Stand your ground: le principe au coeur d'un procès qui débute en Floride

Caricature de Chan Lowe, Sun Sentinel 

 C'est ce matin que débute en Floride que débute un procès qui implique la loi de type "stand your ground" adoptée par cet état il y a quelques années. La loi autorise un résident de la Floride à utiliser son arme s'il croit que sa vie est menacée ou encore s'il craint de subir des dommages corporels graves. Il y a ici une question de perception qui peut contribuer à déplacer le fardeau de la preuve. Cette fois c'est un homme noir sans arme qui a été atteint après une altercation autour d'une place de stationnement.

 "The case dates to last July when Michael Drejka, then 47, got into an argument with Britany Jacobs, then 24, who was parked in a handicapped-accessible spot outside a grocery store, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said.

Markeis McGlockton, Jacobs' 28-year-old boyfriend, and their 5-year-old son Markeis Jr. were inside the Clearwater, Florida, store at the time. McGlockton then went outside, walked over to Drejka and forcibly pushed him, causing him to fall to the ground.

While sitting on the ground, Drejka pulled out his gun and shot McGlockton, who had started to turn away, surveillance video shows. The entire incident lasted just a few seconds.

After the shooting, Drejka was cooperative with police and had a valid Florida concealed weapons license, police said. And although he started the argument and escalated the encounter with a gun, he was not initially arrested in the killing because the Pinellas County Sheriff said the state's "stand your ground" law appeared to give him immunity.

"He felt, after being slammed to the ground, that the next thing was that he was going to be further attacked by McGlockton," Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at the time."

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/19/us/stand-your-ground-florida-trial/index.html