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By Meg Wagner

A fight about texting

A retired Florida police captain who shot and killed a man in 2014 inside a movie theater during a dispute over texting cant use the states controversial stand your ground law to defend himself, a judge ruled Friday.

Curtis Reeves, 74, will stand trial for the shooting death of 43-year-old Chad Oulson. He faces second-degree murder charges.

Reeves and his lawyers had argued that he deserved immunity from prosecution under Floridas controversial stand your ground law, which allows anyone who fears death or great bodily harm to use deadly force during a violent confrontation.

Reeves, a former Tampa Police Department captain claimed he was acting in self-defense when he shot Oulson during the previews of a Jan. 13, 2014 showing of the Afghanistan war dramaLone Survivor at Wesley Chapels Cobb Grove 16 cinemas.

Oulson had been texting as he waited for the movie to begin. When Reeves complained and asked him to turn his phone off, Oulson cursed at him, threw popcorn and tried to attack him, Reeves claimed.

He was in a fit of rage, Reeves testified.

But Circuit Judge Susan Barthle ultimately sided with prosecutors, who argued that Reeves should not be allowed to use the stand your ground defense because he provoked the argument. Barthle wrote that there wasnt enough evidence to show that Oulson was threatening Reeves; In fact, video from the theater showed Reeves lunging at Oulson, not the other way around.

(Reeves) also appeared quite self-assured when he was testifying, and certainly did not appear to be a man who was afraid of anyone, she wrote in her decision.

Stand your ground or shoot first?

Florida passed its stand your ground statute in 2005, becoming the first state in the nation to implement such aggressive self-defense legislation.

Usually, anyone who feels attacked has a duty to retreat and remove themselves from an altercation (if they have a safe way to do so) before resorting to self-defense violence. But the stand your ground doctrine says its every citizens right to stand up for him or herself: Citizens can use deadly force as soon as they fear for their lives or wellbeing even if they have a safe way to get away.

Stand your ground proponents claim that no one should be forced to retreat when they are attacked, and claim the law removes the long legal proceedings necessary to vindicate those who use deadly force in self-defense.

Critics sometimes call the statue a shoot first law, insisting that not only is the law unnecessary federal and state laws already include the concept of self-defense but also dangerous, since it may encourage people to resort to violence when there are still other options on the table.

Since Florida passed the law, more than 20 other states have followed suit with similar stand your ground laws.

The acquittal of George Zimmerman in the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin is most famously and mistakenly attributed to Floridas stand your ground law.

While Zimmerman claimed he killed unarmed teenager Martin in self-defense, his legal team never invoked the stand your ground law. They insisted that killing the teen was Zimmermans only option, and Stand your ground only applies if theres a nonviolent way to end the threat. However, while Zimmerman did not invoke the law, it was included in the jurys deliberation instructions.

Between 2005 and 2013 there were more than 200 cases in Florida that used the stand your ground defense.

More protection for stand your ground invokers

Reeves bid for stand your ground immunity was denied because he could not prove that he was acting in self-defense but some Florida lawmakers want to flip the burden of proof to the prosecution.

A bill in Floridas Senate would require that prosecutors prove that a stand your ground defendant was not acting in self-defense. Essentially, it would give those who use deadly force even more protection, because they would not be responsible for showing that their actions were justified.

Sen. Rob Bradley, who introduced the bill, said that its not a novel concept, because in other court cases, prosecutors must prove the case, while the defendant is presumed innocent and must beproven guilty.

We have a tradition in our criminal justice system that the burden of proof is with the government from the beginning of the case to the end, he said, though so-called affirmative defenses like stand your ground, the more general self-defense argument and diminished capacity actually do require that defendant meet a burden of proof.

If the bill passes, it would be another self-defense first in Floridas history. Only four other states with stand your ground laws mention the burden of proof in their statues, and all of them say it falls on the defense, not the prosecution.

A vote in Floridas Senate is expected as early as Friday.

Excerpt from:
'Stand your ground' defense denied for ex-cop in theater killing - Fox 59

March 11, 2017 A retired Tampa Bay police captain will face second-degree murder and aggravated battery charges after a judge rejected his petition to dismiss the case based on Floridas stand your ground law.

Curtis Reeves Jr., the former officer, was involved in a 2014 dispute with Chad Oulson at a suburban Tampa theater, over Mr. Oulsons use of a cell phone during previews of the movie "Lone Survivor." His trial date has not yet been set.

The ruling comes as Floridas state senate prepares to vote on a bill that would force prosecutors to prove that a defendant was not acting in self-defense before cases are brought to trial. That would shift the burden of proof away from defendants, putting Florida at the vanguard of the two dozen states with laws permitting the use of forcein self-defense in some cases, deadly force in confrontations where a person "fears death or great bodily harm."

