Friday, March 23, 2012

"Stand Your Ground," "Shoot First," "Make My Day" state laws—asserting an expansive right to self-defense—have come into focus after last month's killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
While local prosecutors have not arrested the shooter, George Zimmerman, the case is now being investigated by the Department of Justice and a Florida state attorney. It's not clear whether Florida's self-defense law will be applied in the case. (The police report on the shooting refers to it as an "unnecessary killing to prevent unlawful act.")

Still, in not arresting Zimmerman, local officials have pointed to Florida's wide definition of self-defense. In 2005, Florida became the first state to explicitly expand a person's right to use deadly force for self-defense.

Deadly force is justified if a person is gravely threatened in the home or "any other place where he or she has a right to be."

In Florida, once self-defense is invoked, the burden is on the prosecution to disprove the claim.

Here's a rundown of the states with laws mirroring the one in Florida, where there's no duty to retreat in public places and where, in most cases, self-defense claims have some degree of immunity in court. (The specifics of what kind of immunity, and when the burden of proof lies on the prosecution, vary from state to state.)

Many of the laws were originally advocated as a way to address domestic abuse cases 2014 how could a battered wife retreat if she was attacked in her own home? Such legislation also has been recently pushed by the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights groups.
Click on the state to see its law.
Alabama
Arizona
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois (The law does not include a duty to retreat, which courts have interpreted as a right to expansive self-defense.)
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Michigan
Mississippi
Montana
Nevada
North Carolina
Oklahoma
Oregon (Also does not include a duty to retreat.)
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Washington (Also does not include a duty to retreat.)
West Virginia

Obama: "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon"

President Obama spoke out for the first time on Friday about the fatal shooting of an unarmed 17-year-old African-American boy in Florida named Trayvon Martin, calling it a "tragedy."

"I can only imagine what these parents are going through," Mr. Obama said from the White House Rose Garden, "and when I think about this boy, I think about my own kids, and I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this and that everybody pulls together, federal, state and local, to figure out how this tragedy happened."

Mr. Obama said he is glad the Justice Department is investigating the shooting and that Florida Gov. Rick Scott formed a task force in response to the incident as well. The president suggested he was sympathetic to suspicion that the shooting may have been racially motivated.

"You know, if I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon," Mr. Obama said.

"All of us have to do some soul-searching to figure out how does something like this happen," he continued.

"And that means that we examine the laws and the context for what happened as well as the specifics of the incident."