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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Lucy McBath is afraid many more people will die if Florida Gov. Rick Scott signs a bill making it harder to prosecute when people claim they commit violence in self-defense.

She already lost her son, an unarmed black teenager, when a white man angry over loud music and claiming self-defense fired 10 times at an SUV filled with teenagers.

The measure before Scott would effectively require a trial-before-a-trial whenever someone invokes self-defense, making prosecutors prove the suspect doesnt deserve immunity.

Scott hasnt revealed his intentions, but hes a National Rifle Association supporter, and this is an NRA priority.

If it passes in Florida, then they take that same legislation and they push it on the legislative floors across the country, McBath said. Her 17-year-old son Jordan Davis was killed by Michael Dunn outside a Jacksonville convenience store in 2012.

Many states have long invoked the castle doctrine, allowing people to use even deadly force to defend themselves in their own homes.

Florida changed that in 2005, so that even outside a home, a person has no duty to retreat and can stand his or her ground anywhere they are legally allowed to be. Other states followed suit, and stand your ground defenses became much more common in pre-trial immunity hearings and during trials.

The 2012 killing of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman opened a debate about the limits of self-defense, and it hasnt let up since Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder after jurors received instructions on Floridas stand your ground law.

Florida Republicans made this bill a priority after the state Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that the defendant has the burden of proof before trial. If Florida starts a national trend to shift that burden to prosecutors, itll be just fine with Republican Rep. Bobby Payne, who sponsored the bill.

Only four of the 22 or more state stand your ground laws mention this burden of proof in Alabama, Colorado, Georgia and South Carolina and all place it on defendants.

Its about following our right of innocent until proven guilty, Payne said. Its about Fifth Amendment rights, its about due process, its about having a true immunity, for when folks really believe theyre in imminent threat of great bodily harm or death, to defend themselves properly.

Senators originally wanted prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt before trial that self-defense didnt justify a violent crime. The final legislation lowered the threshold to clear and convincing evidence.

Either way, it makes prosecuting violent crimes more difficult, experts say.

I think there will be more false stand your ground claims, said former Broward County prosecutor Gregg Rossman, who has tried 65 murder cases. The pre-trial hearings are very much going to be like a mini-trial.

Proving a killer didnt act in self-defense when there are no living witnesses would be particularly hard, he said: I worry the most about the one-on-one cases. You and I get into an argument and I shoot you. Who speaks for you?

But public defenders say it should help people who were simply trying to defend themselves. Prosecutors often use the threat of minimum mandatory sentences to coerce people into accepting a plea deal even if their use of force was justified, said Stacy Scott, a public defender in Gainesville.

Its going to force them to deal more fairly with citizens who are charged with crimes, and will help our clients either get better plea offers or exonerate themselves earlier in the process so they dont have to wait until a jury trial and risk everything they have in order to litigate their case, Scott said.

McBath, who lives in Marietta, Georgia, believes the guilty will more likely escape convictions. It took two trials to convict her sons killer of murder.

Were just one out of so many, she said. Because we won our case, I honestly, honestly believe thats the reason why theyre putting these additional measures into stand your ground.

http://press-leader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/web1_Capitol-cartoon-4.jpeg

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Link:
Florida could pave new changes in 'stand your ground' laws - Press-leader

By Jane Horwitz By Jane Horwitz May 31 at 6:07 PM

An occasional look at family-friendly theater around Washington. (Shows are appropriate for age 4 and older unless noted.)

My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music lit up Broadway in 1956 and 1959, respectively, their scores now permanently enshrined in the American Songbook. The question is, can these musical-theater oldies keep younger audiences enthralled? True, children may have seen the The Sound of Music movie starring Julie Andrews (or 2013s live television version with Carrie Underwood) and perhaps the 1964 My Fair Lady with Audrey Hepburn. But will they enjoy these shows onstage with no close-ups or popcorn?

