'Stand your ground' changes bad for law enforcement
By Andrew Warren, state attorney for the 13th Judicial Circuit, which covers Hillsborough County.
The Florida Legislature is considering significant changes to the "stand your ground'' law that will make our communities less safe and unnecessarily disrupt our criminal justice system while doing nothing to protect those who legally own guns.
The Legislature also has falsely suggested the proposed changes will have no financial impact. The proposed legislation fundamentally changes our jury system by requiring, for the first time in Florida legal history, that state prosecutors would have to disprove a legal defense to even begin prosecuting a case. The proposals quickly moving through this year's legislative process threaten public safety and undermine the fair and equal criminal justice system that our community deserves.
In 2005, the Legislature enacted the nation's first "stand your ground'' law, which removed a person's duty to retreat before using force in self-defense of himself, another person, his home, or property. In legal terms, "stand your ground'' expanded the scope of the long-standing defense of self-defense. Procedurally, a criminal defendant asserting "stand your ground'' immunity must establish by a preponderance of evidence (more than 50 percent standard) at a pretrial hearing that he or she acted in self-defense.
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/column-stand-your-ground-changes-bad-for-law-enforcement/2315131