It will be interesting to see if a recent Florida case gets the same attention as the Trayvon Martin case or whether, as I predict, we have all grown used to the idea that it is legal to murder people in hoodies in Florida:
On Thursday, an Orlando man shot and killed a 21-year-old who was fleeing his yard. He didn’t appear to be stealing anything, according to witness accounts. He didn’t appear to be threatening anybody. But Claudius Smith said he feared he was a burglar, followed him over the fence to a neighboring apartment complex, where he shot him after he said he felt threatened, according to a confession documented in an Orlando Police Department report. Smith even said he feared victim Ricardo Sanes was armed “because his pants were falling down” and his hands were in his hoodie pockets, according to a report obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.
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According to statements by Smith’s girlfriend, Angela Kemraj, to police, the incident started when she saw a man in the yard on surveillance cameras and reported it to Smith. She said they saw the individual in dark clothes and a hoodie leaving their yard without anything in his hands, and climbing over the fence to a neighboring apartment complex. Smith then left the apartment and climbed over the fence. Two minutes later, Kemraj said she heard gunshots. Soon after, Smith came back to the apartment and said Sanes tried to rob him, without mentioning the shooting. During initial police questioning, Smith later denied knowledge about the shooting, and only later confessed, claiming he shot in self-defense.
via Think Progress
This particular article does not give us the information we need to determine whether the legal prerequisites for a “stand your ground” defense have been established. One element of the defense is that the shooter be white; another that the victim be a color other than white, though the range of permissible colors is quite broad. We aren't told whether the victim was unarmed, which also appears to be a necessary element in the defense, though, to be fair to the reporter, that element is at least implied. Here we know neither the shooter's color, the victim's color, or the extent of the victim'sarmed status, so it is really quite impossible to say whether the defense actually applies, though my guess is that it does and will.
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