Stand Your Ground Law Case Study
The criminal justice issue that I plan to study is the Stand Your Ground Law. This paper will analyze the history of the Stand Your Ground Law and the NRA’s (National Rifle Association) involvement in getting this law passed in Florida as well as in other states. I will give statistics of how race plays a huge role in this law. The “Black Lives Matter” movement will also be discussed. Recommendations will be given to commissioner Bratton on what to do if these laws were to be passed in New York City.
Background
Governor Jeb Bush signed Florida’s Stand Your Ground Bill SB436 into law in 2005 with lobbyist Marison Hammer. According to Deadly Force and the Right of Self-Defense, the Stand Your Ground law gives “a person who is not engaged in …show more content…
an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be, has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force, if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony” (Roberts, 2012). This is very similar to the Castle Doctrine laws. The Castle Doctrine laws “do not impose a duty to retreat on individuals who are attacked either in their homes or in public areas in which the individuals have a lawful right to be as long as they possess a reasonable belief of imminent death or bodily harm” (Ochs, 2013). A person will do anything to protect himself/herself and their property. However, the Stand Your Ground Laws do not protect Law Enforcement. Officers are not allowed to shoot a person without a good reason. The National Rifle Association has always been involved in passing any law that deals with guns. From 1871 to 1968, the National Rifle Association promoted shooting sports so there is no surprise that they were behind in passing this law. They helped form the Unified Sportsmen of Florida. Since they were the ones that created the organization, they wanted to promote gun rights in Florida in 1975. In 1987, the NRA was also involved in passing the concealed carry of a firearm law. By 2011, “49 states have passed some form of legal concealed carry, with 40 states having shall-issues laws (Holliday, 2012). Marison Hammer was involved in the 1987 concealed carry law. He was also very involved with the 2005 Stand Your Ground Law. Hammer, an Executive Director of Unified Sportsmen of Florida, handled the lobbying of the NRA. He soon became president of the NRA and was also a member of the Board.
The National Rifle Association played a key role in getting the Stand Your Ground Law passed in Florida and the other twenty-three states. They promised to expand Stand Your Ground Laws in other states. The NRA donated money and heavily lobbied to their campaign. The NRA also donated money and lobbied to some republican campaigns. The answer to criminal aggression is retaliation. Stand your ground laws were made for self-defense. “The NRA is widely recognized as a highly influential political force” (Holliday, 2012), which landed them the support of people with power. The NRA used lobbying and political donations to support candidates for office, or parties in court, law enforcements agencies, or any other politicians who would assist the NRA in achieving its goals. For example the NRA “gave one hundred twenty-five thousand dollars to the Florida Republican Party Committee between 2004 and 2010. They also supported the re-election campaign of Governor Jeb Bush” (Lave, 2013).
The lobbying and political donation was not the only form to promote the Stand Your Ground laws. The NRA used public radio stations as well as their own website to promote the Stand Your Ground laws. Many politicians could not vote against it because the NRA was too powerful. The NRA heavily pressured them as well.
The NRA were not doing everything on their own, they used the help of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to promote the Stand Your Ground Law. The NRA and ALEC was successful in lobbying and donating to politicians in order to pass a version of Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law in twenty-four states that included Florida itself. Those twenty-four states that allowed this law to be passed were (in order by year), “Florida in 2005, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota, Arizona, Alaska in 2006, North Dakota, Texas, Tennessee, Missouri in 2007, Ohio, West Virginia in 2008, Montana in 2009, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, North Carolina in 2011” (Holliday, 2012). Alaska was also included, which made it twenty-five states that allowed this law to be passed. The states that have passed the Stand Your Ground law are former confederate States.
Stand Your Ground Laws’ role in race There are racial inequalities throughout the criminal justice system, from the laws to inside the courts and outside with police officers.
