Showing results for "Stand Your Ground" in Politics & Social Sciences

A history of America’s Stand Your Ground gun laws, from Reconstruction to Trayvon Martin After a young, white gunman killed twenty-six people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012, conservative legislators lamented that the tragedy could have been avoided if...

In 2014 Barry D. Todd’s world was shattered when an act of self-defense led to charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault. Attacked outside an Arizona restaurant, he fired his weapon to protect himself—only to find himself incarcerated without proper evidence or due process. Thrust into a daunting legal battle, Barry D. Todd faced the complexities of a criminal justice system that seemed stacked against him. This powerful account delves into the flaws of a system that can fail the wrongly accused.

The 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin, an African American teenager in Florida, and the subsequent acquittal of his killer, brought public attention to controversial "Stand Your Ground" laws. The verdict, as much as the killing, sent shock waves through the African American community, recalling a history of similar deaths, and the long struggle for justice. On the Sunday morning following the verdict, black preachers around the country addressed the question, "Where is the justice of God? What are we to hope for?"