ACTION DIARY: Florida state senator who voted for the Stand Your Ground law regrets vote and now calls on the governor to hold a special session on SYG law. Support the Dream Defenders by donating, sharing on Facebook or Twitter (they use #TakeoverFlorida, Kossacks also use #kt2). Follow the Support the Dream Defenders group here. Join in, participate, share and like and tip and rec. It all matters.
Les Miller led the Democrats in the Florida state Senate back in 2005, when the Stand Your Ground law was passed -- unanimously in the Senate, 39-0, and with many Democrats voting for it in the state House, 94-20. Miller now regrets this vote, and explained yesterday in the Tampa Bay Times...well, honestly, gave the usual excuses is more like it. They didn't understand it. They relied on the advice of staffers and lawyers. They ignored warnings and defeated attempts to modify the law. And then, because they would be 'soft on crime' otherwise, they voted for Stand Your Ground.
Regrets are one thing, but now Les Miller is calling on the governor to hold a special session on the law. Florida needs more than a focus on the law. As the Dream Defenders have stated, the legislature needs to repeal Stand Your Ground.
Hindsight is 20-20, as they say. So this is what Les Miller says now.
Pressure Rick Scott to call a special session
"People are dying because of the 'stand your ground' law," Miller said. "It was a bad bill. Out of all the votes I had, that's the one I wish I could do over again."
Miller and others sent a letter to Gov. Rick Scott on Monday asking him to call a special session to focus on the law. Until Sunday's Times/Herald story about the lawmakers who approved it eight years ago, Miller hadn't had to publicly explain his vote. It passed the Senate 39-0 and the House 94-20.
Miller is now a Hillsborough County Commissioner, no longer in the state Senate. Consider how long it's been since SYG was passed with no accounting for the vote. Enough records remain to show that the law was challenged at the time.
Why didn't Miller and other Senate Democrats echo the concerns raised by House Democrats like Arthenia Joyner, Dan Gelber and Jack Seiler that the "stand your ground" law was dangerous and would lead to greater violence and more confusion with prosecutors?
Miller said he doesn't know why, and chalked it up to the confusion of session, when it's difficult for the leaders of the two chambers to meet.
ThinkProgress reports today on some of those warnings, including a report from their
Judiciary Committee, which seems to frequently characterize potential problems as "confusion".
The drafting of the committee substitute is somewhat confusing in the way that the Florida common law duty to retreat is completely abrogated. Existing s. 776.012, F.S., authorizes the use of force, including deadly force, in self-defense and defense of others. To this section, the committee substitute adds the sentence: “[A person] does not have a duty to retreat . . . under the circumstances permitted pursuant to s. 776.013,” which is a new section created by the committee substitute. For the most part, s. 776.013, F.S., speaks to self-defense in a dwelling, place of temporary lodging, or a vehicle. Further, that section does not address the existence or non-existence of a duty to retreat in a dwelling, place of temporary lodging, or vehicle. Section 776.013(3), F.S., however, states that a person has no duty to retreat if attacked in “any other place.” The Legislature may wish to amend the committee substitute to eliminate the confusion.
ThinkProgress mentions further that state Senator Steve Geller (D) attempted to change this language, that his amendment was defeated, and that he went on to
vote for the bill anyway:
Geller, who had previously warned about the potentially sweeping scope of the statute, did propose an amendment to remove the “any other place” language and limit the bill to home and vehicle protection. But that proposal was defeated. And then he and every other Democrat voted for the law anyway. “We’d be seen as Democrats soft on crime,” he explained after the vote.
Of course, during the debate on the bill, Republicans were happy to help fool anyone who would listen to them. I wonder if anyone has tracked down this one, for instance, to
hold him to account.
During a March 2005 floor debate on the law, Sen. Steve Geller (D) had warned, “Under the wording of this bill, somebody could go onto any of the streets and if they think somebody is walking toward them in a threatening fashion, they can pull out a gun and begin blasting away.”
But Sen. Durell Peaden Jr. (R) disputed that characterization, according to Associated Press coverage. “You have to be within the confines of the dwelling as described in this bill,” he said. “You just can’t shoot anybody on the street and drag ‘em in.”
Mind you, this same Democrat mentioned above went ahead and voted for it, after acknowledging the problems it posed, after trying and failing to change the bill. Maybe the Republican is mistaken or misled, I find it easy to imagine them lying, but other possibilities exist. But what of the Democrat? Being seen as "soft on crime" was more of a danger than the risk posed to people on the streets! Do you really believe that someone could whip out a gun and start blasting? And then
vote for that? How? How does one do such a thing? Is there nothing
worth losing a seat over?
At some point, we need our representatives to do the right thing, even if it costs them at the polls thanks to mistaken or misled voters, driven by propaganda and lies from the gun lobby. Who can say what might have happened by now, if Stand Your Ground had gone down in flames to Democratic opposition?
It's too late to help some Floridians, but the law may yet be repealed.
The Dream Defenders are fighting for justice in Florida. Their goal: To enact Trayvon's Law in Florida, which would repeal the Stand Your Ground law, ban racial profiling, and end the school-to-prison pipeline. Our goal: To promote and support those objectives, online and off.
Previous diaries in this series:
Justice for Trayvon: Dream Defenders Need Your Help
Concealed Carry, SYG and Children
Dream Defenders and The Special Session Is Happnin NOW, y'all
Trayvon's Mom pleads for an end to the SYG law
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