It's not about 'stand your ground,' it's about raceBy Mark O'Mara, CNN Legal Analyst
February 19, 2014 -- Updated 2136 GMT (0536 HKT)
(CNN) -- There has been a lot of debate about Florida's "stand your ground" law in recent days. From my perspective, the George Zimmerman and Michael Dunn cases were not "stand your ground" cases, although I know reasonable people disagree about my stance on this.
What I think most people can agree on is that the "stand your ground" law is confusing. I know because I've tried to explain it a hundred times. And here is my 101st attempt, this time in the context of the hung jury on the murder charge in the Dunn trial.
When you hear "stand your ground," think "no duty to retreat." For centuries, traditional self-defense implied a duty to retreat, meaning when someone finds himself in a threatening situation, he has a duty to exhaust all viable options to retreat before resorting to deadly force.
The problem with the duty to retreat is that, in the cold light of day, jurors may have a better perspective on a person's options to retreat than the person had during his life-threatening encounter.
Because of concern over this Monday morning quarterbacking -- and with the thought that we were sending people to jail who were otherwise justified in using deadly force -- legislatures in many states modified their justifiable use of force laws to say that people who have a reasonable fear of imminent great bodily harm or death very affirmatively DO NOT have a duty to retreat.
In other words, they can "stand their ground" and meet force with force, including deadly force. "Stand your ground" refers specifically to the removal of the duty to retreat.
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