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Sen. Carrie Ruud, R-Breezy Point, introduced Senate File 292 in the Senate, but the original is a House of Representatives bill authored by Rep. Jim Nash, R-Waconia, House File 238. Rep. Josh Heintzeman, R-Nisswa, is one of the sponsors of the House version, introduced Jan. 12.

Although the formal title is the "Defense of Dwelling and Person Act", both Ruud and Heintzeman described it as a "Stand Your Ground" bill. Stand Your Ground laws eliminate the legal expectation that people should try to get away when confronted with aggression outside the home, rather than use force. This expectation is called the "common-law duty to retreat" and is used to determine whether people truly were justified in using deadly force or not.

"Stand Your Ground" laws drew nationwide attention when Florida's version of the law played a role in the case of George Zimmerman after he shot black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012.

The existing law in Minnesota, which gives the right to use lethal force to prevent "great bodily harm or death," or within one's home in order to prevent a felony, is expanded to authorize lethal force under an additional circumstance.

Under H.F. 238, people are also authorized to kill in order to stop what they reasonably believe is a "forcible felony" in most locations, even outside their home. The bill defines forcible felony as a crime punishable by a jail sentence of more than one year, and which includes the use or threat of force. It lists examples of offenses that fit under the criteria, ranging from first degree murder to crimes like arson and third degree assault.

The bill also lowers the threshold for killing to prevent "great bodily harm or death" to simply "substantial bodily harm." Under the definition of the term in a separate, existing Minnesota law, substantial bodily harm is "bodily injury which involves a temporary but substantial disfigurement, or which causes a temporary but substantial loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ, or which causes a fracture of any bodily member."

Duel in a parking garage

Heintzeman posed the hypothetical scenario of what someone is supposed to do if attacked outside their home.

"I think people are worried that if they're in a parking ramp and somebody approaches them with a knife or a weapon or a bottle or something, even a gun, are they within their right to defend themselves?" he said. "You tell me .... because Castle Doctrine can be interpreted at times (to say) no, you have an obligation to get away rather than defend yourself in that situation."

Heintzeman asked rhetorically where someone could flee to in a parking ramp.

"Do you risk going to jail and defend your family, or do you defend yourself in another way?" he said.

Crow Wing County Attorney Don Ryan brought up the same scenario of being attacked in a parking ramp to explain why he thought the bill was a bad idea. In Minnesota, people already have the right to use deadly force in self-defense outside the home if deadly force is being meted against them by their assailantbut they have a legal duty to try and get away first if they can.

"Let's say (you're) standing in a parking garage and there's someone 100 yards away, and they pull a knife and put it over their head," Ryan supposed. "They're saying 'I'm going to kill you' and they come running at you. You're right next your car where you can quickly open it up, close it, lock the car and start driving away. That would be a reasonable duty to escape, right? Under this bill, you could just pull out your gun and shoot them, because there's no duty to retreat anymore."

The Minnesota County Attorneys Association opposed a Stand Your Ground bill when it was introduced earlier in the decade and opposes it now, as it's come up in 2017, Ryan said.

"From my perspective, I don't see why this bill would enhance public safety," he said.

The bill removes objective standards surrounding self defense and forces law enforcement authorities to prove what people who used deadly force were thinking when they pulled the trigger, Ryan said. It also creates a presumption that people are automatically immune from prosecution if they act in self defense, he said.

"Now we've just got people running around with guns, and if they feel threatened, they get to shoot people," he said.

Not 'the Wild, Wild West'

Ruud said she doesn't expect the bill to pass this session, rather, she wants Minnesotans to know gun rights are still a priority to lawmakers. She also wants the initiative to get committee hearings so the new crop of freshman legislators know what's in it.

Although Ruud couldn't think of any specific instances of constituents telling her they weren't safe because of existing self defense law, she added that she's heard from those who wish for the elimination of the duty to retreat, inside their home or out.

Asked about the dissent against similar Stand Your Ground Laws, Ruud pointed out that the 2003 law that allowed Minnesotans to carry handguns in public was also met with fears of diminished public safety, which turned out to be overblown.

"I'm aware of the controversy, but I also know that when we passed the (Citizens') Personal Protection Act, everybody said it was going to be the Wild, Wild, West," she said. "In all these years since it passed, we have seen the exact opposite. There hasn't been anyone who has a permit that's really been convicted or used that gun in a crime. So, we think that putting forward good laws, and having people understand what it's all about, is the best way to go."