At Olney Theatre Center, guest director Alan Souza has moved the setting of My Fair Lady from 1912 to 1921, a short but meaningful leap to a time when British women were getting the vote and hemlines were rising. Souza chose Brittany Campbell, a New York-based singer/songwriter/visual artist/actress, to play Eliza Doolittle, the poor Cockney flower seller whose life is transformed by diction lessons with professor Henry Higgins.

Ive directed My Fair Lady before, but not like this, he says. This is like a complete rethinking of it, and [Campbell] is individual in the way that a modern woman is.

Souza hopes that Campbells Eliza will give the arguably bullying and condescending Higgins (Danny Bernardy) a run for his money ... because she is steps ahead of him all the time. And as both a person of color ... and also as a woman, I think thats going to be interesting, especially to kids.

As for the music by Frederick Loewe and book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner (based on George Bernard Shaws play Pygmalion), Souza has no worries. The songs are infectious and theyre smart as can be, and if we have them engaged in the story, they may go out hummin the tunes.

Ted Chapin, president of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, echoes that sentiment when it comes to The Sound of Music.

Theres something that gets into the real little kids when they see the show, Chapin says. Whether its Do-Re-Mi or My Favorite Things or So Long, Farewell, without having been written for them, the stuff is written so they can appreciate and take it all in.

Multiple Tony winner Jack OBrien staged this Sound of Music, which began touring in 2015. Two new leads have joined the cast: Nicholas Rodriguez, known to Washington-area theatergoers for star turns in Arena Stage shows, including Carousel and Oklahoma!, will play Captain von Trapp, and Charlotte Maltby is Maria. Chapin has no doubt that the Richard Rodgers tunes his melodies just get to you and Oscar Hammerstein lyrics will win children over fast if they dont already know them.

But what if youngsters have no concept of the pre-World War II period in Europe or why the von Trapp family must escape Austria? Children, Chapin says, will understand that theres something going on thats bothering the parents and making the parents have to make some pretty bold decisions, and that is all theyll need to know.

The Sound of Music: June 13-July 16 at the Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW. 202-467-4600. kennedy-center.org. $39-$169.

My Fair Lady June 21-July 23 at Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Rd., Olney, Md. 301-924-3400. olneytheatre.org. $33-$80. Recommended for age 10 and older.

The Wizard of Oz at Creative Cauldron

At Creative Cauldron in Falls Church, theyre less than a week away from opening The Wizard of Oz. The small, award-winning company recently garnered two Helen Hayes Awards for its production of the musical Caroline, or Change, and Tiara Whaley, the Maryland native playing Dorothy, won for her supporting role in that show. Creative Cauldron is using the script from the Royal Shakespeare Companys 1987 adaptation of the movie, songs and all.

Matt Conner, a director and composer who creates professional works as well as shows for students at Creative Cauldron, is staging the production. He has to squeeze it into the 92-seat storefront theater.

Each theme that were used to seeing in The Wizard of Oz, were going to take just a little bit of a different angle, because were going to have to fit it into our small space, says Conner, who will use puppetry for the singing crows to harass poor Scarecrow (Alan Naylor).

Creative Cauldron, which offers acting classes for children and puts them in its Learning Theater shows, tried something new for The Wizard of Oz a professional training program for which youngsters had to audition. The 21 teenagers and younger children who made the cut and completed the program are now in the Oz ensemble as Munchkins and Emerald City folk. They will earn educational stipends, says Laura Connors Hull, Creative Cauldrons producing director, which makes the show Helen Hayes-eligible.

Even though we do adult productions, professional productions, she says, in our core we are an educational organization.

Whaley, who began performing as a child, is excited for the young actors.

I can learn from them just as much as they can learn from me, she says. Were really peers at that point.

The Wizard of Oz: June 8-25 at Creative Cauldron at Artspace Falls Church, 410 S. Maple Ave., Falls Church. 703-436-9948. creativecauldron.org. $30 for adults, $15 for children.

Peh-LO-tah at Kennedy Center

Marc Bamuthi Joseph loves soccer with a passion. As a playwright, choreographer, hip-hop poet, performer and educator, Joseph sees elements of art and politics in the sport. And he uses those elements to raise consciousness and to praise the game in his choreopoem Peh-LO-tah, coming to the Kennedy Centers Family Theater. (Pelota means ball in Spanish.)

