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By Pasang Lama

In 2005 Florida passed its explicit Stand Your Ground law,which gives an individual the right to use deadly force instead of retreating when facing a situation where they feel threatened. As many as 22 states following Florida have passed the law with the help of the American Legislative Council (ALEC).

Since the law was enacted gun deaths in Florida as well as other states with the law have increased. And its not only gun deaths that has increased but also the overall homicide rate compared to states that dont have stand your ground laws.

The law itself has had many controversies over the years. Many critics predicted that the law could lead to racially motivated crimes and promote deadly escalations of arguments, both of which have happened. So therefore it goes to show that the Stand Your Ground laws have increased racial tension, because of the racial bias surrounding the law. African American Civil Rights organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) who are against the law fight to bring justice to those who have been a victim to the racial bias Stand Your Ground laws provide such as Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander.

Case Study: Trayvon Martin/ Marissa Alexander

On the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, an unarmed African american teenager, Trayvon Martin who was returning from a nearby convenience store, was shot to death after an altercation with a neighborhood watchman, George Zimmerman, who had previous criminal records before the shooting. Zimmerman who was initially told by a 911 operator not to pursue Trayvon insisted on doing so leading to the altercation, and eventually Trayvon dead. The case made national headlines and many African Americans believed that it was a racially motivated crime. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights(USCCR) launched an investigation, into Stand Your Ground laws, regarding the controversy around the killing of Trayvon Martin.

The case was under even more scrutiny when Zimmerman was found not guilty due to Floridas Stand Your Ground law as he claimed to have used. The verdicts decision sparked national outrage as people took to the streets and started protesting.

A survey done by The Pew Research Center, on the decision of the verdict, found that 39% were satisfied with the verdict versus 42% who were dissatisfied. Whats more interesting is that 86% of African Americans were dissatisfied versus 5% satisfied whereas 49% of whites were satisfied and only 30% of whom were dissatisfied at the verdicts decision. It wasnt just how satisfied and dissatisfied someone was about the verdict but much more deeper as it shows that 60% of whites believed that the issue of race was getting more attention than it deserved compared to 13% of Africans Americans who also believed that. 78% of Africans Americans believed that the verdicts decision raises important issues about race that need to be discussed compared to 28% of whites who also believe this.

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Stand Your Ground laws Increase Racial Tension. | Arts ...

Sybrina Fulton joins Democratic lawmakers at the state Capitol and calls for the repeal of Florida's Stand Your Ground law.

Tallahassee, Florida - Florida's controversial Stand Your Ground law is a good law, and should not be overturned, according to the final report from Gov. Rick Scott's Citizen Safety Task Force.

The group first convened in May, 2012 after the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. The suspect who shot the 17-year-old boy is trying to use the Stand Your Ground law to defend himself.

The governor's task force held seven meetings across Florida to listen to people's opinions about the law, as well as testimony from experts.

The group was led by Lt. Gov Jennifer Carroll. She rejected criticism that the group was stacked with people who favored the Stand Your Ground law.

Their report concludes people have a right to stand their ground and defend themselves from attack.

Recommendations include: stricter rules for neighborhood watch groups, more training for police and prosecutors to make sure the law is applied fairly and a review of Florida's 10-20-Life law.

Lt. Gov. Carroll declined to talk to us about the report on camera.

Senate Democratic Leader Chris Smith, who assembled his own task force to study the law, says he's not surprised by Carroll's report.

"It's what I expected. When you put a task force together of people who wrote the bill and full of people who support Stand Your Ground, I knew the task force wouldn't come up with anything earth-shattering in their final report."

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Citizen Safety Task force: Florida's Stand Your Ground law ...

The convenience store clerk who foiled an apparent robbery by fatally shooting two Tulsans who police allege had conducted a string of holdups will not be charged, the Tulsa County District Attorneys Office announced Thursday.

Bradley Keeling shot and killed Brian Powell, 27, and Kevin Dobbs, 16, on Jan. 13 after the pair allegedly entered Ryans Convenience Store, 9948 E. 21st St., with the intention to rob it.

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Powell died at the scene and Dobbs died hours later at a Tulsa hospital. Two of their alleged cohorts, Lakeit Thompson and George Williamson, were later arrested and were charged Wednesday under the felony murder statute, which allows prosecutors to hold them legally responsible for any deaths that occurred while they were committing a crime.

Thompson and Williamson also face a number of robbery and assault charges.

