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We cannot bring back the loved ones killed by vigilantism disguised as self-defense under the purview of Floridas stand your ground law. But 16 years later, we can at least restore the duty to retreat when a person can safely withdraw from a threat. And yet, state Sen. Shevrin Jones Self-Defense Restoration Act (SB 1052) faces an uphill battle, given the prevalence of a misbegotten belief in a shoot first, ask questions later method of dispute resolution.

When I published Stand Your Ground: A History of Americas Love Affair with Lethal Self-Defense in 2017, I naively believed that the laws that originated in Florida would get dismantled by legislators and outraged citizens, exhausted by the carnage that the laws encourage. But since 2005, 36 other states have passed stand your ground laws they continue to spread across the nation, a pandemic of weaponized self-defense.

As John Roman of the Urban Institute explained, stand your ground was a classic solution in search of a problem. The existing laws, including the castle doctrine and laws governing self-defensive force, already allowed people to protect themselves and their homes, and they allowed non-aggressors to fight back when threatened in public spaces.

Stand your ground proponents have argued that women need the law in order to defend themselves from dangerous perpetrators and rapists. They have asserted that existing laws would force women to retreat from aggressors, thus putting themselves in additional danger by turning their backs on potentially armed, larger male strangers.

But in focusing on the threats of strangers, they ignored a vital fact. By far, womens greatest statistical threat continues to be men they know, usually their own intimate partners and exes. As the case of Marissa Alexander, who spent years in prison after firing a warning shot at her husband, made tragically clear, stand your ground laws were not designed to provide legal immunity to women defending themselves from violent intimate partners and exes.

The accumulating archive of cases of woman imprisoned for surviving an assault testify to the historic backdrop of our cultures underacknowledged patriarchal and white supremacist suspicion of women, especially Black, brown and indigenous women, who resist partner violence. As in Alexanders case, such defendants are often portrayed as angry rather than fearful.

In addition to betraying any semblance of gender equity in rules of justifiable force, stand your ground laws amplify gun homicide rates. The implementation of Floridas stand your ground law was associated with a 24 percent increase in monthly homicide rates and a 32 percent increase in monthly firearm homicide rates. The states stand your ground law is also associated with a 45 percent increase in quarterly rates of adolescent gun homicide, driven by a 52 percent increase in the gun homicide rate among Black adolescents.

While these data alone are shocking, what they dont reveal are the manifold ways in which stand your ground laws invite and reward violence when the aggressor claims to have been acting in self-defense, especially if the only other witness is dead. We have watched as predominantly white aggressors use excessive force against unarmed, usually non-white men or boys, and then appeal for legal immunity. When armed assailants claim to have been victims of an attack and/or to have been in fear for their lives, they are often granted the benefit of the doubt. Those judging the reasonableness of this claim including law enforcement, judges, lawyers and juries must weigh the defendants claim of fear against the perception of threat that the deceased person may have posed.

Floridas stand your ground law places the burden of proof on the prosecution to show that the defendant was not acting in self-defense, which also stacks the deck against justice in cases of wrongful violence. As the case of D.J. Broadus a 31-year-old Black man killed by his white, male (ex)lover reveals, its hard to disprove a defendants claim of self-defense when the only other witness is dead. The law provides layers of legal immunity so that an aggressors claims of self-defense cannot be questioned, effectively reversing the roles of victim and perpetrator.

While the Self-Defense Restoration Act sponsored by Jones, a West Park Democrat, will not bring back those whose lives were unnecessarily taken in the past 15 years, it will revise the law to reinstate a duty to retreat outside ones home. This does not mean that law-abiding people will be required to try to run away from violent criminals who may pursue them.

Rather, it means that people will be expected to resist a threat with reasonable and commensurate force if they are unable to retreat. It means that someone who kills another person in legitimate self-defense will need to justify their actions in a court of law, as should be the case when a human life is taken. It means the re-instatement of law and order, and above all public safety, in a state that has already seen too much unnecessary violence and destruction over the past decade and a half.

Caroline Light teaches gender and ethnic studies at Harvard University. She is the author of stand your ground: A History of Americas Love Affair with Lethal Self-Defense. Follow her at @carolineelight. She wrote this exclusively for the Tampa Bay Times.

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Instead of standing your ground, retreat when possible | Column - Tampa Bay Times

PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) State senators must decide in the coming days whether South Dakotas 19th-century laws permitting people to use of force in self-defense are clear or should be made stronger.