As a dancer, as a choreographer, when I watch soccer, it looks like a dance to me something like birds in migration, Joseph says. But Peh-LO-tah plumbs the depths as well as the heights, which is why the show is recommended for age 13 and older.

Peh-LO-tah opens with bits of non-graphic audio and video (impressionistic no violence) from the night of Feb. 26, 2012, when Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African American, was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla. From there, Josephs piece, which he performs with four other actor/singer/dancers, takes audiences on a visionary voyage using soccer as a metaphor for social ills and social change, expressed in poetry, music, movement and words of protest. A recurring theme contrasts running for joy vs. running for your life. The ideas are complex.

Joseph says his goal is to connect folks across cultures. Its to give a sense of what American promise might be if we are inclusive the way this sport that I love is inclusive ... ultimately to revert to a sense of joy and what freedom means, not just in the political sense, but what freedom means in the body.

Even my teenager certainly didnt get every reference, but he got a general understanding, Joseph adds. Its a choreopoem, and so, as with most poetry, we dont necessarily understand every single concept. ... I think in general that its emotionally legible enough that folks get it, teenagers as well.

Peh-LO-tah: June 9 -June 11 at the Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW. 202-467-4600. kennedy- center.org. Show is sold out. Recommended for age 13 and older.

ALSO PLAYING OR OPENING SOON

The bells will toll a few days more for Quasimodo and Esmerelda in a new wordless adaptation of Victor Hugos The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Synetic Theater, directed by Paata Tsikurishvili and choreographed by Irina Tsikurishvili. Through June 11 at Synetic Theater, Crystal City, 1800 S. Bell St., Arlington. 866-811-4111. synetictheater.org. $15-$60. Recommended for age 13 and older.

A revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rices 1970 rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, directed by Joe Calarco, continues at Signature Theatre, and teens might be enthralled by the edgy take on the New Testament. Through July 2 at Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. 703-820-9771. sigtheatre.org. $40-$114. Recommended for mature middle-schoolers and older.

Alice falls down a rabbit hole and lands in a crazy world where everyones a rock musician in Wonderland: Alices Rock & Roll Adventure, based on Lewis Carrolls Alice books, adapted by Rachel Rockwell (book and lyrics) and Michael Mahler (music and lyrics), and directed by Kathryn Chase Bryer. June 21-Aug. 13 at Imagination Stage, 4908 Auburn Ave., Bethesda. 301-280-1660. imaginationstage.org. $12-$30. Recommended for age 5 and older.

Junie B. Jones loses her furry mittens and suspects stealers in Junie B. Jones Is Not a Crook, by Allison Gregory, based on the books by Barbara Park and directed by Washington actor Rick Hammerly. June 23-Aug. 14 at Adventure Theatre MTC, 7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo. 301-634-2270. adventuretheatre-mtc.org. $19.50.

In July, the Kennedy Center will bring in yet another family-friendly classic, Rodgers & Hammersteins The King and I, about British schoolteacher Anna Leonowens, who went to Siam (Thailand) in the 1860s to teach the many children and wives of the king, in a Tony-winning revival directed by Bartlett Sher. July 18-Aug. 20 at the Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW. 202-467-4600. kennedy-center.org. $49-$159. Recommended for age 8 and older.

More here:
Musical 'oldies' test their appeal to the young: 'My Fair Lady' and Sound of Music' in DC - Washington Post

Editorial Board, Corpus Christi Caller-Times 4:34 p.m. CT May 30, 2017

The Texas Capitol is shown Monday, Jan. 8, 2007, in Austin, Texas. Passage of a state budget is the only thing the Legislature is required to do in its 140-day regular session that convenes Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2007. It is in the House Chamber where members will vote Tuesday, the opening day of the 80th Legislature, to either keep Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, or oust him in favor of a new leader. (AP Photo/Harry Cabluck)(Photo: Associated Press, AP)

Let one mean-spirited act on the last day of the Texas legislative session taking out a cell phone and threatening to sic immigration authorities on protesters speak for what's wrong with the so-called sanctuary cities law and us as a state and nation.