In “Stand Your Ground Laws: Preliminary Report and Recommendations”, The National Task Force said that “racial disparities are likely to be found to justifiably exist in Stand Your Ground States. The rates in those states are significantly higher. A white shooter that kills a black person is three hundred fifty percent more likely to be found justified than a black shooter that killed a white person” (Common Dreams, 2014). The Tampa Bay Times investigation was used to show how race plays a major role in Stand Your Ground. The investigation teams analyzed two hundred Stand Your Ground Cases in Florida and found that “seventy-three percent of those who killed a black person were found not guilty and fifty-nine percent who killed a white person were found not guilty. It also states that the twenty-six percent of those who killed a black person were found guilty and forty-one percent who killed a white person were found guilty” (Hundley, 2012). The researcher does not say white perpetrator, black victim or black perpetrator; he just says, “white victim”. This shows how the criminal justice system is when it comes to race. The researcher also stated that Blacks are killed because people see them as a threat. This is racial profiling and it exists in laws and in people …show more content…
too. The shooting death of Trayvon Martin brought a lot of attention to the Stand Your Ground laws. That tragic situation caused people to question the stand your ground laws. Some people started to demand its repeal. Many criticize the Stand your ground laws and believe that they encourage violence and chaos. "In the wake of the Zimmerman verdict, some protests against Stand Your Ground were apparently motivated by the belief that No Retreat statutes, such as Florida’s, allow a person to kill anyone who makes him or her feel threatened, and at any point after the person subjectively experiences that feeling" (Ward 108). Stand Your Ground has no restraining effect on crime and mostly affects minorities. The Trayvon Martin case is a perfect example of how race plays a role in this law. In the journal, "Race, law, and health: Examination of ‘Stand Your Ground’ and defendant convictions in Florida", there were studies done to show how these laws were racially biased. Trayvon’s death “raised questions about race, gender, state laws, procedural justice, and the use of violence to resolve interracial conflicts based on fear” (Ackermann 195). George Zimmerman admitted he shot Martin claiming self-defense. He was immediately interviewed by the Sanford Police Department after the shooting, but was not arrested. Zimmerman not being arrested immediately shows how race played a role in regards to this law. Black Lives Matter (BLM) was a campaign against violence towards African Americans. People in this movement organize protests after the killing of other African Americans by the police. This movement also covers wider problems such as racial profiling and police brutality in the U.S.’s criminal justice system. This movement started in 2013 after George Zimmerman was released after the shooting of Trayvon. Black Lives Matter became nationally recognized in 2014 after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson. Another example that involves the BLM movement was the death of Eric Garner at the hands of the police in New York City. This caused many protests as well. Since the protests in Ferguson, many people have participated in the movement after the deaths of numerous African Americans while in police custody. The deaths of people like Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland and Freddie Gray, have caused many people to step up and protest against the police authority. The BLM movement has publicly challenged politicians, including those in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to state their views on the Black Lives Matter issues.
Research Proposal (studying public perception) For my topic on “Stand Your Ground Laws in the U.S.”, my unit of analysis will be people’s thoughts on whether or not the law should be passed in New York City.
I would do an experimental design to test out people’s opinion on this law by asking some of them how would they feel if New York City were to have that law. My participants would be adults and teens over the age of 16. I would also research every state where Stand Your Ground is legal and study all of the incidents where the law came into play. The control group would be people that have not been informed on what the law is about. The experimental group would be people that know about the Stand Your Ground Law. The pre and post test would allow me to see how people that weren’t fully informed about the Stand Your Ground Law feel after getting information about it. I want to see if their feelings about the law being passed will
change.
Policy Recommendations
If Commissioner Bratton were to pass the Stand Your Ground laws in New York City, he would need to make more amendments on top of the Stand Your Ground Law. He would have to make sure that the Stand Your Ground Laws protect those people who deserve its protection. Lawyers do not have time to carefully handle each case that is given to them. Attorneys have about two hundred cases to go over. A great amount of those cases need a huge amount of time to be focused on. Also, if stop and frisk is getting out of control then why pass a law that would make things even worse. I would recommend four amendments. The first and second will state the amount of force that can be used when a person acts in self-defense. The third will state how stand your ground laws will need to create a system to document all Stand Your Ground claims. The fourth will state how the meaning of Stand Your Ground is important. My first recommendation is that you will need to make the law as an amendment. The person who is being robbed should not use deadly force when their attacker is in the process of retreating. The attacker fleeing the scene shows that they are no longer a threat to the person who is being robbed. Therefore, there is no reason to shoot and possibly kill the attacker. It is understood that the person who is being robbed would want to get revenge on their attacker, but the Stand Your Ground Law is for those who rightfully and reasonably believe that they are in danger.
