Florida ‘stand your ground’ law yields some shocking outcomes depending on how law is applied

By Kris HundleySusan Taylor Martin and Connie Humburg, Tampa Bay Times

FL Stand Your Grd Case Outcomes
Results of the Tampa Bay Times‘ investigation into stand-your-ground cases

Florida’s “stand your ground” law has allowed drug dealers to avoid murder charges and gang members to walk free. It has stymied prosecutors and confused judges. It has also served its intended purpose, exonerating dozens of people who were deemed to be legitimately acting in self-defense. Among them: a woman who was choked and beaten by an irate tenant and a man who was threatened in his driveway by a felon.

Reynaldo Muñoz, a 20-year-old deaf man, was trying to steal a jet ski from a dock when the owners saw him and called 911. Dispatchers recorded Yasmin Davis telling her 14-year-old son Jack to "get the gun." Moments later the boy fired, the shot recorded on the 911 tape. Police found Muñoz's body floating in the bay. A lawyer for the victim's family has argued that the shooting was unnecessary and that Muñoz was not on the shooter's property when the gun was fired.  Originally, the family told police that Muñoz threatened them, according to Miami Herald reports. But one of Muñoz's former teachers said that would be impossible because he was nearly deaf and could not be understood when he spoke. On June 19, 2013, prosecutors announced they would not to charge Jack Davis in the death of Reynaldo Muñoz. Investigating agency: Miami-Dade Police Case decision made by: Prosecutor
Reynaldo Muñoz, a 20-year-old deaf man, was killed when trying to steal a jet ski, and the family’s lawyer says the shooting was unnecessary and the perpetrators lied.

Seven years since it was passed, Florida’s “stand your ground” law is being invoked with unexpected frequency, in ways no one imagined, to free killers and violent attackers whose self-defense claims seem questionable at best.

Cases with similar facts show surprising — sometimes shocking — differences in outcomes. If you claim “stand your ground” as the reason you shot someone, what happens to you can depend less on the merits of the case than on who you are, whom you kill and where your case is decided….

In the most comprehensive effort of its kind, the Tampa Bay Times has identified nearly 200 “stand your ground” cases and their outcomes. The Times identified cases through media reports, court records and dozens of interviews with prosecutors and defense attorneys across the state.

Read the shocking findings here.

Read more Breaking News here.

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