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Local legislators introduce 'Stand Your Ground' bill - Brainerd Dispatch

A new bill under consideration by the Florida Legislature would make it easier for defendants to use the "Stand Your Ground" defense when faced with use of force charges.

For years, Florida laws have had provisions for self-defense immunity, protecting people who use force in self-defense from being prosecuted. There are certain restrictions on where and when you are justified in using various kind of force in self-defense.

In 2005, Florida passed "Stand Your Ground" legislation, which greatly expanded the circumstances in which an individual could use justifiable force. Florida Statute 776.012 expanded the application of self-defense to cases when you might have an opportunity to retreat.

George Zimmerman used this defense successfully in avoiding punishment after shooting and killing TrayvonMartin in 2012.

Zimmerman and his legal team mounted this defenseat trial, but they could have used itat a pretrial immunity hearing.

And a new bill that has passed committee muster in the state Senate could make it easier to get immunity for claims of self-defense including in situations of stand your ground, making that option more attractive for defense attorneys and their clients

The way it works now, if you are arrested for killing someone, you can request an immunity hearing if you thinkthe killingwas done in self defense and should not be prosecuted.

In that hearing you have to show that it was, in fact, self defense. Theburden of proof is on you, the defendant.

But Florida Republican Sen. Rob Bradleysays thats not in the spirit of the law, which puts the onus of proving guilt on the state.

He wants to shift the burden in pretrial immunity hearings to the state. Under his bill, prosecutors would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you cant use the stand your ground defense.

What I hope is the outcome is that people who should not go to trial should not go to trial, said Bradley, of Orange Park near Jacksonville. If a prosecutor does not have evidence to convince a judge at a pretrial hearing, then the prosecutor doesnt have enough evidence to go to trial and get a conviction before a jury.

Here's the proposed change to the statute:

In a criminal prosecution, once a prima facie claim of self-defense immunity from criminal prosecution has been raised by the defendant at a pretrial immunity hearing, the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt is on the party seeking to overcome the immunity from criminal prosecution...

But many prosecutors dont think this is a good idea.

For one, it means theres less to lose for defendants brought up on use-of-force charges to try out this defenseby requesting an immunity hearing.

The bill also sets the standard of proof to beyond a reasonable doubt, the same standard as a full trial.

Pulling together that kind of evidence for a pre-trial hearing is exceptionally burdensome, says Phil Archer, state attorney for the 18th Judicial Circuit (Brevard and Seminole counties).

If youre going to hurt someone, if you are going to kill someone, the least we can require is that at a preliminary hearing that you carry the burden of telling us why we should give you complete immunity, said Archer.

The bill passed favorably out of committee with a 5-4 vote.

A related bill has been filed in the Florida House and has been referred to the Criminal Justice Subcommittee and Judiciary Committee.

See more here:
Florida Considers Bill To Make It Easier To Use The 'Stand Your Ground' Defense - WLRN

Native Son is an exceptionally powerful play.

One that potentially could goad white Marin residents into pushing harder for black social equality.

But I question whether the Marin Theatre Company, where the 90-minute shows running, isnt merely preaching to the choir even if that liberal choirs singing Black Lives Matter in multi-part harmony.

Id be willing to lay odds there wasnt a single Trump voter in the audience on opening night.

The nonlinear play, adapted from an iconic, groundbreaking 1940 novel by Richard Wright about systemic racism, justice and freedom, is at once surreal and impressionistic, jaggedly zipping across timeframes of present and past.

And, if a theatergoer will allow it, sure to get under his or her skin no matter what color that skin is.

I first read Wrights novel in my early teens. I loved the passion and vitriol yet understood little because I didnt know any oppressed black people.

Reading Native Son, however, led me to Ralph Ellisons Invisible Man, several of James Baldwins essay collections and novels, and, eventually, The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

Not to mention a love of race records and, ultimately, Alan Freeds radio broadcasts that extolled the virtues of rhythm and blues.

None of that, of course, could lead me a white male to genuine empathy.

And neither (though Nambi E. Kelley marvelously adapted it from the book) did the MTC play.

