Court: Florida police can use 'stand your ground' law

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Court: Florida police can use 'stand your ground' law
Curt Anderson, Ap Legal Affairs Writer
Updated 4:23 pm CST, Thursday, December 13, 2018



Photo: Rafael Olmeda, AP
FILE - In this June 16, 2016, file photo, Peter Peraza, a Broward County sheriff's deputy testifies at his trial in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that law enforcement officers can invoke the "stand your ground" law that could make them immune from criminal prosecution in a shooting. The 7-0 decision Thursday came in the case of Peraza, a Broward County sheriff's deputy who was charged with manslaughter in the 2013 shooting death of a man carrying what turned out to be an air rifle. (Rafael Olmeda/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, File)


MIAMI (AP) — Florida law enforcement officers can invoke the state's "stand your ground" self-defense law to protect them from criminal prosecution in some instances of deadly force, the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday.

The court issued its 7-0 decision in the case of Peter Peraza, a Broward County sheriff's deputy charged with manslaughter in the 2013 fatal shooting of a man carrying what turned out to be an air rifle.

Peraza's lawyers claimed he was immune from prosecution under the stand your ground law, which permits use of deadly force when a person has a legitimate fear of "imminent death or great bodily harm." The justices agreed with two lower court rulings, which concluded that the law applies to law enforcement officers the same as anyone else.

"Simply put, a law enforcement officer is a 'person' whether on duty or off, and irrespective of whether the officer is making an arrest," Justice Alan Lawson wrote for the court.



Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Court-Florida-police-can-use-stand-your-ground-13463769.php

[benld74]

1. Bovine excretement!!!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

2. Oh FFS!

.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

12. Fucking Florida.

Now, I suppose Nouman Raja will try to use this, as all of his other options have failed.

[turbinetree]

3. This is just as fuck up as the entire state..........You never know when your going to get blasted

now................they can just shoot you...............everything down is going to be used as "legitimate fear of "imminent death or great bodily harm."

Fuck off Florida...........................your not worth it...................

[SummerSnow]

4. i will never go to Florida

[iluvtennis]

5. Disgusting. Just gave them the license to kill more black/brown ppl w/o consequences.

[pecosbob]

6. The ruling made sense in this narrow application

the next probably will not.

[pwb]

7. Soon Florida will be under water and desert.

I will never go back there. Maybe we should wall them in?

[cab67]

8. Florida is where these foolish laws will eventually die.

At some point, some yahoo is going to shoot a tourist from abroad and claim "stand your ground." That person's country will issue travel advisories against visiting Florida. Other countries will join in. And the law will be retracted.

That Florida does whatever the tourism industry wants is illustrated by the fact that Florida was the first state to allow juveniles to be charged as adults in serious crimes. There was a string of high-profile violent crimes against tourists in the 1980's. It prompted advisories against travel to Florida from several European countries. Florida is awash in special interests, but tourism is the most powerful. If the tourism lobby decides the "stand your ground" law has to go, it will go - and there's nothing the NRA can do to stop it.

[angrychair]

11. Already have

Several countries already warn their citizens to use extreme caution when dealing with US law enforcement.

[X_Digger]

9. Yes, law enforcement are people, the same laws apply to them as to us.

What, do some posters believe they're not people? That the same laws don't apply to them?

How.. unnerving.

[msongs]

10. murder Inc nt