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Guns Guns Guns
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Two men get into an altercation — one black, one Hispanic.
One is armed with a handgun and shoots the other dead.
The victim is unarmed; the shooter claims self-defense and walks free.
For more than a month, the victim's family waits to see whether authorities will file charges against the shooter.
Except this tragedy did not play out in Sanford, Fla., where an unarmed black teen was shot and killed by a Hispanic neighborhood watch volunteer.
It occurred in a parking lot in Phoenix on April 3, when a black driver and an Hispanic pedestrian got into a shouting match and the driver shot the pedestrian dead.
If there are no witnesses and the victim is dead, or if the evidence is conflicting, the chances are greater that someone can "get away with murder," Savannah Law School professor Elizabeth Megale.
"The statute can be used and distorted by hard-core criminals or someone who has committed a crime," she says. "Most times, someone will get arrested if the other person does not die. … It's ironic. If someone dies, the other person is less likely to get arrested."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-05-27/stand-your-ground-law-trayvon-martin/55208980/1
One is armed with a handgun and shoots the other dead.
The victim is unarmed; the shooter claims self-defense and walks free.
For more than a month, the victim's family waits to see whether authorities will file charges against the shooter.
Except this tragedy did not play out in Sanford, Fla., where an unarmed black teen was shot and killed by a Hispanic neighborhood watch volunteer.
It occurred in a parking lot in Phoenix on April 3, when a black driver and an Hispanic pedestrian got into a shouting match and the driver shot the pedestrian dead.
If there are no witnesses and the victim is dead, or if the evidence is conflicting, the chances are greater that someone can "get away with murder," Savannah Law School professor Elizabeth Megale.
"The statute can be used and distorted by hard-core criminals or someone who has committed a crime," she says. "Most times, someone will get arrested if the other person does not die. … It's ironic. If someone dies, the other person is less likely to get arrested."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-05-27/stand-your-ground-law-trayvon-martin/55208980/1