Posted on 05/08/2012 4:57:40 AM PDT by marktwain
A new bill would re-write Louisiana criminal law in response to the February shooting in Florida of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
The bill, HB1100, targets what's known as a "Stand Your Ground law." State lawmakers say as it reads right now, prosecutors would have a tough time pressing charges against the shooter if the Trayvon Martin case happened in Louisiana.
George Zimmerman faces a second degree murder charge for that shooting. A neighborhood watch activist, Zimmerman shot and killed Martin, Zimmerman says in self-defense, but according to some, "self-defense" isn't very clear in Louisiana.
"If the case were that Mr. Zimmerman actually pursued Trayvon Martin, then the judge and the jury should take that into consideration." Rep. Roy Burrell says, "to determine who was the actual aggressor."
A Representative from Shreveport, Burrell authors what's now dubbed the "Trayvon Bill."
If passed, it will re-write the "Stand Your Ground" law. SYG currently doesn't let a judge or jury consider pursuit to identify an aggressor; in this case, George Zimmerman pursued Trayvon Martin, even after contacting police.
"We have to know that guns kill," Rep. Terry Landry said. "We have to leave the policing to the authorities."
Acadiana Representative Terry Landry brings more than 30-years of law enforcement experience to the Administration of Criminal Justice Committee. That committee gave this bill the thumbs up and has high hopes it will become law, allowing the courts to determine an aggressor with evidence of pursuit.
"If the threat is removed, say if the person is running away from you, then the threat is clearly removed," Rep. Burrell said. "You cannot use deadly force to take a person's life."
The bill also got the thumbs up from District Attorneys around the state and it will hit the house floor Tuesday.
How did I know.
I talked to someone yesterday that spent longer than usual in the waiting room of a doctor’s office that serves about 50% minority clientele.
There was a magazine there called “Essence”, and it had a target demographic of black women.
She said it was just a bunch of angry, race related articles, and every ad in the thing referenced blackness in some way.
The left/satan has done the black culture a huge disservice by focusing their attention solely on their melanin content instead of getting along in society.
State lawmakers say as it reads right now, prosecutors would have a tough time pressing charges against the shooter if the Trayvon Martin case happened in Louisiana.
Good...thats the way it should be.
Some punk gets wasted and all of a sudden we can’t have that? The message to send is it COULD damn well happen again and again until the savages slink away.
—The law also protects him from even being charged if evidence doesn’t support it.
There will be a special hearing on that and if the prosecution can’t come up with solid evidence to support the charge, the Judge will toss the case out. There will be no trial.—
This is what I’ve been trying to explain on some liberal sites. Some get it but a lot don’t. As Dershowitz says, this prosecutor could find herself in trouble.
When there were no organized police, the PEOPLE WERE THE POLICE.
Somebody said it before, this has nothing to do SYG. This is a disparity of force case. Trayvon Martin used force against another person that would have caused serious physical injury or death. George Zimmerman used the APPROPRIATE amount of force to resolve the situation.
Most people do not die from gunshot wounds in the US. Martin did, unfortunately, but adult decisions have adult consequences. He, most likely because of his culture, refused to do the APPROPRIATE thing, as in summoning the police himself, to check out this stranger following him. He hid and ambushed Zimmerman and paid with this life.
This kneejerk, legislative activism will hurt ALL lawabiding gunowners who have a vested, personal interest in defense of self and others.
The assertion that Florida law allows shooting whenever someone believes it to be necessary is a flat-out lie. The actual law of Florida is that “a person is justified in the use of deadly force” if “(1) He or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony” (Florida Statutes, Section 776.012).
The second part of the law provides special provisions for self-defense against violent home invaders or carjackers. Neither of those is relevant to the Zimmerman case.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2867480/posts
Nifongs on parade.
The prosecutors have always been the problem.
Perhaps we should have a PERSONAL LIABILITY FOR PROSECUTORS who bring this cases in order to bring clarity to there beady little government minded pensions.
haven’t you seen the homeland security posters? it is everyone job. “see something, say something.” is plastered all over federal buildings and public psa ads.
Repealing the various stand your ground laws... isn’t that what Team Skittles and the Travyon Martin International Road show are really all about?
AKA "Da Gang Banga Car Jacka Thuggin' Fo Hoes Protection Act."
Ain't none, the thug protectors can shove their little "Trayvon Bill" up where the sun don't shine.
Nuff said.
The point is that under ordinary self-defense laws Zimmerman still could not have been charged without probable cause which they initially did not find. The lawsuit protection aspect is irrelevant to that.
Is using a pic of yourself when you were 13 yrs old the new standard now? lol
in the late 90s, two life long black friends got in an argument over a bucket of catfish heads after fishing on whose dog got it. One killed the other 100 feet from over a half dozen LRPD cops in the FOP parking lot.
Imagine dying over a bucket of catfish heads........
He looks like the boys in my niece's middle school and she just turned 16!
------------------ I hadn't thought of that - Zimmerman closely stalking Trayvon, not knowing if Trayvon himself was armed wouldn't make sense...
He'd put himself at possible danger.
Why would Zimmerman walk through an open door if he didn't know what was on the other side...like a suspicious looking guy that provoked him enough that he called to report what he was seeing was suspicious.z,p.,p. But, why did Zimmerman follow him at all?
To be of help to the police once they arrived?
At one point, Zimmerman said he lost sight of TM and I guess that is when he went back to his truck, and Trayvon allegedly circled around and came up to Zimmerman's truck instead of going on his merry way back to his daddy's girl friend's condo.
Why did TM circle back? Did he suspect that Zimmerman was armed. That wouldn't make sense - he would know, at the least, the he himself (TM) was unarmed.
Did he circle back? When was Zimmerman aware that Trayvon had come to his truck?
Didn't Trayvon smack down a school bus driver around this time?
If he did, is that why he was on 10-day suspension?
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