Sybrina Fulton joined two Democratic state lawmakers pushing a repeal of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law invoked by George Zimmerman, neighborhood watch volunteer who shot and killed Fulton’s 17-year-old unarmed son Trayvon Martin nearly one year ago.
Rep. Alan Williams, D-Tallahassee, and Sen. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, have filed a proposal (HB 4009) that would strip the 2005 law from the books. Martin’s shooting sparked a national outcry that focused a spotlight on Florida’s first-in-the-nation law allows people to use deadly force if they feel threatened and provides immunity from prosecution.
“How many lives do we have to lose? How many children have to be killed? How many times are we going to bury our loved ones and not do anything about it? It is important that we do something about this law. As a parent I just don’t quite understand how someone can be a make-believe cop, pursue my son who had every right to be in that neighborhood, chase him, get in a confrontation with him, shoot and kill him and not be arrested,” Fulton said at a press conference in the Capitol on Wednesday. “Something has to be done. We have to put our collective minds together and we have to strategize and we have to make changes to this law. We need to get rid of this law. We need to do something seriously about this law. As a parent, I wouldn’t want you to stand I my shoes. Because it is hard. It’s difficult.”
Zimmerman was arrested 44 days after the Feb. 26 shooting after Gov. Rick Scott appointed a special prosecutor in the case. Trayvon Martin would have been 18 years old on Feb. 5, Williams noted.
Fulton’s lawyer Benjamin Crump called the law vague and confusing for law enforcement officials and should be repealed.
“Every Tom, Dick and Harry who kills somebody is saying I was standing my ground,” Crump said.
Scott appointed a task force to look into the law. Their recommendations include minor tweaks to the law but no major overhaul, and it is unlikely that the GOP-controlled legislature will take it off the books.
Sen. Oscar Braynon, a Miami Gardens Democrat who represents the district in which Fulton lives, blasted Scott’s task force for failing to appoint open critics of the law, including himself, and failing to hold a meeting in his district.
“Get rid of the law,” he said.
Bullard acknowledged that the NRA’s influence could make the repeal a difficult sell.
But, he said: “How many people have to die in order to make a change?”
