10 Years After Trayvon Martin’s Death, Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ Law Has Continued to Expand

Supporters of Trayvon Martin march in Florida on their way to an NAACP rally in March 2012 following his death.

Supporters of Trayvon Martin march in Florida on their way to an NAACP rally in March 2012 following his death.

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The death of Trayvon Martin in Miami at the hands of a zealous neighborhood watchman sparked a national reflection on issues of race and justice, inspiring social activism that paved the way for the Black Lives Matter movement.

But Trayvon’s death 10 years ago also left another legacy: It brought Florida’s controversial self-defense law under nationwide scrutiny.

A decade later, that law has become more vigorous, expanded by Republican lawmakers with the support of gun-rights activists who argue it makes streets safer and against the objections of critics. which they say only encourages the “shoot first” stance. It has also become a powerful weapon for defense attorneys, making it difficult for police and prosecutors to prove everything from gunfights between criminals to inconspicuous fights and even shootings at dogs.

Florida self defense law has become a regular feature of the South Florida court system, for better or worse, depending on your point of view.

For the family of Frankie Cordero, for example, it is a scandal that his murderer has not been charged.

Cordero was shot and killed in South Miami-Dade in March 2021 by his friend Jonathan Clemente, who claimed he feared for his life during an altercation. The two had spent the day together. Clemente was seen pointing a gun at his friend that same night at a gas station.

But what happened later during a physical struggle outside a South Miami-Dade home is unknown. There is no witness or video to disprove Clemente’s claim that he was in self-defense, a key feature of the law. The investigation is still open.

“Jonathan had a gun. Not Frankie,” said Cordero’s mother, Carolyn Villalobos. “The one who was hostile was Jonathan.”

But there are many more cases, defense attorneys say, that show the law works as intended. Like the case of Johan Smith, in Miami, that he hit his brother with a bat, only after he brandished a machete during an argument. No one was killed, and a judge agreed that Smith acted in self-defense, dismissing an aggravated assault charge.

Smith’s defense attorney said that while the law can be presented as a “license to kill” in cases like Martin’s death, it gives wrongfully accused a way to prevail, even before going to trial.

“Before the law we could only assert our own defense or the defense of others as an affirmative defense at trial,” said attorney Brian Kirlew. “Most clients are fearful of judgment and settle for convenience. Self-defense law gives us a formidable weapon to seek justice for the wrongfully accused.”

controversial start

On Thursday, Democratic lawmakers and gun control activists cited Trayvon’s case as they announced a national task force to try to repeal those laws in states across the country. They also tried to reframe the way these laws are portrayed in the media and in political debates.

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George Zimmerman arrives in court for his trial at the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center in Sanford, Fla., on Friday, July 12, 2013. Zimmerman is charged with the 2012 shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin. Joe Burbank AP File

“Self-defense laws do not try to defend a position when a person feels threatened. What they are trying to do is legalize murder, empowering racists to shoot first and ask questions later,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, a gun control advocacy group.

“We need to reframe the debate so that Americans can honestly assess whether they want to live in a country where they shoot first.”

They spoke the same week that a new studio found that self-defense laws in 23 states “were linked” to an increase in homicide and firearm homicide rates of between 8% and 11%. The peer-reviewed study conducted by JAMA Network Open found that the increase in homicides and firearm homicides reached 10% or more in southern states such as Florida.

The authors of the study, who analyzed data between 1999 and 2017, concluded that the laws do not reduce or deter crime as their supporters maintain. “There doesn’t seem to be any evidence to show that and, you know, we just seem to see the opposite effect,” said David Humphreys, an assistant professor at the University of Oxford and co-author of the study.

Florida’s law was the first of its kind when it was passed in 2005. Backed by the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), the law removed the obligation for citizens to retreat rather than use deadly force to counter a threat of death or great bodily harm. But perhaps most vexing for prosecutors, the law gave judges — long before a jury trial — an easier way to grant “immunity” to anyone they deem to be acting in self-defense.

