The Stand Your Ground Laws

This case is one that changed the way the United States Police forces will work forever. Every human in the world has natural born rights. Even people who have been arrested have rights, ‘The rights of the accused’. These rights are the main point of this court case.

The Stand Your Ground Laws are becoming a hot topic in today’s news. Headlines are flooded with stories about cases around the country. These laws surround everyone from your everyday citizens to prominent sports figures and entertainers. The Stand Your Ground laws provide individuals with certain rights to protect themselves in events where they may feel threatened. It is also known as the Castle Rule, most of the United States have adopted some form of this law to protect its’ residents who may feel the need to use self-defense in situations where they may feel threatened. These laws spread quickly around the country since Florida passed the first laws in 2005. The law in most states would suggest that a person attempt to retreat

One night in a Florida gated community a young man named Trayvon Martin, was walking down the streets of a mostly white community, stopped by George Zimmerman who was a neighborhood watch resident.Mr. Martin was stopped for being “suspicious” and “up to no good” according to Mr.Zimmerman. Trayvon was fatally shot by Mr. Zimmerman out of “self defense”. Really “Self defense” he was carrying a bag of skittles and a Arizona Tea. This young man was nothing but harmless but was victimed for being African-American.George Zimmerman would rather later stand trial for the murder of Trayvon Martin was found not guilty,until April 2012 he was found guilty of second degree murder.Although there are positives and negatives of this argument, the Black Lives

Beginning in late summer, this country became bombarded with stories in the news about police officers involved in some types of controversy. The controversy that started it all was an incident that happened in Ferguson, Missouri. Since August, there has been much discussion and public debate over whether a police officer’s use of deadly force against an unarmed teenager was justified. On August 9, 2014 a young man named Michael Brown was shot and killed by Officer Darren Wilson after he was stopped for walking in the middle of the street. Was the shooting of an unarmed teenager in Missouri an example of police using excessive force? Who decides what force is recommended or when it becomes excessive? To determine both these questions, we first must define what constitutes specific circumstances as excessive force. Officer Darren Wilson was not guilty of using excessive or lethal force if he felt his safety or the safety of others were in danger or if Michael Brown had surrendered peacefully and without resisting arrest.

The Stand your Ground Law has recently been debated to be a just or unjust law of retaliation. The stand your ground law permits individuals to use deadly weapons when they feel threatened or can be harmed. That means if one feels that they are in fear of losing their life they have every right to defend themselves by any means necessary. This law does not state that if someone is not in the way of facing physical harm or losing their life that they have a right to kill someone else.

The article “Shootings Test Limits of New Self-Defense Law” by Ralph Blumenthal tells the story of Joe Horn, a man in Texas, who shot two men in what he claimed was self-defense under the recently instated “castle doctrine.”

Firstly, what exactly is The Stand You Ground Law? The Stand Your Ground law is a law that expands the Castle Doctrine. For you who are not quite sure what the Castle Doctrine is I will explain. The Castle Doctrine which can also be identified as the make my day or castle law is a doctrine which allows individuals permission to use force, even deadly force to protect themselves against an invader within their home. Previously, as I stated, the Stand Your Ground Law is a law which expands off of the Castle Doctrine. For example, the Stand Your Ground Law provides a person the opportunity to protect themselves if they feel their life is in danger, however unlike the Castle Doctrine, a person can even protect themselves outside of their homes. The Stand Your

Ken Padowitz said, “I think it’s malpractice for a criminal defense lawyer not to use the stand your ground law in every single case where there’s a charge of a violent crime, such as aggravated assault or an aggravated battery”(Whitaker). Giving murders immunity is giving them a free way for murder. For example, no parent wants their kid around sex offenders, would they want their kids around murderers? No, even though there are people looking to do harm around the world, why would more of them be put into freedom. Individuals that are pro Stand Your Ground Laws might say that no murderer is offered immunity because the individual who killed did it in an act of self defense. Is it an act of self defense even of the person “attacking” was not attacking, but rather just seemed threatening? No, and that is why the common law worked just fine because it separated true acts of self defense from just claims.

Considering the stable condition of the US military and the homeland security systems, the country has the most advanced security system that assures citizens of their safety. Regardless, there exists no need for such extreme measures such as civilians being in possession of assault rifles as a strategy to self-defense. If necessary, cases of self-defense on the part of civilians are well handled by ownership of merely concealed pistols that from records are efficient in subduing any intruder while waiting for law enforcement back up. From self-defense and securing property, civilians’ reluctance to support the gun laws on such high caliber weapons has been underwhelming. Their standpoint has been in possession of such assault weapons. The same standpoints have been the cause for such raging debates on the support or disregard of the government proposition to have the assault guns banned from civilians possession (Miller 533).

The Supreme Court has stated that the calculus of the propriety of an officer’s use of force must include the fact that officers are often forced to make split-second decisions in circumstances that are tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving. Officers who use force in the street are judged under the Objective Reasonableness

This paper will be covering the controversial case of the shooting of Trayvon Martin at the hands of George Zimmerman. This was a polarizing trial for it pitted gun rights activists against gun-control activists and people who were generally against the new gun rhetoric that is in Florida. George Zimmerman was the neighborhood watch for the gated community and would always do his job diligently. However, one night he witnessed someone in a grey hoodie walking on the sidewalk wearing a hoodie. Zimmerman thought this person was suspicious and continued to follow him. After Zimmerman called in that he was following this individual, he was told not to leave his vehicle. Instead, he followed the person into who knows where and the rest of the story is up for debate. The defense team stated that Trayvon had jumped out of the bushes and begun to attack Zimmerman violently to the point where he felt that his life was in danger. The prosecution believed that Zimmerman had initiated a fight with Trayvon and he was at the mercy of Zimmerman at gunpoint for a significant amount of time.

In today’s hot topic news there is constant issues with the Stand Your Ground Law. The headlines, television, and social media are overflowing with cases about shootings all around the country. The Stand Your Ground Law creates immunity for an individual who uses deadly force under the belief that he or she is threatened by another person. This law is also called the Castle Rule. Most of the states in the U.S. have adopted some type of form of this law to protect its residents who may feel the need to use self defense in situations where they may feel threatened. This has mainly became a race issue between white police officers and African American citizens. A solution that we can use to help solve a lot of the crimes that associates with the

The consequences presented in Terry vs. Ohio were put forth but examination of the “reasonable balancing test.” By doing so, a balancing test that has a wider variety of causes is now in effect. In this landmark case, it was held that policemen are permitted to perform a “stop and frisk” pat down, if there is reasonable suspicion that the person is presently dangerous and carrying a deadly weapon. This “stop and frisk” method was later extended to vehicle arrests as well.

To begin, what is the “Stand Your Ground Law”? Well many states such as: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia have stand your ground laws which state that individuals do not have to retreat before using force in a self- defense situation or many states have laws that are remarkably similar to stand your ground laws. Stand Your Ground laws started in 2005 when Florida was the first state that passed the stand your ground law which basically allowed individuals to stand their ground instead of fleeing or retreating if they believed

On February 26 2012 Trayvon Martin was shot dead by George Zimmerman, who pleaded not guilty for using self-defense. One important issue to the self-defense plea is that Mr. Zimmerman was familiar with the “stand your ground law” that allows a person to use deadly force in order to prevent heavy injuries, In which Zimmerman states that Trayvon was bashing his head on the concrete. With regards to this the jurors agreed that it was a self-defense situation because they were told that Trayvon was on top and Zimmerman was on the bottom. I personally don’t agree with the verdict because I’m sure that Mr. Zimmerman could’ve handled Trayvon in another form of manner instead of taking his life.