Gun Homicide Rates Up 31 Percent Since Stand Your Ground(FL)

[HAB911]

60. Stand Your Ground law not working as intended despite changing self defense in Florida

http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2015-11-21/story/stand-your-ground-law-not-working-intended-despite-changing-self-defense

It’s been a decade since Florida enacted a Stand Your Ground law designed to provide a simpler, faster, cheaper legal path for those defending themselves against accusations related to deadly force. And while that path still exists, it is infrequently used by defendants and even less frequently successful for them.

Meanwhile, the law has created ambiguities and misunderstandings about self-defense in Florida that are impacting the way deadly-force cases are defended and decided.

Records show that since the Stand Your Ground law was implemented, there have been 64 cases filed in Duval County in which defendants charged with felonies claimed self-defense and requested a Stand Your Ground hearing. Of those hearings, judges granted dismissals in just four. Eight defendants — twice as many — were acquitted after a trial. The other 52 reached plea deals, were convicted by juries, were committed to mental institutions or are still awaiting trial.

One of the four defendants whose charges were dismissed after Stand Your Ground hearings was Leonard Dillard, accused in the stabbing of Albert Camp outside a Main Street sports bar. Dillard was arrested in December 2011, but his Stand Your Ground claim wasn’t granted until September 2014. Circuit Judge Adrian G. Soud presided. “He looked right at me and said, ‘Mr. Dillard, this case is dismissed.’ I thought I could breathe again for the first time since I’d been arrested.”