Mr. Reeves had argued that the dispute had quickly become a life-or-death struggle, claiming that Mr. Oulson had struck him with either his fist or cell phone and cornered him in his seat, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

But Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Susan Barthle rejected that account, finding that surveillance video clearly countered Reeves claims of being hit or menaced by Oulson. Reeves appeared to haveinitiated contact with the alleged victim on at least three occasions..

In fact, the video clearly shows that the closest the alleged victim ever came to the defendant was when his hand reached for and grabbed the defendants popcorn and threw it on him, wrote the judge in her opinion, according to a local ABC affiliate. At that point, she added, Reeves lunged forward and fired at the alleged victim, "who at that point was so far back from the defendant that he could not even be seen in the video anymore."

The new bill being considered by Floridas Senate has garnered opposition from Democrats and prosecutors, who say it would stack the odds against victims of gun crimes and encourage vigilantism.

"This legislation would effectively require defendants who raise stand your ground defenses to be convicted twice, said Lucy McBath at a committee hearing on the bill, according to ABC News. Ms. McBaths teenaged son Jordan Davis was fatally shot by Michael Dunn after an argument in Jacksonville. Mr. Dunn was later convicted of murder, though the first jury on the case was unable to reach a decision an outcome McBath blames on jury instructions that, as in the 2013 Trayvon Martin case, included details about the stand- your-ground law.

Among supporters of the bill is Marissa Alexander, who was convicted in 2012 to 20 years in prison for firing what she calls awarning shot" near her estranged husband, in another high-profile, stand-your-ground case in Florida. Ms. Alexanders conviction was later thrown out, and she was freed in a 2014 plea deal.

"So for me, one shot and a 12-minute verdict got me 20 years in my own home, concealed weapon license, white-collar worker, she said, according to NPR.

See the original post:
Why Florida judge rejected the 'stand your ground' defense in movie shooting - Christian Science Monitor

Curtis Reeves Jr. takes the stand to testify during his hearing in Dade City, Fla., last month. A judge denied his request to dismiss the charges against him under Florida's Stand Your Ground law. Octavio Jones/AP hide caption

Curtis Reeves Jr. takes the stand to testify during his hearing in Dade City, Fla., last month. A judge denied his request to dismiss the charges against him under Florida's Stand Your Ground law.

A retired police officer who fatally shot a man in a Florida movie theater will stand trial after a judge denied his request to dismiss the charges under the state's "Stand Your Ground" law.

Curtis Reeves Jr., 74, was with his wife at a showing of Lone Survivor in suburban Tampa in 2014 when he got into a dispute with Chad Oulson, 43, because Oulson was texting during the previews.

Reeves was charged with second-degree murder and aggravated battery. In seeking to have the charges dismissed under Stand Your Ground," Reeves's lawyers needed to show that Reeves reasonably believed that using deadly force was necessary "to prevent death or great bodily harm."

Reeves claimed Oulson had hit him in the face with a cellphone, leaving him dazed. But Circuit Judge Susan Barthle said surveillance video of the episode contradicted Reeves' account. "The video evidence contradicts this assertion, clearly showing that there was no hit from a fist, and the item argued by the defense to be a cell phone was simply a reflection from the defendant's shoes," Barthle writes in her order.

Barthle was also not persuaded by the defendant's claims that Oulson "was virtually on top of him" or that Reeves was afraid of Oulson. As Barthle writes, "the defendant initiated contact with the alleged victim on at least three occasions and was not concerned about leaving his wife there alone when he went to talk to the manager."

Florida's Stand Your Ground law was passed in 2005, with support from the National Rifle Association and defense attorneys. Lawyers for George Zimmerman did not invoke Stand Your Ground in defense of his killing Trayvon Martin in 2012, but the law was part of the instructions to the jury that acquitted Zimmerman, as NPR's Greg Allen reported.

Evidence suggests that state Stand Your Ground laws have led to a rise in homicides. As a researcher told NPR's Shankar Vendantam in 2013,

"These laws lower the cost of using lethal force," says Mark Hoekstra, an economist with Texas A&M University who examined stand your ground laws. "Our study finds that, as a result, you get more of it."

Now, Florida lawmakers are trying to take the law a step further, by requiring prosecutors to prove that a defendant wasn't acting in self-defense. If the proposed expansion passes, Greg reports, it could make it easier for defendants such as Reeves to be granted immunity from prosecution.

