MIAMI (AP) _ As social media center on the Trayvon Martin case, and rallies form around the state and New York City, many are questioning the “Stand Your Ground Law.”
Florida is among 21 states with a “Stand Your Ground Law.”
The self-defense law gives people wide latitude to use deadly force rather than retreat during a fight, and it helps explain why a neighborhood watch captain has not been arrested in the shooting death of an unarmed teenager.
The Florida law lets police officers on the scene decide whether they believe the self-defense claim.
In this case, police say they are confident they did the right thing by not charging 28-year-old George Zimmerman, a white Hispanic.
The shooting’s racial overtones have sparked a debate over whether the shooting was warranted.
The Justice Department and FBI have opened a civil rights investigation, and the local prosecutor has convened a grand jury to determine whether to charge Zimmerman.
NEW YORK (AP) _ The parents of a black teenager shot to death by a Hispanic neighborhood watch captain in Florida have vowed to keep fighting to get justice for their son.
At a demonstration in New York on Wednesday, the teen’s father, Tracy Martin, said his son “did not deserve to die.”
Martin’s son, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, was killed Feb. 26, in Sanford, Fla.
He was returning to a gated community in the city after buying candy at a convenience store. He was unarmed and was wearing a hooded sweat shirt, called a hoodie.
Neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman says the teen attacked him and he shot him in self-defense. Zimmerman has not been charged.