Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law

The Florida’s “stand your ground” law favors many drug dealers in the state to fend off murder charges. In addition, it cushions gang members by allowing them to walk away freely. This is because; the law perdures to confuse judges as well as stymied prosecutors. The law also serves its intended purpose of exonerating an amassment of people deemed to be acting in self-defense. Among them, a man was threatened by a felon in his driveway and a woman bested and choked by a mere irate tenant (Florida's Stand Your Ground Law, 2012). Those who invoke the law for the purpose of eluding prosecution are in most cases, successful. In fact, about 70% of them go scotch free. Defendants claiming the law are more likely to prevail in a situation where the victim is black than when the victim is white. About 73% of those who kill a black person do not face any penalty compared to about 59% of those who obliterate a white person.

By taking the 200^th case in the Tampa Bay Times analysis into consideration, it seems that the judges as well as prosecutors, consciously think that the life of a black person is not worth more than that of a white person. This is clear from many cases where racial discrimination is evident. For instance, the execution of Trayvon Martin, a black teen by Zimmerman indicates the unequal treatment of the black defendants (Florida's Stand Your Ground Law, 2012). In another situation, the outcome of the killing of the black Thomas Lockhart by Walter Watson, who was a white person, is that the murderer was neither arrested nor charged (Florida's Stand Your Ground Law, 2012).

Similarly, after Dan Daley, a white male killed Willie Chester, who was a black male; the outcome was that the judge did justify the shooting. In this case, the shooting occurred when Dan had gone to Willie to complain his dog that was barking too much. Instead of taking the necessary step of halting the dog from barking, Dan went ahead and shot Willie six times, leading to his death (Florida's Stand Your Ground Law, 2012).  On the other hand, judges sentenced Yajaira Jimenez, a Hispanic female who killed Ramon Arzola, a white male, to fifteen years in prison in a similar case. This was irrespective of the fact that she was espousing herself from sexual aggression when Ramon tried to grab her breast (Florida's Stand Your Ground Law, 2012).

From the above incidences, it is evident that the racial minorities who “Stood their ground” were less likely to annex support by the courts as well as the police than the whites who “stood their ground”.  This is a clear indication that there is racial inequality in the implementation of the “stands your ground” law.  It is also evident that those who stabbed or shot the racial minorities in self-defense, were more likely to be exonerated by the courts and police as opposed to those who stabbed white people in self defense. Other evidences to this include; the Gerald Terell and Daniel Drake case, Bo Blackwelder and Carey Anthony case, and Zinashwork Haile and Madelyn Aaron Case, where in all scenarios the cases were dismissed by the courts despite the fact the blacks were “standing their ground” (Florida's Stand Your Ground Law, 2012).

In conclusion, I think that the “Stand Your Ground” Law increases racial inequality, making it easier for people to murder the minorities while increasing the already significant disparity between the black people and white people. This is because, in most of the cases, the judges, prosecutors as well as the police usually discriminate against the black people.

Reference

Florida's Stand Your Ground Law. (2012). In Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved from http://www.tampabay.com/stand-your-ground-law/data