STAND YOUR GROUND AT HOME

Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law has made headlines across the country for quite some time now. What many don’t know is that it includes a defense for two sets of circumstances. One involving self defense with deadly force, the other with non-deadly force.

There are a voluminous number of arrests in Florida for domestic battery each year. The charges often involve one person’s word against that of a spouse, relative or adult child. There is little if any physical evidence, and often police have to draw assumptions about who is telling the truth based on short interviews with the alleged victim and spouse, people they are meeting for the first time in their lives. To make matters worse, many officers have little life experience other than training at the police academy. This, in and of itself, causes a massive problem with how cases are processed and prosecuted which is beyond the scope of this article. However, what is undeniable is the fact that these incidents often take place within the home of both residents where each party claims to have acted in self-defense.

So, if your spouse attacks you after a late night at the local bar, do you have a defense to your actions if you choose not to leave, but to stay at home and deal with the situation by fighting back. The answer is yes.

Florida Statute Ch. 776.032 (1) http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0776/Sections/0776.012.html states that you may use force, except deadly force, against an individual if you reasonably believe that force is necessary to defend yourself against that persons use of unlawful force. And, you do not have a duty to retreat from your own home.

This means that if two people are involved in a domestic dispute that turns physical, you may defend yourself in your own home with equal force against your aggressor. There is no question that this will turn into a he-said, she-said argument if no other witnesses are present, but at the very least you have a legal right to defend yourself. The issue of who is the primary aggressor will of course be paramount. However, a judge can gauge the credibility of your accuser at a hearing which could result in dismissal, preventing the long drawn out costs and risks involved in a jury trial.

With that in mind, what would show that my spouse (or accuser) is being deceitful at the time of a hearing. Well, it’s called cross examination, and for over a century it has been called the “greatest legal engine for discovering the truth”. Obviously it’s not perfect and neither is our system here in the U.S., but with the assistance of an experienced criminal defense lawyer you will have a better shot at proving the truth of what happened on the night of your arrest to a judge. An outright dismissal of a domestic battery case after a Stand Your Ground hearing will also allow you to put a bad chapter of your life behind you and to even file a Petition to Expunge your record which will remove it from the Clerk and Sheriff’s system and allow you to deny it ever took place.