The second recommendation would be that the person who is being robbed should not confront or follow their attacker. If the attacker acts “in a way that would reasonably invoke fear and refuses to retreat from the violence, then they should not be able to then use deadly force against his/her victim and escape as a liability” (Ochs, 2013).
The first and second policy recommendations are common sense. Why shoot or stab your attacker when there is no threat to your life. Life is worth more than property that can be recovered. Most people do not understand that and that is why unfortunate things like this occur. This is why New York will need to state the amount and type of force that can be used when the person acts in self-defense. The third recommendation is that New York should keep records of how many people claim that they stood their ground. All twenty-four states that have the Stand Your Ground Laws do not have any records of how many people claim stand your ground. If they did, this would allow legislators to understand and have knowledge of how the Stand Your Ground Laws work in each state and how it is applied. New York would need to create a system to track and document self-defense claims. My fourth and final recommendation would be that the NYPD, judges, juries, and prosecutors should have a better comprehension of the Stand Your Ground Law. By properly studying the law, they would be able to determine when Stand Your Ground is used appropriately. People that are innocent and were right in using the law should have a fair trial. Anyone who uses the Stand Your Ground law in an unjustifiable way should be penalized and not protected by this law.
Conclusion
The Stand Your Ground Law is a very controversial law. It can be used for good in order to protect someone but it can be taken advantage of by those who do not have good intentions and want to hurt others. Those that take advantage of the law would use it to cover up their crime. Sadly some people would be able to get away with murder because of this law. The misuse of this law is what has created a racial bias in the U.S. When people research how race affects the outcomes of the stands your ground cases, it has usually resulted in a number of different answers. Some sources may claim significant racial inequality, while others find no prejudice. It would be helpful if people were allowed to have a say on whether or not this law should be implemented in New York City.
Background
Governor Jeb Bush signed Florida’s Stand Your Ground Bill SB436 into law in 2005 with lobbyist Marison Hammer. According to Deadly Force and the Right of Self-Defense, the Stand Your Ground law gives “a person who is not engaged in …show more content…
an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be, has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force, if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony” (Roberts, 2012). This is very similar to the Castle Doctrine laws. The Castle Doctrine laws “do not impose a duty to retreat on individuals who are attacked either in their homes or in public areas in which the individuals have a lawful right to be as long as they possess a reasonable belief of imminent death or bodily harm” (Ochs, 2013). A person will do anything to protect himself/herself and their property. However, the Stand Your Ground Laws do not protect Law Enforcement. Officers are not allowed to shoot a person without a good reason. The National Rifle Association has always been involved in passing any law that deals with guns. From 1871 to 1968, the National Rifle Association promoted shooting sports so there is no surprise that they were behind in passing this law. They helped form the Unified Sportsmen of Florida. Since they were the ones that created the organization, they wanted to promote gun rights in Florida in 1975. In 1987, the NRA was also involved in passing the concealed carry of a firearm law. By 2011, “49 states have passed some form of legal concealed carry, with 40 states having shall-issues laws (Holliday, 2012). Marison Hammer was involved in the 1987 concealed carry law. He was also very involved with the 2005 Stand Your Ground Law. Hammer, an Executive Director of Unified Sportsmen of Florida, handled the lobbying of the NRA. He soon became president of the NRA and was also a member of the Board.