The state House of Representatives voted 61-7 Thursday night for HB 1212 to strengthen them. Every Republican in the chamber backed the legislation, while every Democrat there opposed it.

The legislation is patterned after Florida law, according to sponsor Kevin Jensen. He said its not really a stand your ground measure. The six-page bill however uses the specific phrase has the right to stand his or her ground in several places.

If you look at the bill carefully, this is not a gun bill. The word gun, firearm, pistol doesnt even exist in the bill. Why? Because self-defense can be with anything. You can defend yourself with a knife, a baseball bat, a tire iron, and your fists, when it comes down to this use of force, and thats what the whole thing was about, was clarifying use of force, Jensen said.

He added, We have certain rights as individuals. We have to be able to defend ourselves up to and equal to the force being displayed against us. He said a photograph of a Missouri couple showed the difference between legally displaying a weapon, as the man held his AR-15 at his side, or the illegal act of brandishing a weapon, which the woman did as she pointed hers in the direction of protesters.

The legislation would rewrite the laws and delete archaic references to servants and mistresses. Jensen said it also would expand the definition of a dwelling to cover any portion of a persons home including an attached garage.

South Dakotas self-defense laws currently say there is no duty to retreat. No duty to retreat means stand your ground, Jensen said.

The common perception is people should shoot once theyve pulled their gun in self-defense, he said. What this bill does is take us to that middle ground and defines it, so that if you use excessive force, you are going to be arrested, but if you use equal-to force to end the situation, thats allowable by law, but that gray area is the difference between showing a weapon to defray a situation or actually having to use it. And this clarifies that.

South Dakota law allows any person whos not a criminal to carry a concealed firearm. Democrat leader Jamie Smith said Jensens legislation would make South Dakota a more dangerous place because many people who carry concealed weapons havent received training in the law.

I have been told this isnt a stand-your-ground law but the words are right there, and it does imply its a stand-your-ground law. That law may have been worked on by you for a long time getting that Florida law to fit with South Dakota law but it was invented in Florida. They put these in in in 2005. And so the stand-your-ground laws actually give people license to kill, Smith said.

It allows those who shoot others to obtain immunity, even if they started the confrontation themselves and it could have been de-escalated without the gun. Studies have been done to show the efforts of the Florida law and the studies are not good, Smith said, citing various negative statistics. Im not convinced this law solves a problem. I also think it could lead to increased homicide rates here in the state of South Dakota, and unfortunately I dont want to provide safe harbor as an unintended consequence.

Drew Dennert responded with statistics that he said showed the numbers of murders in Florida rose during the past 15 years roughly proportionate to the populations increase while violent crimes per 100,000 people dropped roughly by half.

John Wiik is lead sponsor in the Senate. The National Rifle Association promotes stand your ground legislation. Brian Gosch, the former House Republican leader and House speaker, is a registered NRA lobbyist for South Dakota. The first bill that Governor Kristi Noem signed in 2019 was NRA-backed legislation lifting South Dakotas requirement of a state permit for concealed carry of firearms.

At the stand-your-ground bills House committee hearing Wednesday, Jensen was the only one to speak for it, while the organization representing South Dakotas county prosecutors went on record opposing one section. Several women from Sioux Falls, Brandon and Rapid City spoke against the overall concept.

More than 20 states have versions of a stand your ground law, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. A national analysis concluded stand-your-ground laws are intended to reduce barriers for self-defense with the aim of further deterring criminal victimization.

This bill is nothing new, Jensen said, citing his law enforcement certification since 1983 and his status as an NRA-certified pistol instructor for 15 years. He said more than 2,000 people have come through his class.

The five different statutes now in law in South Dakota have been in place since before 1900, Jensen said. Our current laws are very confusing, vague and dont really justify certain actions by people. Law enforcement currently decides whether a persons display of a weapon was offensive, which is illegal, or defensive, which is legal.

Unfortunately in South Dakota we have just not made it clear yet, Jensen said. The court should be the one to decide that. In law we dont really address it properly. He said the state attorney generals office reviewed the legislation and was neutral, as was the sheriffs association. The governors office didnt get back to him, he said.

Paul Bachand, representing the South Dakota States Attorneys Association, objected to the legislations granting the person at the scene the right to claim the violent action was justified in countering the attack. He said a judge wouldnt be present when the act occurred.

Jensen said the language was part of the Florida law. If thats the only objection they have, I feel pretty confident we wrote a solid bill, Jensen said.

The House State Affairs Committee voted 10-1 along Republican/Democrat lines for approval. The sentences that drew the county prosecutors opposition were removed on the House floor. It wasnt that important, Jensen said.

