FLORIDA: Task force completes study, very little change to Stand Your Ground law.

SNIP

The "Stand your Ground" law was put under task review by Florida governor Rick Scott in light of the Zimmerman case. On Wednesday, according to the Business Insider, "The task force concurs with the core belief that all persons, regardless of citizenship status, have a right to feel safe and secure in our state," the task force wrote in its recommendation. "To that end, all persons have a fundamental right to stand their ground and defend themselves from attack with proportionate force in every place they have a lawful right to be and are conducting themselves in a lawful manner." In other words, the law remains for the most part unchanged.

SNIP

A group tasked by Gov. Rick Scott with reviewing the state’s “stand your ground” self defense law appears unlikely to recommend any major revamping of the statute, although it will make suggestions for additional study by lawmakers.

The panel, meeting Tuesday in Pensacola, worked on a draft report that largely would urge lawmakers to look more carefully at couple of particular concerns about areas of the law that may be vague. The panel was created to review the law in the wake of the case in which neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin.

The basic premise of the law isn’t being challenged by the panel, which includes lawmakers, prosecutors, defense attorneys, representatives of minority communities and law enforcement. The law essentially allows anyone who feels that their life or someone else’s life is in danger while out in public to meet the threat of force with force. If they claim that was the situation, they can go to a hearing before a judge and get a ruling on that issue without ever going to trial.

The governor’s Task Force on Citizen Safety and Protection does want lawmakers to look more carefully at the part of the law that says that the presumption of justifiable self defense doesn’t apply when the person who uses defensive force is engaged in “unlawful activity.”

SNIP

More at link

SNIP
The 19-member task force, which was assembled by Florida Gov. Rick Scott in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting, spent the last six months reviewing the law, examining research on the law’s impact and going around the state taking public testimony from those who’ve been affected by the law, all with the intent on presenting its findings to the state Legislature.

When the dust settled, it was clear that the law, while not perfect is necessary.

"We reaffirm the validity of the legislation that was enacted in 2005 and the importance of the ability of a truly innocent victim to be able to stand his or her ground" if they are attacked, Sen. David Simmons (R-Altamonte Springs) one of the original architects of the law, told the Tallahassee Bureau.

Though, with that said, the task force hopes that lawmakers will consider making some minor adjustments to ensure that the law is applied more consistently across the state when the legislature reconvenes in January.

More at link