The Legacy of 'Stand Your Ground' Laws In Florida

Nicole & Chad Oulson and daughter Lexy

It's probably a fair guess that amongst the ranks of Florida's conservative-leaning state legislators, prosecutors, district attorneys and judges there has to be a measure of regret over the decision to pass the Sunshine State's infamous "Stand Your Ground" law back in 2005.

Since it was introduced, the law has been indirectly responsible for the deaths of a number of unarmed innocent people in Florida, including 17-year-old Trayvon Martin; who was stalked and murdered in 2012 by violent racist psychopath George Zimmerman.

And Chad Oulson (pictured left) a father and husband who was shot and killed inside a movie theater in January 2014 by an enraged retried Tampa police captain named Curtis Reeves.

Over, of all things, the use of a cell phone.

Reeves, then 71, made global headlines when he pulled out his handgun and shot Oulson at point blank range, wounding Oulson's wife Nicole as well, after getting upset at her husband for texting his then 22-month-old daughter's daycare center while movie previews were playing at the matinee.

After a brief verbal confrontation Reeves left to complain to a theater employee, when he came back another argument ensued and at some point Oulson reached back over the seat, grabbed Reeve's popcorn and threw it at him, Reeves then immediately shot and killed Oulson - wounding his wife.

According to the courtroom testimony of Al Hamilton, an off-duty sergeant with the Sumter County Sheriff's Office who witnessed the shooting, a stunned Nicole Oulson told Reeves the confrontation had been no cause to shoot her husband, the retired police captain pointed his finger at her and said:

"You shut your f***in' mouth and don't say another word."

Last week following two weeks of pre-trial testimony Judge Susan Barthle ruled that Reeves' lawyers cannot invoke the 'Stand Your Ground' law as a defense for his shooting Oulson.

Retired police captain Curtis Reeves

If you read the precise text of the law, it states that, in certain circumstances, Florida residents may use deadly force against someone if "A person is presumed to have held a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily harm". 

"Presumed to have held"? 

That language is dangerously ambiguous when you're talking about a law that authorizes someone to kill another person. 

Let's say you were in a movie theater and someone in front of you was texting during the previews.

While my experience is that most reasonable-minded people shut their phones off by the time the actual feature starts, I think it's fair to let someone politely know that a lit cell phone in a dark theater is distracting to others who've paid to see the film.

If that doesn't work you can always go get the manager, or worst case just ask the theater for a refund or ticket credits for another show if the texting or cell phone use gets really obnoxious.

But let's say you got into a verbal confrontation with the offending texter and they got mad and threw popcorn at you - is there any circumstance in which that would be seen as "a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily harm"?

Popcorn isn't lethal last time I checked, sure it would be rude for someone to throw it at you, but it's not going to kill you or anything - you just brush it off.

Unfortunately Curtis Reeves decided to fire a loaded handgun; and he killed Chad Oulson.

Michael Dunn, now serving life without parole

What's also disturbing is that he clearly knew what he was doing.

Before firing the gun, as a former police captain he knew that he could justify the shooting by invoking Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' law.

And he's not the only one.

Remember the disturbing case of Michael Dunn?


As an article published in The Nation by Kristal Brent Zook recounts, in the early evening of November 23, 2012, the day after Thanksgiving, just nine months after the Trayvon Martin shooting, the then-45 year-old Dunn was sitting in his car outside a gas station near Jacksonville, Florida when he became annoyed over loud rap music blaring from an SUV parked next to him.

Dunn asked the four teenage African-American boys inside, Jordan Davis, Lelund Brunson, Tommie Stornes and Tevin Thompson, to turn the music down - which they did.

All four were typical American kids buying cigarettes and gum before driving to the mall to try and meet girls, but in the typical headstrong manner of teens, Davis took offense at Dunn telling them to turn the music down - and he defiantly turned it back up.

Dunn reached into his glove compartment, took out his handgun and fired ten shots at point blank range directly into the interior of the SUV - killing Davis.

17-year-old Jordan Davis, killed over loud music

He too tried to float the 'Stand Your Ground' defense, even going so far as to lie to police and his lawyers about seeing the barrel of a gun in the SUV before firing.

No guns or weapons of any kind were found in the car or at the scene and Dunn was eventually tried, convicted and found guilty of the murder of Jordan and the attempted murder of the other three kids.


He's now serving life without the possibility of parole, but even after all the efforts to obtain justice for his killing, how much comfort is that to Davis family and friends including his mother Lucia McBath?

As Kristal Zook noted in her Nation article, Jordan Davis' maternal grandfather was the president of the Illinois branch of the NAACP for 20 years and played a role in persuading President Lyndon Johnson to sign the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

I think the cases of both Reeves and Dunn demonstrate the ability of Florida judges and prosecutors to recognize cases where 'Stand Your Ground' does not justify homicide.