Despite its inherent passion and vitriol, mega-potent acting by Jerod Haynes and the rest of the sterling ensemble, top-notch directing by Seret Scott, and ultra-exciting stagecraft, sound and lighting.

It all takes place in cold, snowy Chicago, in the minds-eye of Bigger Thomas, a 20-year-old black man from a rat-infested environment who accidentally kills a white heiress and flees the crime scene.

Wright, son of a sharecropper who liked to insert his Communist leanings into his work, based his novel on a real story, one in which a black man was electrocuted.

Kelley who purportedly began working on her adaptation right after George Zimmerman was found not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin in 2013 fabricated Biggers alter ego/conscience in the corporeal form of The Black Rat, a shadowy figure who often replicates Biggers words.

And sometimes contradicts them.

That voice is riddled with echoes of the trap the protagonist finds himself in, summed up by this line:

White folks dont let us do nuthin.

Bigger, in fact, is not allowed to be a man but a subhuman person.

A big rat he kills early on becomes a palpable metaphor reflecting his self-image, yet its chilling to watch his descent into a hell that reflected real life in the late 30s and, sadly, real life in 2017.

The play in contrast to the lily white society that rapidly closes in on Bigger, and the lily white cat constantly fondled by one supporting character is dark.

Unfortunately, considering who just took up residence in the White House, the audience has scant hope of escaping like darknesses in the near future.

Native Son will play at the Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley, through Feb. 12. Night performances, 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays; matinees, 2 p.m. Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets: $22 to $60. Information: (415) 388-5208 or marintheatre.org.

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'Native Sun' is a potent tale of black oppression, but - Marinscope Community Newspapers

Photo by: Heather Coit/The News-Gazette

Katie Koca Polite, assistant curator and publications specialist at Krannert Art Museum, talks about the upcoming Works Progress Administration exhibit next to Edwin Boyd Johnson's 1934 'Mural Painting' last week at the museum in Champaign.

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CHAMPAIGN There is no relief program for artists as well-known as the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project during the Great Depression, it put some 10,000 artists and craftsmen to work.

They created thousands of paintings, lithographs, sculptures and other pieces that often depicted, in American Regionalism style, Americans at work, along with their hopes and dreams.

Starting Thursday evening, visitors to Krannert Art Museum will be able to view 45 of the 575 New Deal artworks allocated to the museum last century in an exhibition titled "Enough to Live On: Art from the WPA."

"Allocation means they are in our collection and we maintain them, but we don't own them," said Krannert's Katie Koca Polite, who curated the exhibition, on view through April 22. "They're basically a super-long loan."

And the University of Illinois campus museum can't be sure how much longer it will be able to keep the WPA art.

"In the last few years, the government asked us for an inventory of all the allocations," Polite said. "The government could come in and say, 'We want those back.' I don't think President Trump will really authorize that, but you don't know."

The works on view at Krannert include paintings, works on paper, lithographs, woodblock prints, sculptures and a brass repousse an image hammered into relief from the reverse side of the metal.

One of the most outstanding is "Mural Painting," likely a study by artist Edwin Boyd Johnson for a mural he would create.

It features female figures holding objects such as a baby and a golden egg and a man wielding a hammer. Behind them are smokestacks, and airplanes in the sky.

Johnson worked for the WPA from 1935 to '43, creating mainly murals, among them "The Old Days" in the Tuscola Post Office.

"Mural Painting" looks particularly good, having been restored and cleaned by Restoration Division, an art-restoration company in Chicago.

Johnson and other artists who worked for the federal program were given broad guidelines by Holger Cahill, national director of the Federal Art Project.

He wanted to promote the styles of American Regionalism, showing average Americans at work or in their everyday lives, and social realism, depicting the everyday but looking more at class structure and other social aspects, Polite said.

However, some European modernism crept into some of the WPA artworks. At least four pieces at Krannert show influences of surrealists Salvador Dali, a Spaniard, and Italian Giorgio de Chirico, as well as of German Expressionism.

However, they're accessible, as are all the WPA pieces. Because the art was often displayed in libraries, hospitals, public schools and federal, state and municipal buildings, the government wanted the art to appeal to the average person and not be over his or her head, Polite said.

