man she fired a warning shot at. This is an example of the stand your ground law, also an example of a gratuitous verdict, because this woman did nothing wrong. The Jordan Davis case is also getting a lot of news in Florida as well because of the stand your ground law. According to the August 2013 edition of businessinsider.com, Davis and friends pulled up a gas station where Michael Dunn felt threatened because of the loud music they were playing. Dunn asked them to turn it down, and it turned into a death bed for Jordan Davis with Dunn being the killer. He claimed to see a gun, but there was no gun found and he fled the scene, and prosecutors believe that is a guilty sign. The trial is set to be in early 2014, where Dunn is expected to stand by the stand your ground law. However if Dunn had never been given the right to stand his ground before retreating, this problem may have never happened. Although people may say the stand your ground law helps crime, and helps protect people, a Texas A&M study shows that after states passed stand your ground laws, murders have actually increased. If the law is supposed to help then why is the murder rate going up in these states? A false confidence is why. These people

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