MyAJC.com:
Read a PolitiFact check on an earlier claim made by the Rev. Jesse Jackson regarding Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law.
According to Georgia law, people are allowed to defend themselves, or stand their ground, when they “reasonably believes” deadly force is necessary to defend themselves or another person.
A person cannot claim self-defense if he or she created the circumstances that led to the use of force, or if he or she has committed a crime and are trying to escape.
There are two opportunities to use this defense. A judge can hold a hearing and dismiss the charges if the self-defense argument is successful. Or the jury can decide to acquit based on a stand your ground claim.
A civil rights group filed a federal lawsuit Friday aimed at getting Georgia’s “stand your ground law” thrown out, arguing the statute is arbitrary and hurts young black men more than anyone else.
Rainbow Push Coalition chose Georgia to begin what they envision as a series of nationwide challenges to make the controversial law more precise. Two Georgia families are also plaintiffs in the suit.
Georgia is among 22 states with a “stand your ground law,” which maintains the right to self-defense does not include a duty to retreat and allows deadly force to be used when people “reasonably” fear they, their property or the people around them will be harmed.
“Our sense of justice is being surrendered to madness such as stand your ground laws,” said the Rev. Jesse Jackson of Rainbow Push.
The concept of the right to self-defense is centuries old; the Georgia Supreme Court endorsed it in 1898. But in recent years, nearly two dozen states, including Georgia, have written in their laws that the “defense of castle” doctrine goes beyond homes and cars.
“This new right allows individuals to respond to what they believe to be a threat with deadly force even where no deadly threat existed without the need to first attempt to escape,” the lawsuit said. “The act does not define what actions, circumstances or conditions would constitute a ‘reasonable’ fear needed to trigger the use of deadly force.”
John Monroe, of the gun rights group GeorgiaCarry.com, said even if the law is declare unconstitutional, it will be replaced by “common law,” which says the same same thing.
“They’re complaining about the statute passed in 2006,” Monroe said. “It didn’t change anything. It codified the existing (common) law. The reason it was passed (in 2006) was out of concern that, at some point, a judge would change the common law and impose some kind of duty to retreat, which never existed in Georgia.
“It’s not a matter of why we need it,” he continued. “We’ve always had it. That’s what this country was founded on. “
A national debate and massive rallies contesting “stand your ground” laws followed the shooting of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman last year, and then increased again earlier this year with Zimmerman’s acquitted based on his argument that he shot the 17-year-old in self defense.
Critics say such laws are enforced unevenly, and people of color, especially young African Americans, are hurt by these laws more than whites.
“In Georgia, stand your ground applies only to certain people at certain times,” said attorney Robert Patillo, who filed a similar suit last year that was thrown out because the plaintiff had not yet been harmed by the law.
The suit filed Friday asks the federal courts to find Georgia’s law unconstitutional because it is too broad and vague.
A spokeswoman for Attorney General Sam Olens, who is named a defendant, said he had not seen the suit and could not comment.
“In the 20-plus states with stand your ground statutes, there will be bills and legislation advanced to try to modify these laws,” said University of Georgia law professor Ron Carlson. “This is not going to be the only state where this occurs. … I do expect there will be additional challenges.”
Earlier this week, Martin’s mother testified about the detrimental effects of the law before a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.
And, in Ohio and Arkansas, forces are organizing for and against plans that would make those states’ laws much like Florida’s and Georgia’s.
In the Georgia lawsuit, the stories of two families are detailed to make the point that the law is arbitrarily applied.
Herman Smith, 21, was sentenced to life in prison for killing Cardarius Stegall at a Carroll County birthday party last November. According to testimony, Stegall had threatened to shoot several people, and he eventually focused on a party-goer standing with Smith. With gun in hand, Stegall strode toward the two men, according to testimony. That was when Smith shot him, witnesses said Still Smith was convicted of murder in August, despite his self-defense argument.
James Christopher Johnson III, an African American, was shot an killed by a white man at a Newnan bar in March 2012. There was a confrontation after Adam Lee Edmondson “made a rude gesture” to Johnson’s white girlfriend, but tempers cooled.
The two men had another run-in at the same bar on the next night. According to witnesses, Edmondson said something that led Johnson to shove him. Edmondson left the bar but came back with a gun and shot Johnson in the chest.
A Coweta County jury acquitted Edmondson, who used a “stand your ground” defense.
Patillo said the law “works in the abstract. It works in the theoretical.” But, he said, it doesn’t work in real life.
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