The National Rifle Association played a key role in getting the Stand Your Ground Law passed in Florida and the other twenty-three states. They promised to expand Stand Your Ground Laws in other states. The NRA donated money and heavily lobbied to their campaign. The NRA also donated money and lobbied to some republican campaigns. The answer to criminal aggression is retaliation. Stand your ground laws were made for self-defense. “The NRA is widely recognized as a highly influential political force” (Holliday, 2012), which landed them the support of people with power. The NRA used lobbying and political donations to support candidates for office, or parties in court, law enforcements agencies, or any other politicians who would assist the NRA in achieving its goals. For example the NRA “gave one hundred twenty-five thousand dollars to the Florida Republican Party Committee between 2004 and 2010. They also supported the re-election campaign of Governor Jeb Bush” (Lave, 2013).
The lobbying and political donation was not the only form to promote the Stand Your Ground laws. The NRA used public radio stations as well as their own website to promote the Stand Your Ground laws. Many politicians could not vote against it because the NRA was too powerful. The NRA heavily pressured them as well.
The NRA were not doing everything on their own, they used the help of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to promote the Stand Your Ground Law. The NRA and ALEC was successful in lobbying and donating to politicians in order to pass a version of Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law in twenty-four states that included Florida itself. Those twenty-four states that allowed this law to be passed were (in order by year), “Florida in 2005, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota, Arizona, Alaska in 2006, North Dakota, Texas, Tennessee, Missouri in 2007, Ohio, West Virginia in 2008, Montana in 2009, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, North Carolina in 2011” (Holliday, 2012). Alaska was also included, which made it twenty-five states that allowed this law to be passed. The states that have passed the Stand Your Ground law are former confederate States.
Stand Your Ground Laws’ role in race There are racial inequalities throughout the criminal justice system, from the laws to inside the courts and outside with police officers.
In “Stand Your Ground Laws: Preliminary Report and Recommendations”, The National Task Force said that “racial disparities are likely to be found to justifiably exist in Stand Your Ground States. The rates in those states are significantly higher. A white shooter that kills a black person is three hundred fifty percent more likely to be found justified than a black shooter that killed a white person” (Common Dreams, 2014). The Tampa Bay Times investigation was used to show how race plays a major role in Stand Your Ground. The investigation teams analyzed two hundred Stand Your Ground Cases in Florida and found that “seventy-three percent of those who killed a black person were found not guilty and fifty-nine percent who killed a white person were found not guilty. It also states that the twenty-six percent of those who killed a black person were found guilty and forty-one percent who killed a white person were found guilty” (Hundley, 2012). The researcher does not say white perpetrator, black victim or black perpetrator; he just says, “white victim”. This shows how the criminal justice system is when it comes to race. The researcher also stated that Blacks are killed because people see them as a threat. This is racial profiling and it exists in laws and in people …show more content…
too. The shooting death of Trayvon Martin brought a lot of attention to the Stand Your Ground laws. That tragic situation caused people to question the stand your ground laws. Some people started to demand its repeal. Many criticize the Stand your ground laws and believe that they encourage violence and chaos. "In the wake of the Zimmerman verdict, some protests against Stand Your Ground were apparently motivated by the belief that No Retreat statutes, such as Florida’s, allow a person to kill anyone who makes him or her feel threatened, and at any point after the person subjectively experiences that feeling" (Ward 108). Stand Your Ground has no restraining effect on crime and mostly affects minorities. The Trayvon Martin case is a perfect example of how race plays a role in this law. In the journal, "Race, law, and health: Examination of ‘Stand Your Ground’ and defendant convictions in Florida", there were studies done to show how these laws were racially biased. Trayvon’s death “raised questions about race, gender, state laws, procedural justice, and the use of violence to resolve interracial conflicts based on fear” (Ackermann 195). George Zimmerman admitted he shot Martin claiming self-defense. He was immediately interviewed by the Sanford Police Department after the shooting, but was not arrested. Zimmerman not being arrested immediately shows how race played a role in regards to this law. Black Lives Matter (BLM) was a campaign against violence towards African Americans. People in this movement organize protests after the killing of other African Americans by the police. This movement also covers wider problems such as racial profiling and police brutality in the U.S.’s criminal justice system. This movement started in 2013 after George Zimmerman was released after the shooting of Trayvon. Black Lives Matter became nationally recognized in 2014 after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson. Another example that involves the BLM movement was the death of Eric Garner at the hands of the police in New York City. This caused many protests as well. Since the protests in Ferguson, many people have participated in the movement after the deaths of numerous African Americans while in police custody. The deaths of people like Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland and Freddie Gray, have caused many people to step up and protest against the police authority. The BLM movement has publicly challenged politicians, including those in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to state their views on the Black Lives Matter issues.