Keeling, according to First District Attorney John David Luton, is protected by Oklahomas Stand Your Ground Law.

The Stand Your Ground Law gives Keeling and other Oklahoma business (and home) owners, employees and persons the right to expect absolute safety within their places of business (and homes) and the right to use defensive force likely to cause death or great bodily harm if a person against whom such force was used was in the process of unlawfully and forcefully entering a place of business (or home), he said in a statement.

The law presumes that such a person held a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another when using defensive force, and is justified in using such force and is immune from criminal prosecution, Luton said.

The police investigation into the shooting was quickly turned from a homicide investigation into a robbery investigation, Homicide Sgt. Dave Walker said shortly after Thompson and Williamson were arrested. Surveillance video of the incident inside the store has not been publicly released. Luton said he and District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler will discuss the possible release of that video Friday.

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Tulsa store clerk who fatally shot two alleged armed robbers won't be charged

The Florida Supreme Court no longer plans to use a Palm Beach County case to examine whether felons can use the state's Stand Your Ground self-defense law to avoid serious criminal charges.

In July, the state's highest court announced it would consider whether Brian Bragdon a convicted cocaine dealer accused of shooting at two men in 2012 should be eligible to seek immunity from prosecution.

The Stand Your Ground question was classified as high profile, because of "significant public and media interest in this matter."

But on Dec. 22, the Supreme Court said it no longer had any basis for reviewing the case and sent it back to the 4th District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach. There has been no recent activity in the appeals court, records show; however, a case status hearing is set for Feb. 20 in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.

Why the change by the Supreme Court? It turns out the appellate court had released an opinion in a separate case also from Palm Beach County that essentially wiped out the reason for the Supreme Court deciding to examine Bragdon in the first place.

On July 16, the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled Harvey M. Hill Jr., 24, a felon from Riviera Beach, could try to get his 2009 aggravated battery with a firearm charge dismissed under the controversial self-defense law.

It was a reversal of the appellate court's position in the same case in 2012, and for Bragdon in 2013. Those opinions concluded Hill and Bragdon had no right to Stand Your Ground because they used guns.

It's illegal for felons to possess guns and part of the Stand Your Ground law says it doesn't apply to a person "engaged in an unlawful activity."

But that first Hill opinion conflicted with a 2013 ruling from the 2nd District Court of Appeal, which said a felon in a Lee County second-degree murder case was entitled to use Stand Your Ground to argue he was justified in shooting to protect his life when an assailant pointed two guns at him.

In its second Hill opinion, the 4th District Court of Appeal wrote it now agreed with the 2nd District court that gun-toting felons have the same rights as law-abiding citizens to use the Stand Your Ground law.

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Stand Your Ground remains a possible defense for felons

MIAMI - Tyrone Smith knew how to use his fists. Around his Miami Gardens neighborhood, the 19-year-old was known as the "Karate Kid" because he taught local children self-defense and how to stand up to bullies.

But when Smith felt insulted and began shouting at neighbor Jason Kinsey, the confrontation did not end in fisticuffs. Instead, Kinsey, 20, fatally shot the unarmed teenager - claiming he was defending himself against the martial arts expert.

A judge agreed. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge William Thomas last month ruled that Kinsey did act in self-defense, saying prosecutors are "discounting the enormity of Smith's rage and the level of physical skill that Smith possessed as compared to Kinsey."

The legal fight, however, is far from over. The state attorney's office is now appealing the judge's decision to dismiss the second-degree murder charge.

For prosecutors and Smith's family, the case encapsulates all that is wrong with Florida's Stand Your Ground law: Smith was unarmed, challenging Kinsey to an "old-school" fistfight only after being repeatedly provoked.

"People use that to get away with murder," said Smith's grandmother, Cynthia Hill. "The law needs to be modified."

Travares Daniels, Smith's uncle, said: "I know if a jury had heard this, he'd be going to jail."

But for Kinsey and his defense team, the law worked exactly as lawmakers designed it. Kinsey was the bullied victim and had no duty to retreat. His fear of "great bodily harm" was real, even if Smith had no weapon in his hands, said attorney Richard Gregg.

"This case shows how the Stand Your Ground law is supposed to work and does work," Gregg said. "It's textbook."

Smith is still facing an illegal firearm and evidence-tampering charge. He is under house arrest as prosecutors appeal.

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Another Stand Your Ground case in Florida continues the controversy