Civil Rights Commission Approves Rare Investigation To Probe Stand Your Ground’s Racial Bias

[ProSense]

Civil Rights Commission Approves Rare Investigation To Probe Stand Your Ground’s Racial Bias

By Nicole Flatow

The U.S. Civil Rights Commission voted Friday to investigate racial bias in Stand Your Ground laws, the ALEC and NRA-backed statutes that authorize the unfettered use of deadly force in self-defense. The vote initiates the first full-blown investigation by the commission in decades, according to Commissioner Michael Yaki.

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A 2012 study found that defendants invoking the defense that they were “standing their ground” are significantly more likely to prevail if the victim was black. Other research has found that states with Stand Your Ground laws have more homicides, and that the laws do not deter crime at all.

Although outrage followed the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin, no state has since altered or repealed its Stand Your Ground statute, in spite of several attempts.

The commission voted 5-3 in favor of the investigation, the Huffington Post reports, meaning one of the body’s non-Democrats joined with the majority. This is the second year the Commission has voted to hold such an investigation. Last year, it also voted 5-3, with Commissioner Abigail Thernstrom, a Republican, joining the majority. Yaki told the Huffington Post that they have both the funds and the staff director they lacked last year to move forward with the study.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/06/03/2088491/civil-rights-commission-approves-rare-investigation-to-probe-stand-your-grounds-racial-bias/

[wercal]

1. This portion of the article perpetuates a gross misunderstanding:

"Although outrage followed the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin, no state has since altered or repealed its Stand Your Ground statute"

Zimmerman has not claim Stand Your Ground. He did not opt for the special SYG hearing available to him in Florida.

His is a simple self defense case, where he claims to have been pinned to the ground. That has nothing to do with SYG law.

If anything, Martin would have been the one who could have claimed SYG. Assuming Zimmerman wasn't athletic enough to catch up with Martin, this means that the confrontation occurred because Martin eventually stopped running...and decided to turn around and stand his ground. If Zimmerman had been the one who had ended up dead, Martin very well could have been the one using the sYG defense.

BTW, I don't live in a state with a SYG law...I think its implementation would be in an extremely rare circumstance, and is generally a solution chasing a problem...and I really don't care about them left right or sideways.

But the constant mis-reporting in this infuriates me for some reason.