Mediaboss Marketing

Getting away with murder may soon be easier in Florida.

Prosecutors certainly hope it wont be.

Victims family members are pleading with Gov. Rick Scott not to let it happen.

But unless Scott does something he hasnt done much before defy the National Rifle Association the governor will soon approve changes to the states stand your ground law that will make it harder for prosecutors to convict killers.

So, if your wife has her skull bashed in if your son is shot in the back if your mother is strangled their killers will now have a better chance of getting off.

All they will have to do is claim self-defense.

It wont matter whether their claim is bogus. It wont matter if the killer is a gang-banger, a spurned lover or an angry neighbor.

As long as the killers claim they were standing their ground, they will be granted something no other state in America gives them a pre-trial hearing where the courts are predisposed to dismiss the charges.

How? Well, instead of a defendant having the burden of proof in explaining why the killing (or assault) was justified, under this new law, the state will have to explain why it wasnt. Its a standard never before demanded in pre-trial hearings.

The state essentially has to convict killers twice.

Critics have dubbed it a gang members protection act. But its not just gang members who could benefit.

Remember the case out of Jacksonville where a man, angry about loud music, fired 10 times at an SUV full of teenagers and then later claimed he was firing in self-defense?

Well, had this law been in place then, it mightve been good news for him.

Thats what makes the mother of the unarmed boy killed by that man so mad. This law would be a gross miscarriage of justice for families like mine, Lucy McBath wrote in an op-ed earlier this year, adding that the change would promote violence, vigilantism and a general shoot first, ask questions later culture.

McBath and Florida prosecutors want Scott to veto the bill. That seems highly unlikely.

The NRA claims the bill is needed to protect those who act in self-defense. What the NRA has not done, however, is provide evidence that self-defenders are routinely being wrongly convicted in this state. Its a non-solution in search of a problem.

Instead, the campaign to pass this law appears to be just another issue for the NRA to rally members and donations in the face of a nonexistent threat. Yet anyone who questions the law is branded anti-gun.

But that simple-minded tactic falls apart once you realize that this bills No. 1 critic is Seminole Countys gun-toting, conservative, NRA-card-carrying state attorney, Phil Archer.

Archer isnt against guns. Hes against murder. And assault. And bad guys getting off. And putting victims families through two trials. And wasting taxpayer money. And giving criminals a reason to claim self-defense, even when its completely bogus.

So he repeatedly traveled to Tallahassee to explain the faults of this bill stressing that theres a reason no other state in America gives accused killers and batterers such an advantage.

But Archer was ignored by every single legislator from his home county. Seminole County Republican Reps. Jason Brodeur, Bob Cortes and Scott Plakon and Sen. David Simmons all voted to pass the bill in a largely party-line split.

To be honest, Im not convinced all of Floridas legislators really understood what they were doing. Ive seen legislators pass NRA bills sometimes without asking questions, sometimes over their own whispered objections simply because they lack the fortitude Archer displayed in challenging the NRA.

They may not realize their mistake until down the road after court costs skyrocket, after different judges offer conflicting interpretations of the law or maybe after someone who kills one their friends gets off on a technicality.

Sometimes politicians just dont contemplate the real-world implications of the laws they pass.

Last week, though, one of them got a pretty good wake-up call.

It happened after a candidate for Congress in Montana body-slammed a reporter. Some politicians, including Panhandle freshman Congressman Matt Gaetz, began joking about other journalists who deserved a good body slam.

It was all fun-and-games until a reporter reminded Gaetz via Twitter that, under the stand your ground law he supported as a legislator a law that says those attacked have no duty to retreat that reporter would be justified in responding to a body-slamming by shooting the congressman.

Gaetzs response: Good point.

smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com

See more here:
With 'stand your ground' change, getting away with murder in Florida could soon be easier - Orlando Sentinel