|
A couple things:
-- the retreat duty does not exist in any Florida statute. It is not statute, it is case law or precedent.
-- the statute used to say that use of deadly force is justified only if reasonably necessary.
So in the old days the jury had to decide: would a reasonable person believe that deadly force was necessary to counter a threat? If so, then it was self defense.
Now, with the new law, you can use deadly force even when a reasonable person knows that it was not necessary.
When the state legislature proposed this change, I don't recall anybody bringing up a Florida legal case in which a person was charged with homicide unjustly. If anybody can come up with such a case or scenario under the old law, I'd like to hear it. As far as I know, there has been no criticism of the courts' interpretation, no injustice that has ever been in need of correction.
On the other hand, there have been many cases, even under the old law when a duty to retreat existed, where people have been allowed to use deadly force under the most trivial of circumstances.
|