Why George Zimmerman's case now helps the NRA -- and could help keep Stand Your Ground unchanged

Dennis Baxley is an author of one of the nation’s most notorious gun laws, Stand Your Ground.

And lately, he’s relieved.

When a special prosecutor last week charged George Zimmerman in the Feb. 26 killing of Trayvon Martin, it was a political public-relations indictment of those who said Stand Your Ground gave the shooter blanket immunity.

“I’m sort of happy about this guy being charged, on the political front, because I’m able to say: ‘See, I told you, it doesn’t say you can’t charge the guy,’ ” said Baxley, a Republican state representative from Ocala.

So it’s not just liberals, black lawmakers and others who cheered the second-degree murder charge against Zimmerman. Gun-rights advocates and the National Rifle Association received some political cover to resist calls to change the deadly force law.

Of course, if a judge tosses the charge and cites Stand Your Ground, the pressure will only increase to clarify the law’s intent. Indeed, the law goes on trial before Zimmerman in an actual court and in the court of public opinion.

But the facts of the Zimmerman case might make it politically tougher to amend Stand Your Ground in the Florida Legislature.

Here’s why: Special Prosecutor Angela Corey actually read the statutes. And they probably don’t give Zimmerman much immunity.

Corey probably found that, after chapter 776.013 (a k a Stand Your Ground), there’s another chapter, 776.041, called “use of force by aggressor.”

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Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/15/2750993/stand-your-ground-may-yet-survive.html#storylink=cpy

Casey Anthony’s lawyer: George Zimmerman’s a victim of prosecutor's ‘political prostitution’

Cheney Mason, the freewheeling criminal defense attorney who successfully defended tot mom Casey Anthony, is shaking his head over the second-degree murder charge against George Zimmerman in the shooting of Trayvon Martin.

The charge leveled by prosecutor Angela Corey is too severe and reeks of political calculus, Mason said.

“It’s political prostitution,” Mason said. “Now I don’t have all the facts – no one does – but you look at what we know of the case and it looks like the prosecutor bowed to other pressures.

“The fact is there is lots of racial bigotry in this case,” Mason said. “And a lot of it is coming from the side of Trayvon Martin’s family. I can understand why his family is upset. They lost a child. But they weren’t at the crime scene. None of us was.”

Mason said Corey is too zealous of a prosecutor.

"This is a person who wanted to put a 12-year-old boy as an adult for murder. It’s just too much,” Mason said.

Group of 200 holds rally for Trayvon Martin at Florida Capitol

 
Led by local officials, nearly 200 protestors rallied at the Capitol Wednesday, using the Trayvon Martin case to highlight problems in the state’s justice system, Florida’s Stand Your Ground law and racial profiling.

Rep. Alan Williams, D-Tallahassee, led the group in chants of “I am Trayvon Martin” and “No justice, no peace!”

The rally, organized by the National Christian League of Councils, was one of dozens that have taken place in the months since Trayvon, an unarmed teenager, was shot dead in Sanford. Last month, a group of criminal defense attorneys converged on Gov. Rick Scott's office to protest the fact that Trayvon's shooter, George Zimmerman, was not arrested.

Pew: Trayvon Martin opinions reflect partisan divide

A recent Miami Herald story showed how partisan battle lines are forming in the Trayvon Martin shooting case, and now Pew has data to back that up. From Pew Research:

The Trayvon Martin shooting is the public’s top story for the second consecutive week. But interest in the teenager’s death is deeply divided along partisan, as well as racial, lines. These differences also are apparent in reactions to news coverage of the incident: Far more Republicans (56%) than Democrats (25%) say there has been too much coverage of Martin’s death.

The latest weekly News Interest Index survey, conducted March 29-April 1 among 1,000 adults, finds that 30% say they followed Martin’s death more closely than any other story, little changed from a week ago (25%). The Supreme Court hearings on the 2010 health care law are a distant second; 15% say they followed the Court hearings most closely.

A separate analysis by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) found that the Court’s health care hearings accounted for 19% of news coverage. Slightly less coverage (18% of the newshole) was devoted to news about Trayvon Martin.

As was the case last week, African Americans are far more likely than whites to say they are closely tracking news about the Florida teenager’s death. Fully 58% cite news about Trayvon Martin’s killing as their top story, compared with 24% of whites. Moreover, 43% of whites say the story has received too much coverage, compared with just 16% of blacks.

Democrats, regardless of race, are following Martin’s death more closely than are Republicans. Nearly four-in-ten Democrats (38%), including 31% of white Democrats, say the killing of Trayvon Martin is their top story; just 19% of Republicans are following this story most closely. More than half of Republicans (56%) say the story has been overcovered, compared with 25% of Democrats, including 33% of white Democrats.

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Sen. Chris Smith starts his own Stand Your Ground task force, says Scott is moving too slowly

Sen. Chris Smith, frustrated by what he calls slow movement by Gov. Rick Scott in the wake of the shooting death of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin, is launching a task force to review the controversial law at the center of the case.