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NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer attends a Florida Senate Infrastructure and Security Committee meeting in Tallahassee, Monday, Jan. 13, 2020. SCOTT KEELER Tampa Bay Times

Many Florida police chiefs and prosecutors opposed the law, saying it would mean a license to kill. But he had the backing of the NRA and Marion Hammer, the powerful gun industry lobbyist, who once told the Orlando Sentinel, “If you walk toward me and I think my life is in danger or I’m going If she was injured, I wouldn’t hesitate to shoot her.”

death after death

In the years after its passage, the Florida media recounted example after example of armed people killing unarmed people and getting away with charges, including a man who shot two unarmed men to death. outside a Chili’s restaurant in northwest Miami-Dade, and a woman who shot and killed an unarmed man during a brawl outside a Kendall strip club.

But it was the Trayvon Martin case that turned the law into a national social and political flashpoint. In 2012, Sanford Police cited the law not to initially arrest George Zimmerman for the shooting death of Trayvon, an African-American teenager from Miami Gardens who was visiting his father.

Zimmerman, who followed Trayvon after mistakenly believing him to be a prowler, was later charged with second-degree murder. He decided not to ask the judge to grant him immunity and instead took his case to the jury, which heard legal instructions that Zimmerman had “no duty to retire.” Jurors acquitted Zimmerman.

“The Florida law, the first modern self-defense law in the country, helped someone get away with murder,” said Monisha Henley, director of Government Affairs for Everytown for Gun Safety, during the press conference. Thursday, referring to Martin’s death. “And yet 29 states have some version of this law right now.”

The Florida law was also expanded by Republican lawmakers; most notably in 2017, when they changed the legal standard for “immunity hearings,” despite objections from state prosecutors.

Now, in those pretrial hearings, prosecutors shoulder the burden of refuting a defendant’s claim of self-defense. Under the law, prosecutors must show by “clear and convincing” evidence that the defendant did not act in self-defense.

Claims have bordered on the absurd, such as that of the Miami tennis instructor who claimed self-defense by hitting a 5-year-old boy “armed” with a racket (he ended up accepting a plea deal), or the Miami man who he filed a claim after shooting to death his neighbor’s two dogs, Buffy and Thor (the claim helped him get a generous plea deal).

A South Miami-Dade man named Daishun Doctor is the latest in a long line of defendants who have asked a judge to dismiss their case before it reaches trial or a jury.

In May 2020, the Doctor was driving down a street in Perrine when he spotted a neighborhood rival, Devin Smith, who happened to be on a motorcycle in the opposite direction. Like a scene straight out of a movie, surveillance video shows, the Doctor slowed his car, opened the door and fired a volley of bullets, throwing Smith off the speeding motorcycle.

Doctor’s defense attorney, Michael Grieco, insists that Doctor, from a distance, saw Smith put his hand on his waist. “In turn, the defendant, who was simply driving home with a passenger, fired his firearm multiple times, as was his legal right to do so,” Grieco wrote in his motion.

Following an immunity hearing last month, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Laura Stuzin is still pondering her decision.

high impact cases

In many high-profile cases in recent decades, Florida judges have sided with prosecutors in immunity claims.

Among those who have been denied immunity: Omar Rodriguez of Kendall, who shot and killed an unarmed man in a dispute over dog feces; four young men accused of beating gay men at a South Beach Pride Parade; and Curtis Reeves of Tampa, who shot and killed an unarmed movie theater patron after throwing popcorn at him (Reeves is currently on jury trial).

But the impact of the law is much greater than what actually appears in the court records. Often the cases never even get filed. No arrests are made or prosecutors refuse to press charges.

“The hardest part is that we often have two people armed or at odds, and it’s a challenge to figure out who the aggressor is,” said Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Kathleen Hoague, who leads legal analyzes of many self-defense cases. .

That is what happened in the case of Jonathan Spignolio and Carlos Mena, former brothers-in-law with a history of enmity between them. On January 10, 2021, Mena rushed to Spignolio’s home in Hialeah. The reason: Spignolio had hit Mena’s sister during a domestic fight.

According to a final memorandum in the case, when Mena got out of his car unarmed, Spignolio began shooting at him. Mena ran back to his car, grabbed a gun, and a shootout ensued outside the house.

Each man was hit by a bullet. Spignolio died. Mena survived a gunshot to the chest.

Although Spignolio was outside his own home, prosecutors said, he was the one who started, pointing the gun and shooting at Mena, who drew his gun and fired in self-defense.

“For these reasons,” the memo said, “no charges will be filed.”

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10 Years After Trayvon Martin’s Death, Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ Law Has Continued to Expand