The Future of “Stand Your Ground” Laws
Like many Americans, I spent the better half of my afternoon on April 20th refreshing my CNN app as I awaited the announcement of the verdict in the case of Derek Chauvin. As the word “guilty” rang through my earbuds, I released a relieved exhale only to tighten up again upon remembering that the work was nowhere near complete.
I have spent a lot of this year reflecting on how people like me, Black Americans, interact with the police and with America more broadly. I share my birthday, February 5th, with Trayvon Martin. Although our paths never crossed, I feel a strong link with him and his memory because of this shared day and shared race. I feel like I could have known him.
Trayvon Martin and his legacy has remained a constant thought of mine this year while working as a research assistant for a project on “Stand Your Ground” laws. “Stand Your Ground” (SYG) laws are a form of self-defense/castle doctrine laws that popped up in several states beginning as early as the 1980s. SYG laws are unique from other self-defense laws in that there is no requirement to retreat or step away from a confrontation before exercising the use of deadly force. SYG laws originally gained public attention following the death of seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin at the hands of George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman and his legal team never actually invoked SYG during his trial, but the Florida variation of the law was heavily discussed by the jury during the sentencing process.
Ever since the initial media coverage of SYG laws, Florida has remained a state to be watched. According to the Giffords Law Center, quite a few studies show that there has been escalated violence in Florida following the implementation of SYG laws. Specifically, “In 79% of Florida Stand Your Ground cases, the assailant could have retreated to avoid the confrontation, and in 68% of cases, the person killed was unarmed.” Not surprisingly, Florida’s initial variation of SYG, implemented in 2005, was heavily sponsored by the National Rifle Association and the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council.
More recently, Professor Caroline Light, Director of Undergraduate Studies and Senior Lecturer for the Studies of Women, Gender & Sexuality (as well as the researcher with whom I am working) published an article in the Tampa Bay Times on the impact of Florida’s SYG law on the nation as well the future of the law. She notes that a promising bill known as the “Self Defense Restoration Act” is currently in the Florida Senate and seeks to eliminate the use of deadly force without retreat among other provisions.
Professor Light’s research interests are on the impacts of guns on women and marginalized communities in America. This specific project seeks to explore how SYG laws have generated rising rates of undue violence on Black people and women specifically. Although SYG was not necessarily invoked in the case of George Zimmerman, there are countless other cases in which SYG is invoked where the person killed in an act of “self-defense” was a person of color, while the person defending themself was white.
I, like Professor Light, am hopeful that this new bill will be passed, however, the same thought arises as it did after hearing the Chauvin verdict: the work is not over. Today, there are 36 states with SYG laws that perpetuate the use of deadly force without retreat: without thought. I am not sure I can indicate a moment in which the work will be done, but we, as a country, can certainly set a goal of reviewing and reevaluating these deadly laws.