If someone was in a movie theater and a person pulled out a semi-automatic rifle and threatened the lives of innocent people, or if someone was parked in front of a gas station or church and saw someone get out of a car with a mask on and a loaded handgun in their hand walk inside, I could see 'Stand Your Ground' being used as a justifiable defense.

But only as a last recourse, and only if there was no time to call a police officer - but regardless I think it's a dangerous idea to authorize untrained civilians to kill, period.

As I mentioned above, the text of the law is so ambiguous and it's application is often so arbitrary, that I think that the risks of having the law far outweigh the value to society of having the law on the books.

That brings to mind the case of Marissa Alexander.

Marissa Alexander and her three kids

I last blogged about this courageous single mom back on February 1, 2015 after a judge intervened to overturn the catastrophic failure of incompetent prosecutor Angela Corey - click that link to read more details.

Alexander, an African-American single mom who'd been repeatedly physically abused by her ex-husband Rico Gray, was in her own home being chased by Gray when she retrieved her legally-registered handgun to protect herself.

 Cornered by Gray, she fired a warning shot into the ceiling to keep Gray from attacking her.

Despite the fact that she only fired into the ceiling and had a legitimate claim of standing her ground, conservative prosecutor Angela Corey, the same nitwit who totally bungled the Trayvon Martin case and has faced widespread criticism for her overt racial bias against people of color, inexplicably claimed Alexander could not invoke the 'Stand Your Ground' defense.

Corey helped ensure that Alexander got a 20-year sentence for firing a shot in the air to protect herself, fortunately a grassroots campaign fueled by social media and political pressure eventually resulted in Alexander being freed.

But karma, as they say, is a bitch and Corey's effort to transform her heartless conservative zealotry into a bid for state attorney for the 4th Circuit were torpedoed in a Republican primary last August - due in large part to the public outrage she generated over failing to prosecute George Zimmerman for 2nd degree murder in the Trayvon Martin case.

As an article in USA Today reported, Floridians actually celebrated her loosing her primary bid and the well-deserved reputation for racial bias she's cultivated over the course of her prosecutorial career will follow her for the rest of her life.

Michael Giles - serving 25 years for shooting
a man in the leg who was attacking him

Interestingly, Corey's efforts to deny an African-American the right to invoke 'Stand Your Ground' as a defense are not the only example of a person of color in Florida using a gun to defend themselves and finding themselves blocked from equal access to the same law.

Even though they actually were in situations where "a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily harm" did in fact exist.

After serving two tours in the middle east, active-duty Airman Michael Giles came back to Tampa, Florida in the spring of 2010 when he found himself in the middle of a brawl at a nightclub.

As an article posted on the The Grio reported, Giles, then 26, had been invited to the nightclub in Tallahassee by some friends, and he became concerned for their safety in the middle of the melee started by the members of two fraternities from Florida A&M University.

The married father of three went out to his car to retrieve his handgun and put it in his pants and ran back in to find them.

After getting punched and thrown to the ground, Giles pulled out his handgun and shot his attacker in the leg to protect himself; fragments from the bullet injured three other men and Giles was arrested and charged with attempted murder even though witnesses saw the man who punched him leap over someone to attack Giles.

Giles in Liberty Correctional Facility in Bristol, FL

Giles, despite having no prior record, was denied the right to use 'Stand Your Ground' as a defense and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

So given the controversy surrounding the cases of Curtis Reeves, Michael Dunn and Marissa Alexander, in retrospect one has to wonder how the Florida legislature, or any other state legislature for that matter, could in good conscience allow 'Stand Your Ground' laws to remain on the books.

As these cases demonstrate, too often, they're being invoked as a defense for deadly decisions to use lethal force when it was not justified by people whose lives were not actually being threatened; and denied to those who invoke it who actually were being physically attacked merely because of the color of their skin.

As a 2013 Vice article examines, the strict mandatory sentencing guidelines for Florida's gun laws put both Marissa Alexander and Michael Giles in prison for using guns to defend themselves - how was it that George Zimmerman served no time after stalking, attacking and then murdering Trayvon Martin?

Does the right to claim 'Stand Your Ground' as a defense hinge upon one's race?

By the language of the law, no.

But based on the cases of Marissa Alexander, Michael Giles (and others) the question is a legitimate one - a question that it seems higher courts must at some point take the time to examine.

Especially in a nation where Republican lawmakers have made access to firearms a priority, and a Houston, Texas mom pulls a gun on another mother in the driveway in front of an elementary school with other kids around, why?

Over a disagreement over how someone was driving.

Justice For Renisha McBride - Theodore Wafer Found Guilty of Murder

Theodore Wafer and Renisha McBride [Photo ABC News]

A court ruling last week reminds us that there are ocassional victories for the sense of humanity, decency and fair play that define what America is supposed to be about.

