The Christian Science Monitor has an article about the spread of "Stand Your Ground" laws throughout the United States.  To date, Florida is the only one to enact such a law, but 21 other states are thinking about it.

Through statute or common law, most states allow people to use deadly force when intruders enter your home.  "Stand Your Ground" laws take it one step further — they allow people to defend themselves with deadly force even in public places when they perceive a life-threatening situation for themselves or others, and they would not be held accountable in criminal or civil court even if bystanders are injured. 

Welcome to the Wild West.

Back in the early 1990’s, I worked on People of The State of New York v. Goetz.  I was a law clerk — one of a small handful of people working for the defense.  For those of you too young to remember, Bernhard Goetz was riding the #2 downtown train in Manhattan on December 22, 1984, when four young black men approached him and asked for five dollars.  Sensing them as a menacing and threatening presence (and no doubt recalling an earlier time that he was mugged), Bernie pulled out a .38 Smith & Wesson and shot them.  One of them, Daryl Cabey, is paralyzed.

The case sparked a nationwide controversy about vigilantism and self-defense.  To this day, people disagree on whether the shooting was justified.  At the end of the day, Goetz was found guilty for illegal possession of a firearm, but was acquitted on all charges related to the shooting.  In a subsequent civil trial by Cabey (I was not involved with that), a jury found Goetz guilty of recklessness and awarded Cabey $43 million. Goetz subsequently filed bankruptcy.

The "Stand Your Ground" law would make Goetz’s actions entirely legal.

And that’s the problem.

One of the sticky wickets of the criminal trial was the Goetz confession (given, ironically, to police in my hometown of Concord, NH, where Goetz fled).  Goetz told police that he fired all five shots.  Then after surveying the scene, Goetz saw Cabey moving on the bench and later confessed to approaching Cabey and saying, "You don’t look too bad, here’s another", and then attempting to shoot Cabey again in the stomach (with an empty gun).

This confession was used by prosecutors to show that Goetz was not merely reacting in self-defense.  He was, they argued, acting with intent to harm (after all, he had already shot all four guys, so he was out of danger).  We (the defense) argued that Goetz was in a state of heightened fear, and was working on "auto-pilot", and wasn’t cognizant of his motivations.

This is the danger of the "Stand Your Ground" law.  It takes law and order out of the hands of the legal authorities and gives it to each individual, some of whom may be unreasonable in their paranoia, some of whom may be pumped up with adrenaline, some of whom may become irrational when faced with a potentially deadly situation.  It was fortunate that the other two people on Goetz’s subway car that night were not it, but will that always be the case?

"Stand Your Ground" is a law laced with machismo, but it is simply a recipe for disaster.  It’s only matter of time before innocent bystanders are caught in the crossfire between fearful gun-toting would-be victims and their assailants.  Who will protect them?