Let it also serve as a warning that maybe it's not such a bright idea to let any ol' yahoo carry a gun.

The actions of state Rep. Matt Rinaldi, R-Irving, should be remembered with disgust and embarrassment. Unfortunately, already he's a hero to some, perhaps many. And that's indicative of what's wrong with us as a people.

On Sunday, when protesters against Senate Bill 4, the sanctuary cities law, became loud, Rinaldi made a big show of taking out his cell phone to report them to immigration. Hispanic lawmakers who were nearby did not take kindly to it.

What ensued came close to getting physical, and Rinaldi was heard threatening to put a bullet in the head of state Rep. Poncho Nevarez, D-Eagle Pass.

Afterward, Rinaldi claimed that he had been jostled and threatened. And the office of Rep. Cesar Blanco, D-El Paso, received a call from a man who said "I stand with Matt Rinaldi and (expletive) all the illegal (racist label). White power."

Rinaldi unmasked SB 4 for what its critics have been saying it is mean-spiriteddiscrimination against Hispanics under the flimsy ruse of securing the border and preventing crime.

In that single, sarcastic, cold-hearted act of taking out his phone, Rinaldi contradicted what Gov. Greg Abbott said only a week earlier in an opinion column, co-signed by two border-area law enforcement officials, supposedly to set the record straight about what they claimed to be SB 4's true, benign nature.In thecolumn, published by the Caller-Times and other publications, the governor asserted that SB 4 had been misrepresented deliberately as a show-me-your-papers law that would encourage ethnic and racial profiling. Abbott asserted that SB 4 would do no such thing. Ethnic and racial profiling is illegal, Abbott wrote.

Then Rinaldi went and did exactly what Abbott said SB 4 wouldn't do. Dismissing Rinaldi as a lone wolf and a clown would be easy, predictable and politically expedient. But he did exactly what some if not many of his colleagues who supported SB 4 wished they had thought of in the moment.

Even if he werea lone aberration among the150 House members, which Texans know in their hearts he's not, that's still too many, mathematically. It would work out to three to four bad apples in Rinaldi's hometown police department, which has 542 employees. Common sense and experience say the vast majority of law enforcement officers are true professionals but the percentage of SB 4 abusers will outperform this math. Alot of unjustified hassling ofpeople who look like Nevarez and Blanco is in store.

Rinaldi's action deserved a response, but it didn't have to degenerate into an unseemly shoving match with death threats flying. In the not-so-distant past, a fair-complected, documented-looking conservative colleague or two of Rinaldi's would have stepped up quickly and rebuked him without further incident.

But nowadays, we have come to expect responses like the one received by Blanco's staff, from people who think Rinaldi did the right thing and who mislabel any rebuke of him as liberal politics.And we have come to wonder and worry how large a percentage of the population they represent.

And now we have a state representative who carries a gun and has threatened to put a bullet in the head of another state representative and who offers the George Zimmerman stand-your-ground doctrine as his defense. No telling how many of his colleagues will feel compelled now to arm themselves for protection from the likes of him. Rinaldi says on his web site that he's a proud concealed-carry permit holder who believes that his Second Amendment right is God-given. No matter who gave it, Rinaldi is one permit holder whose right should be revoked.

Read or Share this story: http://callertim.es/2rC7FuR

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Rep. Rinaldi showed what's wrong with SB 4, Texas and America - Corpus Christi Caller-Times

The Nonprofit Quarterly (registration)

Moving Racial Equity and Inclusion from the Periphery to the Center: Lessons from an Incomplete Project The Nonprofit Quarterly (registration) On February 26, 2012, a seventeen-year-old Black teenager named Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman. Martin's death ignited a national debate about racism and justice. It was on the nightly news and in the ... and more »

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Moving Racial Equity and Inclusion from the Periphery to the Center: Lessons from an Incomplete Project - The Nonprofit Quarterly (registration)

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. --Lucy McBath is afraid many more people will die if Florida Gov. Rick Scott signs a bill making it harder to prosecute when people claim they commit violence in self-defense.