Ryan Cwach argued that drunken people who walked into the wrong apartments would get shot. Jensen said the shooters probably would be arrested and have to make their defense in a courtroom. You dont just get to shoot for free, Jensen said. Im sorry, thats not how the real world works, youre still probably going to be charged, youre going to be arrested.

Shootings have been reduced in Florida since passage of the stand-your-ground laws, Jensen said. Theres no doubt about that. Thats a fact.

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Bill would add South Dakota to two dozen states that have stand your ground self-defense laws - KELOLAND.com

Stores such as Academy Sports in Tallahassee allow the purchasing of guns in Florida. Photo by Paulette Jordan

The Florida Senate has introduced a bill, SB 1052, which is titled the Self Defense Restoration Act. This will delete provisions in the controversial Stand Your Ground law relating to people using or threatening to use force if they feel threatened or in defense of people or their property.

The bill was first filed on Feb. 4 and was referred to theJudiciaryCommittee on Feb. 10.

These laws just were passed sort of methodically, particularly in red states, state by state by state, over the course of about 10 years, said Democrat Rep. Robyn Thomas.

SB 1052 bill would essentially Stand YourGround, which gives a person the right to use deadly force when they reasonably believe it to be necessary to defend against danger. The law was used in the Trayvon Martin case. In 2012, George Zimmerman, awhite neighborhood watch volunteer with a history of frequent 911 calls, called and reported spotting Martin , a Black teenager, as a suspicious person in his Sanford subdivision. Zimmerman ignored police instructions and confronted Martin before fatally shooting Martin. Zimmerman pleaded not guilty and used Stand Your Ground as his excuse.

We know for a fact that Stand Your Ground promotes vigilantism, it allows people to shoot first and ask questions later, Shevrin Jones, a Democratic senator from Broward County and a FAMU alum, said. More important, it puts Black people and other people of color at a greater risk of gun violence.

FloridasStand Your Ground policy wassigned into law in 2005by Republican Gov. Jeb Bush. Despite being a very controversial law in Florida,Stand Your Ground has been adopted by many U.S. states. Since the law has been passed many Florida law enforcement officials have complained of the laws overuse due to gang members using itas protection.

In states with Stand Your Ground laws, an analysis of FBI data found when the gunman is white and the victim is Black, homicides are five times more likely to be deemed justified than when the situation is reversed. After Florida passed the first Stand Your Ground law in 2005, Robin Thomas with the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence says many other states followed suit, largely because of intense lobbying by the National Rifle Association, said Greg Allen of National Public Radio.

The National Rifle Association, an influential gun advocacy group, was a strong backer of the bill, and Governor Bush said to retreat and put yourself in a very precarious position defies common sense.

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Senate bill aims to repeal Stand Your Grand law - Famuan

WINK NEWS

A Lee County sheriffs detective is questioning aprosecutorsdecisionnotto charge James Taylor withthe homicide of a man who drunkenly attempted to get into his home in 2016.

Ryan Modell, 32,was drunk and mistakenly tried to enter Taylors condominiumat the Emerson Square development on Old Harmony Drivein south Fort Myerson March 20, 2016.

A year later,prosecutors withthe 20thJudicial Circuit declined to file charges against Taylor, then 45,calling Modells death a justifiable homicide under FloridasStand Your Ground lawbecause Taylor said he feared for his life.

Since then, Modells dad Sandy has filed a wrongfuldeath suitagainst Taylor and Taylor has countersuedModellfor defamation. Both cases were settled.

SandyModell, Ryans father, has fought to get the case reopened without success.

But, in aswornvideorecorded statement,Lt. DavidLebid, a17-year law enforcement officer assigned to the case,paints a different pictureof Taylor and the shooting of ModelltoR. Frank Myers,an attorney hired by Sandy.Lebidcalls into question Taylors claim that he was acting in self-defense.

I personally felt that what Mr. Taylor did was completely wrong and that it was a homicide,Lebidsaid. I believe he murdered this person.

Taylors attorney, Matthew S. Toll, said the case was reviewed and re-reviewed at least twice since then withthe result to not prosecute each time.

Enough already, Toll said. It is time to allow an innocent man who was defending himself and his wife from a violent attack in the middle of the night to move forward in peace.

The State Attorneys Office and the Lee County Sheriffs Officedeclined to comment for this story.The sheriffs officealsodeclined to makeLebid available for an interview. However,Myers, the attorney, said the sheriffs office gaveLebid permission to participatein the sworn interview.