Visit link:
Judge Rejects 'Stand Your Ground' Defense In Florida Theater Shooting Case - NPR

New York Times

'Stand Your Ground' Could Get Worse - The New York Times New York Times Republican legislators in Florida are planning to compound the deadly mischief of the state's Stand Your Ground law by allowing accused killers even greater ... Florida Lawmakers To Vote On Expanding 'Stand Your Ground' Law ...Alabama Public Radio Pro-Gun Group Not Happy With Latest 'Diluted' Version Of Stand ...WFSU Florida looks to expand 'stand your ground' immunity | South Florida ...The South Florida Times all 6 news articles »

Here is the original post:
'Stand Your Ground' Could Get Worse - The New York Times - New York Times

A memorial for Carlos Garica outside Yaileen Ayala's Florida home. It marks where her ex-husband died after he was shot following an argument with a neighbor. [Photo: Zack Wittman/The Tampa Bay Times via AP]]

A powerful Florida state senator with a top grade from the National Rifle Association has caused a stir this week by publicly opposing much of the groups 2017 state legislative agenda.

The lawmaker, Anitere Flores, a Miami-based Republican, is the upper chambers president pro tempore and a member of the nine-person Judiciary Committee. On Tuesday evening, she announced that she would vote against a slew of bills proposed by a Republican colleague that would have allowed guns on college campuses, and in airports, elementary schools, and other places where they are currently banned.

Throughout my personal, professional, and legislative career I have expressed concerns with the reduction of traditional gun-free zones, she told Sunshine State News. This is not something new nor should it be a surprise to those who follow the legislative process.

Her opposition means that the bills will almost certainly fail to advance through the Judiciary Committee, where Republicans hold five seats to Democrats four.

But the NRA-backed bill with the most documented public safety implications is still alive in the Florida legislature in part because Flores supported it.

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Lawmakers are considering a bill that would expand Floridas highly controversial stand your ground law. The measure would would require prosecutors to make the case for when a self-defense claim is not valid at a pre-trial hearing. Currently, the burden for making the case for why a claim should be allowed falls to the defense.

It is already difficult to prosecute cases where stand your ground is invoked; opponents of the new law say its language would make such prosecutions all but impossible, and possibly encourage more vigilante justice.

Six weeks ago, on January 24, Flores voted in favor of the bill with her Republican colleagues on the Judiciary Committee, helping to move it to the Senate floor, where it will receive a full vote next week.

Flores did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The existing version of the law was adopted in 2005. It says that people have a right to defend themselves with deadly force so long as they believe they are under grave threat, and are in a place they have a right to be. The law attracted national attention in 2012, after the death of Trayvon Martin. That year, a Tampa Bay Times investigation found that since the statute was first enacted almost 70 percent of those using a stand your ground defense had gone free, and that shooters were much less likely to be convicted if the victim was black. In November of 2016, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that over the following nine years after Floridas stand your ground law had been implemented, the states gun homicide rate rose by 31.6 percent.

A federal appeals court has thrown out the controversial 'Docs vs. Glocks' law.

by Alex Yablon

The bill amending the law is sponsored by Senator Rob Bradley, a Republican.

What I hope is the outcome of this is something that I hope we all agree on, that people who should not be arrested are not arrested and people who should not go to trial do not go to trial, Bradley told the Orlando Sentinel in January. If I believed that an individual who was otherwise guilty would go free, because this bill passed, then I wouldnt have filed the bill.

The Trace reported in January that Flores is one of two Republicans on the Judiciary Committee who represents a portion of the Miami area, where the NRA has little clout. The city is an outlier in a state where Republicans control both legislative chambers and the governorship. That helps explain Flores opposition to the gun bills under consideration on Tuesday.

The various pieces of legislation, which have received vigorous support from the NRA, would have not only dramatically expanded the number of places gun owners can carry concealed weapons, but would also allow the open carrying of firearms in public.

Last year, a similar version of Bradleys bill cleared the Senate, but died in the House, after Charles McBurney, the Republican chairman of that chambers Judiciary Committee, refused to bring it up for a vote.

McBurney, a lawyer, was finishing out his final term as a lawmaker. He was hoping to receive a judicial appointment to a circuit court in the Jacksonville area, and was a favorite candidate for the job. But then the NRAs Florida lobbyist, Marion Hammer, mounted a campaign against him, inciting thousands of members to email Governor Rick Scott, demanding that he cast McBurney aside.

The campaign was successful, and later, McBurney, who once had an A+ rating from the NRA, wrote an op-ed arguing that the bill had nothing to do with the Second Amendment.

To me, he said, it was a pro-criminal bill.

See more here:
'Stand Your Ground' Expansion Finds Support in Florida As Other Pro-Gun Bills Fade - The Trace