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FL: Stand Your Ground still being blamed for Zimmerman's acquittal
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The Old Gunhand
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Many ignorant people, including Mayor Bloomberg, are still going after the Stand Your Ground laws around the nation despite the fact that Zimmerman did not avail himself of that law. The trial was a basic and ordinary self defense one. Self Defense, a basic right of all U.S. Citizens, is a valid defense in all States and yet it seems that our largely ignorant population thinks that the whole Zimmerman tragedy was about SYG. These knowledgeable people are on a path to do away with the right of any man to defend himself. They want to pass laws so that we must run from danger and if not, it is our fault for putting ourselves in the position where we need to kill someone. |
MI: Detroit police launch investigations after arrest of photographer
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Detroit police and the department’s internal affairs officers have launched investigations following the arrest of a Free Press photographer who was filming a police action on a public street last week.
Police said they are looking into the conduct of photographer Mandi Wright and the actions of an officer who ordered her to stop filming and wrestled her phone away from her. They also are looking into the disappearance of a memory card from her newspaper-issued iPhone and whether she was briefly left alone with the crime suspect whom she had been filming. |
With Racial Roles Reversed, Three Self-Defense Cases That Went The Other Way
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Self-defense cases are fairly common in the American justice system. And while in Zimmerman’s case, many feel that justice was left undone for the shooting victim — and that the boy’s race, black, and the man’s, white hispanic, were a deciding factor — the roles are often reversed; there have been notable cases in recent years where what seem to be reasonable self-defense claims by black defendants are dismissed by a jury: |
ME: Action Alert: Nullify Federal Gun ‘Laws’ Locally in the state of Maine
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Mark A. Taff
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Unlike most New England states, Maine has relatively relaxed state gun laws. Mainers value their right to keep and bear arms and their elected representatives reflect those values. This year, the Senate voted down two anti-gun bills. Even the governor has professed that he will never sign any anti-gun legislation.
While the state does show some respect to the right to keep and bear arms, there’s much more that needs to be done. The federal government violates the 2nd Amendment daily, and action should be taken on the local level to help protect it. |
IL: Politicians miss the point
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Mark A. Taff
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It’s exceptionally rare for a previously law-abiding person to take a legally purchased firearm, load it, walk out the door and shoot someone. But that’s the specter that dominates the mind of Quinn when the subject of concealed-carry comes up. It also preoccupies Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
The problem of gun violence in the city, though, is a problem of violence committed by criminals and juveniles who are not allowed to own guns, much less carry them in public. To worry about legal permit holders in that context is like fretting that you may have left a faucet running as you try to escape a flood.
The discussion arises because of a federal appeals court decision last year striking down Illinois’ ban on concealed-carry. |
Zimmerman's lawyer calls prosecutors 'disgrace' to profession
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Mark A. Taff
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The law requires prosecutors to share evidence with defense attorneys, especially if it helps exonerate defendants. The requirement is known as the Brady disclosure.
O'Mara accused prosecutors of several Brady violations, which were heard by Judge Debra Nelson before the trial. Nelson postponed some of her decisions on sanctions until after trial, saying the process was time-consuming.
"This is not acceptable, and is not going to be tolerated in any case that I'm involved in," O'Mara told Reuters in New York on Monday, accusing special prosecutor Angela Corey and lead trial attorney Bernie de la Rionda of Brady violations. |
Juries -- the last line of defense for the rule of law
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Mark A. Taff
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Indeed, what we saw in the Zimmerman verdict was a victory, and not just for common sense or for conservatives and liberty lovers who knew all along that Zimmerman was being railroaded for political reasons. Ultimately, this was a victory for the rule of law, and it was a victory delivered by the time-honored principle of a trial by a jury of one's peers, one of the bedrock foundations of our commonwealthian heritage of liberty. |
FL: Taxpayers to pony up defense costs for ‘baseless’ Zimmerman circus
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Mark A. Taff
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Now that Zimmerman has been acquitted of all charges, the state may have to pay up even more.