“Instead of waiting on the governor to act, I’ve decided to lead in the state of Florida,” the Fort Lauderdale Democrat said. “I’ve assembled a task force to look at the controversial Stand Your Ground law.”

Gov. Scott has created a task force to review Stand Your Ground, but has said the group will not convene until after the investigation into the Trayvon Martin shooting is completed.

Smith wanted faster action. His South Florida-based task force, made up of legal professionals, will hold its first meeting on Thursday at 4 p.m. at a Broward County library.

Smith said local judges, attorneys and tourism officials will present to the task force on Thursday, to show how controversial law—which allows people to use deadly force when they are threatened--has impacted the state.

NBC to investigate itself over editing 911 call of George Zimmerman

The Washington Post's Erik Wemple reported this weekend that NBC is investigating why the "Today" show edited the 911 call from Trayvon Martin's shooter, George Zimmerman, in such a way that it appeared more racially inflammatory than need be:

As exposed by Fox News and media watchdog site NewsBusters, the “Today” segment took this approach to a key part of the dispatcher call:

Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.

Here’s how the actual conversation went down:

Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good. Or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.

Dispatcher: OK, and this guy — is he black, white or Hispanic?

Zimmerman: He looks black.

The difference between what “Today” put on its air and the actual tape? Complete: In the “Today” version, Zimmerman volunteered that this person “looks black,” a sequence of events that would more readily paint Zimmerman as a racial profiler. In reality’s version, Zimmerman simply answered a question about the race of the person whom he was reporting to the police. Nothing prejudicial at all in responding to such an inquiry.

Florida a fertile ground for the pro-gun lobby

Last month’s shooting of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., brought an avalanche of criticism directed at Florida’s Stand Your Ground law.

Yet the controversial 2005 law was just one of dozens of pro-gun laws that have gotten their start in Florida — forging the state’s “Gunshine” reputation — before spreading to other parts of the country.

Lobbying for passage of such laws has been the powerful National Rifle Association.

“The NRA has been a victim of their own success,” said Dan Gelber, a Miami Beach attorney who fought many of the gun expansion laws as a legislator in the 2000s. “They’ve won every big issue, so they’re left trying to fight over fringe issues. Lots of elected officials are afraid to cross them.”

Rest of the story here. 

--@ToluseO-- 

 

 

The partisan politics of Trayvon Martin's death

From suspect to victim to cultural symbol, Trayvon Martin has metamorphosed into a political point of departure over race.

When President Barack Obama spoke about how his son could have looked like the 17-year-old, his white Republican rivals quickly accused him of being racially divisive.

When Gov. Rick Scott established a task force to investigate the Stand Your Ground gun law connected to Trayvon’s shooting, a state Democratic leader rebuked him for wanting to wait until the case is adjudicated.

Liberal and left-leaning media have taken up Trayvon’s case, with calls to arrest his shooter, George Zimmerman. Conservative and right-leaning media have called for a get-the-facts first approach, while some have published images of Trayvon portraying him as a thug.

Groups from the NAACP to the National Council of La Raza, to white and black supremacist groups, have entered — or been drawn into — the political fray as well.

“It’s campaign time, and unfortunately, it has come to that. But that’s what we get these days, unfortunately," said Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, the only elected black Republican in Florida’s Capitol.

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Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/30/2723557/trayvon-martins-shooting-death.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy

Democrats calls for 'stand your ground' special session

Rep. Dwayne Taylor, D-Daytona Beach, has asked Speaker Dean Cannon to call a special session for review of the "stand your ground" self-defense laws. Meanwhile, other black lawmakers are saying any action, including a task force appointed by the governor, should begin immediately.

Cannon's office said he disagrees with those requests because still too many unaswered questions about the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

"Speaker Cannon feels that legislative action is premature at this point given the ongoing investigations as well as the upcoming convening of the Seminole County Grand Jury," spokeswoman Katie Betta said via email. "Speaker Cannon will be closely monitoring the situation and any new developments that may arise in the case. He will also make recommendations to Governor Scott regarding appointments to the Task Force on Citizen Safety and Protection which will review the 'Stand Your Ground' law following the investigation by the special prosecutor."

Following Trayvon Martin's death, NRA ready to stand its ground over Stand Your Ground

With Trayvon Martin’s death, Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law and the National Rifle Association’s agenda are in the crosshairs.

And the NRA probably couldn’t be happier to stand its ground.

Chances state lawmakers will strike the deadly force law from the books: Nil.

Chances it will be amended: Slight.

Chances the NRA will get to boast of a win: High.

That means bragging rights, a happy membership and, ultimately, more money for an organization that can boast of its effectiveness in the state Capitol.

The NRA relishes a fight. But it has gotten nearly everything it wanted out of Florida’s Legislature. And that could become a strange problem — for the NRA.

“The NRA is a victim of its own success,” said one of its longtime opponents, former Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach. “There’s not much more for the NRA to win. It’s running out of people to pick fights with.”

So, in recent years, the NRA’s fights in the state Capitol have become, relatively speaking, more small bore and geared toward waging turf battles with other special-interest lobbies.

Read Marc Caputo's column here.