The state House of Representatives this week will consider a bill that would alter Louisiana's so-called "Stand Your Ground" law concerning the use of deadly violence.
The state House of Representatives this week will consider a bill that would alter Louisiana's so-called "Stand Your Ground" law concerning the use of deadly violence. The bill is a response to the February 2012 shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by a member of a Sanford, Fla., neighborhood watch group.
In the Florida case, accused shooter George Zimmerman wasn't initially charged with a crime due to the state's SYG law, although a special prosecutor later charged him with second-degree murder.
Louisiana's SYG law prohibits investigators from considering "the possibility of retreat as a factor in determining whether or not the person who used force, violence, or deadly force in defense of his person or property had a reasonable belief that force, violence, or deadly force was reasonable and apparently necessary to prevent a forcible offense or to prevent the unlawful entry."
House Bill 1100 by Rep. Roy Burrell, a Shreveport Democrat, essentially lifts that prohibition and allows an investigator into such deadly encounters to "consider pursuit in determining whether the pursuer is an aggressor as defined in present law." The bill cleared the House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice unanimously earlier this month and is now before the full House for debate.
Read the bill here.