She already lost her son, an unarmed black teenager, when a white man angry over loud music and claiming self-defense fired 10 times at an SUV filled with teenagers.

The measure before Scott would effectively require a trial-before-a-trial whenever someone invokes self-defense, making prosecutors prove the suspect doesn't deserve immunity.

Scott hasn't revealed his intentions, but he's a National Rifle Association supporter, and this is an NRA priority.

"If it passes in Florida, then they take that same legislation and they push it on the legislative floors across the country," said McBath, whose 17-year-old son Jordan Davis was killed by Michael Dunn outside a Jacksonville convenience store in 2012.

Many states have long invoked "the castle doctrine," allowing people to use even deadly force to defend themselves in their own homes.

Florida changed that in 2005, so that even outside a home, a person has no duty to retreat and can "stand his or her ground" anywhere they are legally allowed to be. Other states followed suit, and "stand your ground" defenses became much more common in pre-trial immunity hearings and during trials.

Play Video

Michael Dunn, charged with fatally shooting a 17-year-old boy after an argument over loud music, says he thought he saw the barrel of a gun point...

The 2012 killing of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman opened a debate about the limits of self-defense, and it hasn't let up since Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder after jurors received instructions on Florida's "stand your ground" law.

Florida Republicans made this bill a priority after the state Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that the defendant has the burden of proof before trial. If Florida starts a national trend to shift that burden to prosecutors, it'll be just fine with Republican Rep. Bobby Payne, who sponsored the bill.

Only four of the 22 or more state "stand your ground" laws mention this burden of proof - in Alabama, Colorado, Georgia and South Carolina - and all place it on defendants.

"It's about following our right of innocent until proven guilty," Payne said. "It's about Fifth Amendment rights, it's about due process, it's about having a true immunity, for when folks really believe they're in imminent threat of great bodily harm or death, to defend themselves properly."

Jordan Davis and Michael Dunn

WTEV

Senators originally wanted prosecutors to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" before trial that self-defense didn't justify a violent crime. The final legislation lowered the threshold to "clear and convincing" evidence.

Either way, it makes prosecuting violent crimes more difficult, experts say.

"I think there will be more false 'stand your ground' claims," said former Broward County prosecutor Gregg Rossman, who has tried 65 murder cases. The pre-trial hearings are "very much going to be like a mini-trial."

Proving a killer didn't act in self-defense when there are no living witnesses would be particularly hard, he said: "I worry the most about the one-on-one cases. You and I get into an argument and I shoot you. Who speaks for you?"

But public defenders say it should help people who were simply trying to defend themselves. Prosecutors often use the threat of minimum mandatory sentences to coerce people into accepting a plea deal even if their use of force was justified, said Stacy Scott, a public defender in Gainesville.

Trayvon Martin George Zimmerman

CBS/AP

"It's going to force them to deal more fairly with citizens who are charged with crimes, and will help our clients either get better plea offers or exonerate themselves earlier in the process so they don't have to wait until a jury trial and risk everything they have in order to litigate their case," Scott said.

McBath, who lives in Marietta, Georgia, believes the guilty will more likely escape convictions. It took two trials to convict her son's killer of murder.

"We're just one out of so many," she said. "Because we won our case, I honestly, honestly believe that's the reason why they're putting these additional measures into 'stand your ground.' "

Justifiable homicide claims have doubled on average in states that have passed "stand your ground" laws, said John Roman of the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago.

Also, whites who kill black people are 10 times more likely to win a "stand your ground" claim than blacks who kill whites, said Roman, who analyzed these cases while at the Urban Institute think tank.

Studies also show that white people are more likely to feel threatened by black people than the other way around, "and if you then add onto implicit bias the ability to use lethal force, it's reasonable then to expect that lethal force will be disproportionately applied to minorities," he said.

Original post:
Florida could pave new changes in controversial "stand your ground" laws - CBS News