3/21/2023 0 Comments Defend your castle law![]() “Stand your ground” is by and large an expansion of “castle doctrine”: While the latter only removes the duty to retreat in your home, the former removes the duty to retreat everywhere - whether you’re in a grocery store, park, or street. There are also “castle doctrine” laws, which remove the duty to retreat in a legally occupied setting, such as your home, office, or car (your “castle”). Under standard self-defense laws, someone who’s under a dangerous threat must retreat if it’s safe to do so, with use of force only legally available as an absolute last resort - what’s called the “duty to retreat.” So through this standard you can only use deadly force if you cannot safely avoid harm or death by, for example, running away or hiding.īut if a “stand your ground” law is in place, someone can, well, stand his ground, and use up to lethal force even if he can safely retreat while under imminent threat. What “stand your ground laws” actually do Joe Burbank/Pool via Getty Images Instead, they’re a more arcane redefining of typical self-defense laws - but a redefining that’s big enough, based on the research, to lead to more violence. They’re not free get-out-of-prison cards. Much of the misinformation is rooted in a misunderstanding of what these laws do. And many people are worried that Louisiana’s similar “stand your ground” law will let Ronald Gasser, who killed McKnight, go free as well, even though it’s not yet clear if the law will play a role at all in Gasser’s trial for manslaughter. ![]() Many people still wrongly believe that the big reason George Zimmerman, who killed Martin, was acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges was Florida’s “stand your ground” law, even though Zimmerman was let go on a much more typical self-defense argument. The ensuing conversation around these laws, however, has been messy, riddled with myths about what they actually do. But it took the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, and the more recent shooting of former NFL player Joe McKnight in Terrytown, Louisiana, to shine a national spotlight on these very controversial laws. "When you have a duty to retreat," Reamey said, "only then can you have a Castle Doctrine because the Castle Doctrine is an exception to the duty to retreat.“Stand your ground” laws have been around for more than a decade. The 2007 bill made the Castle Doctrine redundant because it removed the duty to retreat, not just in one’s home, workplace or car, but anywhere a person has the right to be. The duty to retreat had been in place since the Legislature amended the Texas Penal Code in 1973. ![]() Twenty-three other states have broad self-defense laws like those of Texas and Florida, according to ProPublica.īefore the bill passed in 2007, Texas was among a minority of states with a duty to retreat before using deadly force, said Gerald Reamey, a law professor at St. Under the law, a person's use of deadly force will be presumed reasonable if someone enters, or attempts to enter, that person’s occupied home, vehicle or workplace "unlawfully and with force." ![]() In 2007, Texas passed a law resembling Florida’s that goes further than the "Castle Doctrine." Like Florida’s, the Texas law removed the duty to retreat for people who are attacked, as long as they have the "right to be present at the location where the force is used." In other words, Texans are allowed to use force in self-defense before retreating as long as they are not intruding on private property.
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