Monday, April 30, 2012
Chris Smith releases his own Stand Your Ground task force finding
Posted by Mitch Perry on Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 4:51 PM
Last week we wrote about how some people think that Rick Scott's task force on Florida's Stand Your Ground law headed by Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll is a bit of a farce, considering that its roster includes three members of the 17-member group who voted to support the 2005 law, and no members of the Legislature who opposed it.
Florida state Senator Chris Smith from Fort Lauderdale spoke out critically when he was not named to the group — but he had already put together his own task force (non-binding) to look at the controversial law.
Earlier Monday, Smith held a news conference to talk about what his study revealed:
Among the recommendations that the task force came up with, the unanimous ones are:
Cases should be presented to a Grand Jury to allow for a cross-section of society to determine what a reasonable person would do in that case.
Educate the public and law enforcement.
Create a system to track self-defense claims in Florida. Amend the Imminent Requirement
Title Change
Recommendations that had a consensus include:
Remove the Presumptions.
Make Presumption Rebuttable
Eliminate the Presumption of Reasonable Fear.
Define unlawful activity in section 776.013
Clarify the role of provocation
Smith said lawmakers should convene a special session before the regular session begins in March to change the law.
You can get more information from the website StandYourground.org.
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