Research Proposal (studying public perception) For my topic on “Stand Your Ground Laws in the U.S.”, my unit of analysis will be people’s thoughts on whether or not the law should be passed in New York City.
I would do an experimental design to test out people’s opinion on this law by asking some of them how would they feel if New York City were to have that law. My participants would be adults and teens over the age of 16. I would also research every state where Stand Your Ground is legal and study all of the incidents where the law came into play. The control group would be people that have not been informed on what the law is about. The experimental group would be people that know about the Stand Your Ground Law. The pre and post test would allow me to see how people that weren’t fully informed about the Stand Your Ground Law feel after getting information about it. I want to see if their feelings about the law being passed will
change.
Policy Recommendations
If Commissioner Bratton were to pass the Stand Your Ground laws in New York City, he would need to make more amendments on top of the Stand Your Ground Law. He would have to make sure that the Stand Your Ground Laws protect those people who deserve its protection. Lawyers do not have time to carefully handle each case that is given to them. Attorneys have about two hundred cases to go over. A great amount of those cases need a huge amount of time to be focused on. Also, if stop and frisk is getting out of control then why pass a law that would make things even worse. I would recommend four amendments. The first and second will state the amount of force that can be used when a person acts in self-defense. The third will state how stand your ground laws will need to create a system to document all Stand Your Ground claims. The fourth will state how the meaning of Stand Your Ground is important. My first recommendation is that you will need to make the law as an amendment. The person who is being robbed should not use deadly force when their attacker is in the process of retreating. The attacker fleeing the scene shows that they are no longer a threat to the person who is being robbed. Therefore, there is no reason to shoot and possibly kill the attacker. It is understood that the person who is being robbed would want to get revenge on their attacker, but the Stand Your Ground Law is for those who rightfully and reasonably believe that they are in danger.
The second recommendation would be that the person who is being robbed should not confront or follow their attacker. If the attacker acts “in a way that would reasonably invoke fear and refuses to retreat from the violence, then they should not be able to then use deadly force against his/her victim and escape as a liability” (Ochs, 2013).
The first and second policy recommendations are common sense. Why shoot or stab your attacker when there is no threat to your life. Life is worth more than property that can be recovered. Most people do not understand that and that is why unfortunate things like this occur. This is why New York will need to state the amount and type of force that can be used when the person acts in self-defense. The third recommendation is that New York should keep records of how many people claim that they stood their ground. All twenty-four states that have the Stand Your Ground Laws do not have any records of how many people claim stand your ground. If they did, this would allow legislators to understand and have knowledge of how the Stand Your Ground Laws work in each state and how it is applied. New York would need to create a system to track and document self-defense claims. My fourth and final recommendation would be that the NYPD, judges, juries, and prosecutors should have a better comprehension of the Stand Your Ground Law. By properly studying the law, they would be able to determine when Stand Your Ground is used appropriately. People that are innocent and were right in using the law should have a fair trial. Anyone who uses the Stand Your Ground law in an unjustifiable way should be penalized and not protected by this law.
Conclusion
The Stand Your Ground Law is a very controversial law. It can be used for good in order to protect someone but it can be taken advantage of by those who do not have good intentions and want to hurt others. Those that take advantage of the law would use it to cover up their crime. Sadly some people would be able to get away with murder because of this law. The misuse of this law is what has created a racial bias in the U.S. When people research how race affects the outcomes of the stands your ground cases, it has usually resulted in a number of different answers. Some sources may claim significant racial inequality, while others find no prejudice. It would be helpful if people were allowed to have a say on whether or not this law should be implemented in New York City.