[net-gold] CRIME AND CRIMINALS: MURDER HOMICIDE : UNITED STATES: STATES: FLORIDA : LAW: A Florida Law Gets Scrutiny After a Teenager's Killing


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CRIME AND CRIMINALS: MURDER HOMICIDE :

UNITED STATES: STATES: FLORIDA :

LAW:

A Florida Law Gets Scrutiny After a Teenager's Killing

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A Florida Law Gets Scrutiny After a Teenager's Killing

March 21, 2012 12:00 am

By LIZETTE ALVAREZ

The New York Times

Pittsburgh Post Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/us/
a-florida-law-gets-scrutiny-after-a-teenagers-killing-627206/

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A shorter URL for the above link:

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http://tinyurl.com/6tqpok8

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MIAMI -- Seven years after Florida adopted its sweeping self-defense law, the shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, has put that law at the center of an increasingly angry debate over how he was killed and whether law enforcement has the authority to charge the man who killed him. 

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The law, called Stand Your Ground, is one of 21 such laws around the country, many of them passed within the last few years. In Florida, it was pushed heavily by the National Rifle Association but opposed vigorously by law enforcement. 

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It gives the benefit of the doubt to a person who claims self-defense, regardless of whether the killing takes place on a street, in a car or in a bar -- not just in one's home, the standard cited in more restrictive laws. In Florida, if people feel they are in imminent danger from being killed or badly injured, they do not have to retreat, even if it would seem reasonable to do so. They have the right to "stand their ground" and protect themselves. 

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That is precisely the question in the case: Was the gunman, George Zimmerman, 28, a white Hispanic crime watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla., in imminent danger and acting in self-defense during his encounter with Trayvon Martin, as he asserts? 

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In the three weeks since Trayvon, 17, a well-liked high school student from Miami with no criminal record, was killed, public protests have grown larger and louder, and so have calls for Mr. Zimmerman's arrest. The Police Department in Sanford, near Orlando, said that under the law, it had no call to bring charges. 

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But late Monday, the Department of Justice said it had opened an inquiry into the shooting. It will run parallel with one announced on Tuesday by the state attorney in Seminole County, who said a grand jury would be convened. State attorneys use grand juries in cases when they cannot make a clear independent call, or when a case is explosive. 

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In recent days, Trayvon's parents, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, have issued pleas for law enforcement to take action, and social media campaigns, chiefly on the Web site change.org., have pushed for the justice system to act. Celebrities like Spike Lee and John Legend have joined the effort. 

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The Rev. Al Sharpton, who is coming to Sanford for a rally this week, said he was planning to raise awareness on the law, which he said encourages vigilante justice. 

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"People can't take the law in their own hands," he said.

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The complete article may be read at the URL above.

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