Task force: Grand jury should decide if ‘stand your ground’ law applies

TALLAHASSEE — An independent task force wants major changes, but not an outright repeal, of Florida’s “stand your ground” law after the shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin.

State Sen. Chris Smith, the organizer of the group, delivered the recommendations to Gov. Rick Scott and legislative leaders on Monday.

Smith said the group — which included prosecutors, defense attorneys, police chiefs and law professors — could not reach a consensus on whether to get rid of the seven-year-old law that allows a person to meet force with force if they reasonably believe they are in danger of being killed or seriously harmed. The law removed a duty to retreat that previously was in the state’s self-defense law.

“We took an adult look at ‘stand your ground,” Smith said.

Neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman said he acted in self-defense when he killed Martin earlier this year in Sanford. A special prosecutor, however, charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder following weeks of outcry and protests.

Smith, a critic of the existing law, put together his own task force to look at the law after complaining that Scott was waiting too long to respond to the Martin killing. A separate task force assembled by the governor is scheduled to hold its first meeting in Tallahassee on Tuesday.

Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, said he would a sponsor in the bill in the Florida Legislature that includes the changes recommended by his group, including one that requires that a grand jury and not a prosecutor determine whether “stand your ground” can be used to avoid arrest.

Smith’s group also called for creating a system to track self-defense claims in Florida and to make it clear that the police can detain and question someone even if the person contends they were acting in self-defense. Smith said the law is now ambiguous on whether police are allowed to detain a suspect.

One recommendation that received a supermajority — but not unanimous agreement — was that police should be allowed to charge someone if the person killed was unarmed or was in the process of running away. Martin was unarmed when Zimmerman shot him.

Rep. Matt Caldwell, R-Lehigh Acres, said he expects some, if not all, of the recommendations from the panel to find their way into bills introduced during next year’s legislative session. If any changes were made to the law, they likely wouldn’t come until 2013, said Caldwell, who was not on the task force.

“By and large, 99 percent of issues we face don’t need a call for special session,” Caldwell said. “It’s a tragedy what happened in Sanford, but I don’t think a change in the law requires a special session at this point.”

Caldwell was noncommittal Monday about whether the much-discussed law needs tweaking.

“I’ve been listening to all of the conversation, listening to the opposite opinions of what the law is today, and letting it soak and sit in my mind for a little bit,” Caldwell said. “There was a body of legislators several years ago who thought this was a good law. To go back and make changes to it, I want to reflect and think long and hard about what, if any, changes there should be.”

Naples defense lawyer Donald Day, who represented local teen Jorge Saavedra in a highly publicized “stand your ground” case stemming from a January 2011 bus stop stabbing, said judges have been properly applying the law during pre-trial motion hearings.

“It’s being politicized for various reasons, but that has nothing to do with the practical use of it in the courtroom,” Day said.

Smith on Monday repeated his push to have the Florida Legislature deal with the state’s self-defense laws in a special session instead of waiting until next year’s legislative session.