Back on November 15, 2013  when I blogged about 19-year-old Renisha McBride's death, I was feeling pretty pessimistic about the chances of her and her family getting justice from the court system.

The grisly shooting that took her life in the early morning hours of November 2nd, 2013 was part of a disturbing pattern that is more prevalent in the United States - an innocent and unarmed African-American with no criminal record being shot and killed by a white male on the premise of feeling "threatened".

Let's review the facts.

McBride had spent an evening doing what millions of other people do; drinking alcohol and smoking weed. She was legally intoxicated when she was involved in a single car accident in a Dearborn Heights, Michigan neighborhood.

After stumbling around in confusion for awhile, and with no power in her cell phone, at about 4:40am she walked up to 54-year-old Theodore Wafer's porch and knocked on his door to ask for help.

Wafer opened his door and shot her in the face with a shotgun through a screen door at point blank range, killing her instantly.

George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin

Just after the shooting, Wafer lied to police stating the shotgun had gone off accidentally.

He also falsely claimed McBride was trying to break into his house.

The shooting occurred in the wake of the controversy of George Zimmerman being found not guilty in the death of Trayvon Martin.


Did you hear that back in March Zimmerman was at a Central Florida gun show signing autographs and shaking hands with admirers?

Evidently smitten with the fact that he shot an innocent 14-year-old black kid walking home from the store to his father's home with a bag of Skittles and some juice, and got away with it.

McBride's death happened less than a month after a 27-year-old white North Carolina police officer named Randall Kerrick shot Jonathan Ferrell ten times and killed him.

Ferrell was an unarmed 24-year-old African-American college athlete who made the mistake of knocking on a woman's door and asking for help after a car crash.

In a panic she called 911, the cops showed up, saw Ferrell walking towards them (thinking they'd come to help him) tasered him, then promptly shot him ten times.

Jonathan Ferrell and former Charlotte-Mecklenberg
PD officer Randall Kerrick

In the context of those events, I felt like the prospects for Renisha McBride getting justice were slim, but the courts proved me wrong.

Last Thursday afternoon a jury of seven men and five women found Theodore Wafer guilty on three counts of second-degree murder, manslaughter and a felony firearms charge following nine days of harrowing testimony and two days of deliberation.


The racial implications in the McBride case are clear, but the jury's decision is much bigger than that.

In my view it sends an important message to the NRA, the Tea Party and Republican lawmakers who dangle at the end of the strings held by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) who are collectively responsible for introducing laws like 'Stand Your Ground' in Florida which allowed George Zimmerman to stalk, attack and murder unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in February 2012.

Or the 'Shoot First' law introduced in Michigan in 2006.

Laws which have the effect of conferring upon white citizens a sense of a right to use deadly force against citizens of color under the shaky and ambiguous pretense of  "fearing for their life" - therefore sanctioning a dangerous "shoot first ask questions later" firearms policy. 

Now Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' law is not specifically written with language that suggests it's only for white people to invoke.

Ex-US Air Force Airman Michael Giles

But I use the term "white citizens" because cases like that of former USAF Airman Michael Giles (who is African-American) make clear that Florida prosecutors hold people who use a 'Stand Your Ground' defense after firing a weapon are held to totally different standards based on their race. 

Where George Zimmerman targeted, stalked, confronted and murdered Trayvon Martin and was able to convince a Florida jury he was justified because he was standing his ground, Michael Giles was punched in the back of the head and knocked to the ground during a 2010 melee at a Florida nightclub.

He took out his handgun, which he had a concealed carry permit for, and shot his attacker in the legs, injuring two bystanders with bullet fragments - the jury rejected his claim of self defense and he was found guilty of aggravated battery and sentenced to a mandatory 25 year sentence.

There's an ongoing grassroots social media campaign to get Giles, who served two tours overseas in the Middle East, freed.

But the outcome of the Renisha McBride case in Michigan makes clear that these laws do not give Theodore Wafer or any other citizen free license to kill innocent people with guns - especially when their lives are not actually threatened.

I think it also makes clear that Michigan wants to carefully distinguish itself from states like Florida, who's absurd 'Stand Your Ground' law is so abstract as to encourage mentally unbalanced people like George Zimmerman or Michael Dunn to commit murder - or Georgia where the state recently passed laws allowing people to carry loaded handguns into bars or even churches.

The jury decision in the McBride case reminds us that we are a nation of laws.

It won't bring back Renisha McBride's life, but if it serves as a warning for trigger-happy gun owners to think twice before shooting a human being and call 911 instead, perhaps it gives her death meaning and her family and friends some measure of solace knowing that the loss of her life could very well save someone else's.

I think the essence of the case boils down to a simple quote from the parents of Renisha McBride, as her father said after the court verdict, "That could have been anybody's kid."