Florida House Panel Rejects Bid to Repeal 'Stand Your Ground' Law

A House panel overwhelmingly rejected an attempt Thursday to repeal Florida's controversial "stand your ground" law, with supporters saying it's a needed self-defense measure and critics condemning it as a Wild West throwback.

The House Criminal Justice subcommittee heard more than three hours of testimony before voting 11-2 to kill the bid by Rep. Alan Williams, D-Tallahassee, to erase the 2005 law.

The Florida Senate has advanced modest changes to stand your ground. Williams said that now he will turn his attention to getting a similar fix before the House, whose Republican leaders insist no changes are warranted.

"If we can't repeal it, we must repair it," Williams said following the vote.

Florida was the first of 22 states to enact stand your ground laws,which allow people who feel threatened to use deadly force to protect themselves.

Stand your ground wasn't a central part of the courtroom drama surrounding last year's shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in the Central Florida city of Sanford. But the acquittal in July of neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman heightened attention on the measure.

Zimmerman did not use the stand your ground defense. But it did figure in the judge's instructions to jurors who found him not guilty, prompting protesters to hold a 31-day sit-in at the Florida Capitol, demanding an end to the law.

Members of the Florida activist organization, Dream Defenders, who led the summer sit-in, also crowded Thursday's hearing, urging repeal. Most of the dozens of speakers opposing the law were black,while supporters were overwhelmingly white.

"It gives (people) the legal standing to be a bigot," said Michael Simpson, a Florida State University senior. "To shoot anyone who looks like a threat. Me. And anyone who looks like me. ... How much innocent blood has to be shed?"

But a supporter of the law said it has helped make Floridians feels a fer.

Stand your ground "gives me a fighting chance. Don't take that away from me," said John Cameron of Valparaiso.

In his closing argument to the committee, Williams said repeal would prove a fitting legacy for Martin, who was walking home from a convenience store when he was shot.

"Many of us who talk about being safe and secure in our neighborhoods go back to Trayvon Martin," Williams said, adding,"This is about Trayvon Martin. My job and your job on this committee is how do we help Trayvon Martin get home?"

But defenders of the law said that crime victims should have aright to defend themselves -- in their homes, cars and on the street.

"Florida was the Wild, Wild West before stand your ground," said Committee Chairman Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach. "I have to believe that giving people the right to defend themselves has put criminals on notice."

While Republicans were locked in opposition to the repeal, Williams also lost support from most of his fellow Democrats on the committee.

The bill (HB 4003) was seen as also eliminating state law codifying the so-called castle doctrine, which empowers people threatened in their homes to fight back.

Williams insisted that the castle doctrine would still exist in common law -- and also could be easily reestablished in Florida statutes. But Democrats shared Republicans' fears about threatening that standard.

Two Democrats sided with Williams. But three Democrats voted against the repeal, including Reps. Irv Slosberg of Boca Raton and Dave Kerner of Lake Worth.

"Repealing our God-given right to protect our homes and our families is not the way," Kerner said.

While the House resists changes to the law, the Senate is considering legislation (CS/SB 130) that would require law enforcement agencies to fully investigate shootings involving self-defense claims based on the law and also to develop guidelines for neighborhood watch groups.

Williams said the Senate approach, which has gained bipartisan support, is a first step.

But Williams said more action is needed to define the kind of aggressive action that can allow someone to use deadly force in self-defense.

But the committee chairman, Gaetz, dismissed the Senate proposal as mostly window dressing.

"What the Senate has proposed is an exercise of style oversubstance," Gaetz said.

On that point, Phillip Agnew, executive director of the DreamDefenders, seemed to agree.

"It's not much," Agnew said of the Senate's proposed change. "We want more. But we always want more."

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