Florida statute 939.06(1) reads: “A defendant in a criminal prosecution who is acquitted or discharged is not liable for any costs or fees of the court or any ministerial office, or for any charge of subsistence while detained in custody. If the defendant has paid any taxable costs, or fees required … in the case, the payment of such costs … shall be refunded to the defendant.” |
CO: Florida's "Stand Your Ground" vs. Colorado's "Make My Day": A primer in self-defense law
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The language is similar, to some extent, and both laws were intended to clarify a person's right to self-defense. But there's a world of difference between Colorado's 28-year-old home- protection statute, commonly known as the "Make My Day" law, and Florida's 2005 "Stand Your Ground" law, which has been a continuing source of legal confusion and controversy -- right up to this weekend's headline-churning acquittal of George Zimmerman, who invoked the law in claiming self-defense in the fatal shooting last year of teenager Trayvon Martin. |
Zimmerman verdict was no anomaly
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Mark A. Taff
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Despite all the complaints about the George Zimmerman verdict, gun owners frequently shoot unarmed children, cops shoot unarmed suspects and spouses shoot each other — all without any punishment because of the very broad protection afforded by the legal doctrine of self defense.
Here are just a few actual cases that have some remarkable similarities to the facts of the Zimmerman case. |
FL: Despite backlash, 'stand your ground' laws did not apply to Zimmerman case
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"I can see a similar outcome in jurisdictions without 'stand your ground' for the mere fact that the best eyewitness to counter the defense strategy was dead," said Darren Lenard Hutchinson, a professor of race and civil rights law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. "That's the terrible reality. The jurors saw a bloodied nose and that may have been enough for them."
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Bob Dekle, a retired prosecutor who also teaches at UF Law, said, " 'Stand your ground' turns out to have been a huge red herring (in the Zimmerman case.) The result very well could have been the same prior to enactment of the law." |
OR: Second Amendment Activists File Suit to Stop Multnomah County's Gun Control Law
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Mark A. Taff
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A Gresham woman has filed suit to stop Multnomah County's fledgling gun control law, saying county commissioners overstepped their bounds by making it apply to all cities in the county.
As WW first reported, Roxanne Ross and her lawyer, Bruce McCain, believe the county's gun control laws—requiring residents to lock up guns near minors and prohibiting carrying a loaded weapon in public, among other things—violate state laws. They filed the lawsuit Friday in Multnomah County Circuit Court. |
Past NRA President David Keene To Head NRA-Loving Washington Times Opinion Page
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Mark A. Taff
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Conservative activist David Keene, who finished serving a two-year term as National Rifle Association president in May, will join The Washington Times as opinion editor. The conservative newspaper has often provided a platform for opponents of stronger gun laws and for the promotion of the NRA.
In April, after a Senate proposal to expand background checks on gun sales was blocked by a predominately Republican coalition of senators, the Times editorial board fawned over the NRA, which was credited with influencing the legislation's defeat. |
MA: Gun advocates offer alternatives to state bills
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About a dozen Second Amendment advocates turned out at Greenfield Community College on Monday to offer alternatives to the various weapons bills before the state Legislature.
At GCC’s Main Street campus, Rep. Paul Mark hosted the third of five statewide public hearings on gun bills. The listening tour is led by House Chairman of the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security Rep. Harold Naughton of Clinton, a rural town near Worcester. |
Killing in Self-Defense: You Better Be White
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Mark A. Taff
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I don't know which justice system O'Mara's been operating in, but black people are more likely to get a conviction no matter who they kill -- black or white -- even if they claim self-defense. Especially since most of them can't afford O'Mara to represent them in the first place.
There is no privilege in claiming self-defense while black -- even when killing another black person. When the verdict came down not guilty, Zimmerman had not just the jury but also statistics on his side. |
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TO REMEMBER |
| A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero (42B.C) |
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