As Florida’s statutes continue to evolve and grow in number, new challenges inevitably arise concerning the fair and equal application of the law.
The Florida Supreme Court recently agreed to review an unresolved case from Palm Beach County that involves the state’s Stand Your Ground self-defense law. The justices will need to determine whether convicted felons are covered under the statute’s provisions – something that, as a recent Orlando Sun-Sentinel article pointed out, wasn’t even contemplated when the legislation was originally sponsored almost ten years ago.
As former state Sen. Durell Peaden Jr., R-Crestview, puts it, “If you’ve lost your right to bear arms, then why should you have the protections that law-abiding citizens should have?”
The felon involved in the Florida Supreme Court case, 25-year-old Brian Bragdon, says he was defending himself when he shot at two men outside a West Palm Beach strip club back in 2012.
State prosecutors contend that Bragdon, a convicted cocaine dealer, can’t use that defense against attempted murder charges because, being a convicted felon, he should not have been packing heat in the first place.
A portion of the Stand Your Ground law says that the self-defense provision doesn’t apply if the person asserting it is “engaged in an unlawful activity.”
However, Peaden says that that provision was originally intended to keep someone from using Stand Your Ground to, say, escape prosecution for breaking into someone else’s house and shooting them.
Prosecutors say that the “unlawful activity” provision still applies in Bragdon’s case, because he was illegally carrying a gun.
Some constitutional law experts believe that the justices will rule in favor of felons seeking to invoke Stand Your Ground.
“You’re depriving them of a right that every other Florida citizen has,” said Bob Jarvis, who teaches constitutional law at Nova Southeastern University.
Tom Blomberg, dean and professor at Florida State University’s College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, appears to concur.
“It raises all sorts of concerns when you talk about equal protection under the law,” said Blomberg. “What does [a defendant’s] felony background have to do with the particulars of the case” for which he or she is on trial?
As with many cases that reach higher appellate levels, the Bragdon case may help to resolve issues that have come up elsewhere in the state. Until that happens, Stand Your Ground will continue to remain under scrutiny – by citizens, lawyers, law enforcement officers and judges alike.