The night of the incident,Taylor and his wife were awakened by a noise and went to check it out, Lebidtold attorneys.They went to thefront door wheretheyfound Modell trying to get into their home,prompting a phone call fromhis wifeto 911where she described Modell as confused.

At some point, the door was opened and Modell tried to get inside,Lebidsaid. It took some force, but eventually, the door was closed on Modell, injuring his foot in the process.

There was actual blood in the threshold of the doorway proving that Ryan was somewhere he didnt belong,Lebidsaid. And then Ryan left.

Thats where the facts of what happened that night get murky.When deputies arrived the night of the shooting, Taylor declined to provide a statementandaskedfor an attorney, Lebid said.

I dont understand why, because the goal was I dont want you in my house, you have the wrong house, and I thought, in my estimation, well, that was accomplished,Lebidsaid.

What makes the most sense,Lebidsaid, is Taylor closed the door on Modell, went to his bedroom to get his Glock 10mm, and came back and shot Modell.Taylor left his wife behind, told her to lock the door, and then went looking for Modell, which is not indicative of someone who is afraid,Lebidsaid.

When Taylor found Modell, he was about 100 feet away from his home,sitting on his butt washing his foot off with a water hose,Lebidsaid, adding that, at that point,Taylor was picking on a lesser person.

Its like kicking a dog or something, he added.

Lebidsaid he wishes investigators would have been able to test Taylors blood alcohol content. But by the time a blood warrant was drawn, it had been about seven hours,Lebidsaid. Any kind of blood evidence that would have indicated blood alcohol content wasnt going to be useful.

ToLebid, it was a homicide case, but Floridas Stand Your Ground law complicated things.

The Lee County Sheriffs Office turned in the investigation as an agency review which means facts gatheredwere turned over to the State Attorneys Office for a determination on the prosecution,Lebidsaid.

Lebidsaidhe doesnt understand why the case was not brought to justice.

I think thats kind of the design of what court is, asking a jury of your peers or authority figure in your area to reviewthese kindofactions,Lebidsaid.We have someone who was shot to death. We have someone whose life was taken from them.

I havent seen this before,Lebidadded.

Lebidsaid thesheriffsoffice once again presentedthe caseto prosecutorsin 2020and they received the sameresponse.

But, ultimately,Lebidsaid Taylor wasnt forced into the situation.

You sought this situation out, he said. You created this opportunity.

Full statement by Matthew S. Toll, the attorney representing James Taylor:

This matter has been reviewed, re-reviewed, and re-reviewed again. The State Attorneys Office, multiple candidates for State Attorney, prosecutors, detectives, numerous other police officers, Judges, an arbitrator, a mediator, numerous attorneys, and a number of members of the media have spent what must be thousands of hours of time in the aggregate considering and analyzing the decisions my client made over a few minutes during the night in question. There have been at least three lawsuits between the parties originating from the incident. All are now resolved, and the litigation costs have all but bankrupted my client and his family. Enough already. It is time to allow an innocent man who was defending himself and his wife from a violent attack in the middle of the night to move forward in peace.

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Sworn testimony: LCSO detective disagrees with prosecutors over 'Stand Your Ground' death - Wink News

After passing in the Arkansas Senate, a Stand Your Ground law has been voted down by the House Judiciary Committee.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. A Stand Your Ground bill in Arkansas was voted down by the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday (Feb. 2).

This comes after the Arkansas Senate passed the bill two weeks ago with a majority of votes. It's a bill that has been met with a lot of opposition.

The bill loosens restrictions on the use of deadly force in self-defense.

After a committee meeting, the bill failed on a voice vote where opponents spoke against the proposal., our sister-station THV11 reports.

A similar Stand Your Ground bill failed in Arkansas two years ago.

Before the bill was voted down, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said a Stand Your Ground bill is important to protect Arkansans Second Amendment right to protect themselves and protect their families.

What this bill does is essentially clean up the language so Arkansans understand that if someone is attacking them using deadly force, then they can defend themselves, she said.

Republican Senator Jim Hendren is one of the senators who voted against the bill.

While I believe in the second amendment and I have my concealed carry, and I believe the right to bear arms, Im concerned about a law that everyone in law enforcement tells us is not necessary and the data shows may lead to more homicides, he said

25 states across the U.S. currently have Stand Your Ground laws in place.

This is a developing story.

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Stand Your Ground Law in Arkansas voted down by House committee - 5newsonline.com