Also opening Thursday evening at the museum:

"Land Grant," an exhibition on view through May 14 that pays tribute to the 150th anniversary of the UI. It was put together by students who were in a seminar on curatorial methods taught by UI art history Professor Terri Weissmann and Amy L. Powell, Krannert's curator for modern and contemporary art.

This eclectic exhibit features photos, paintings, documents, newspaper accounts, experimental projects and objects such as a concrete canoe painted by UI engineering students to resemble an ear of corn. Other objects speak to the indigenous who lived here before the university was established.

A focal point is the Billy Morrow Jackson painting "We the People: The Land Grant College Heritage," commissioned in the 1980s by the university for the president's office.

It features prominently portraits of Abraham Lincoln, Justin Morrill and Jonathan Baldwin Turner, who were instrumental in the Morrill Act that established land-grant colleges.

"Light and Movement in Sculpture," curated by Powell, is a small show, also on view through May 14, at the main entrance of the Kinkead Pavilion. It features light-and-kinetic sculptures from the 1960s and '70s; a few have an "op-art" look.

They were created by Fletcher Benton, Chryssa, Max Finkelstein, Richard Hunt, Josef Levi, James Libero Prestini and Earl Reiback.

New York performance artist's first solo presentation features five public events

CHAMPAIGN Krannert Art Museum will host the first solo museum presentation by performance artist Autumn Knight, the current artist-in-residence at New York City's The Studio Museum in Harlem.

Her first performance, "El Diablo y Cristo Negro," a comedic dialogue between the devil and black Christ, will be during the public opening from 6 to 7 p.m. Thursday of the new spring exhibitions at the museum.

"El Diablo y Cristo Negro" explores the relationship between good and evil, or the frenemy relationship between the devil and the black Christ. Joining her in that performance will be Xavier Roe, a University of Illinois theater student, and Chivas Michael, a New Orleans-based actor.

Krannert has given her a performance space at the museum called "In Rehearsal," from the idea that "she's always reworking ideas and presenting them in new formats," said Amy L. Powell, the curator of contemporary and modern art at the museum and the curator for Knight's exhibition.

"There's always this sense that the work isn't finished yet," Powell told the UI News Bureau. "We're getting a peek into her process. She's bringing this sense of rehearsal into the space."

The installation will include videos showing Knight's past work; some of the sources of her inspirations; and companion pieces. Her performances there will be scheduled intermittently throughout the semester.

Here are some of her public performances:

"Here and Now," 7:30 p.m. March 30, Krannert Art Museum. The conversation with Knight will include audience members and a licensed mental-health counselor.

Gallery conversation, 2 p.m. March 31, Krannert Art Museum. Knight and Powell will talk during an informal Q&A about Knight's work and "In Rehearsal."

"Lament," 7:30 p.m. April 13, UI Stock Pavilion, 1402 W. Pennsylvania Ave., U. The dance performance interprets addiction, class and mental illness, with Knight collaborating with Rebecca Ferrell, a choreographer and lecturer in the UI dance department, on the piece. It will feature Abijan Johnson, a Houston-based dance and movement therapist.

"An Experimental Freezing of a Room through Metaphorical Means," week of April 17, Activities and Recreation Center pool, 201 E. Peabody Drive, C. Knight will portray a figure of black motherhood against the soundtrack of the jury's decision to acquit George Zimmerman of murder in the death of Trayvon Martin.

If you go

What: The spring 2017 opening night of new exhibitions "Enough to Live On: Art from the WPA," "Land Grant," "Light and Movement in Sculpture" and performance artist Autumn Knight in rehearsal.

When: 6 to 7 p.m. today, with remarks at 6 p.m. by Kathleen Harleman, museum director and acting dean of the University of Illinois College of Fine and Applied Arts.

Where: Krannert Art Museum, 500 E. Peabody Drive, C.

Admission: Free; suggested donation of $3.

Read the original post:
(Dis)playing it cool: WPA exhibit headlines Krannert Art Museum season - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette

Imagine a Women's March Against Black Genocide and the Struggle of Tennie White Black Agenda Report ... Michigan lead poisoning, prisons swelling up with Black bodies, police murders of Black men and women, Department of Justice refusal to press civil rights violations against the murderers of Trayvon Martin (George Zimmerman) and Michael Brown ... and more »

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Imagine a Women's March Against Black Genocide and the Struggle of Tennie White - Black Agenda Report