In 2014, a man was sitting in a movie theater sending a text message. A man sitting behind him took offense at this and asked him to put the phone away. The texter told him to piss off because it was only previews. The complainer, who happened to be a retired police captain, went to get a manager. The manager told the cop to relax, the movie hadn't even started yet.
Returning to the theater, the retired cop began arguing with the man, who became upset and threw a large popcorn in the cop's face. The cop drew his concealed weapon and shot the man dead.
The cop was subsequently charged with second degree murder. He immediately claimed self defense under Florida's stand your ground law. Years of legal maneuvering and the SYG hearing finally got underway in 2017. At the SYG hearing, an off duty cop who witnessed the shooting had some damning testimony. The court denied the SYG defense and ordered a trial.
After another year of legal maneuvering, the trial was finally set for February of 2019. Then, in another twist, his defense team argued that changes in Florida's Stand Your Ground law that came in 2018 should be applied retroactively. A court in August of 2018 agreed, and now his trial has been delayed in definitely.
A man killed another in a petty disagreement. Here we are, more than five years later, and the shooted continues to use legal maneuvering to avoid trial. I am all for self defense and believe that everyone deserves justice, but this is an outright abuse of the legal system. The whole idea of SYG hearings is to prevent legal bills from running innocent people into bankruptcy, not allow people to play the system and delay a trial until they die of old age.
This is the sort of thing that anti gun forces love to point to as a reason to eliminate self defense and concealed carry.
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