Miami prosecutor calls to toss self-defense law

MIAMI — A South Florida organization of prosecutors that includes Miami-Dade state attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle is telling the Florida Supreme Court that the latest version of the state’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” self-defense law is unconstitutional.

The League of Prosecutors, in newly filed court documents, asked justices to strike down the law because it unlawfully forces state attorneys to try cases involving self-defense claims before a judge, not a jury. “There is nothing specialized or unique about this defense that the common juror cannot understand,” according to the brief filed late Friday.

Fernandez Rundle, the longtime elected top prosecutor in Miami-Dade, also filed a brief joining in the effort — the first state attorney to break with Attorney General Pam Bondi, whose office is defending the broadened “Stand Your Ground” law passed by the Florida Legislature last year.

The Florida Supreme Court is set to review issues surrounding the law, which was first passed in 2005. The law eliminated a citizen’s duty to retreat before using deadly force to counter a threat.

Critics have long said that the law creates a culture of vigilante gun violence and allows criminals to skate on claims of self-defense. The law is opposed by many in law enforcement.

The law has repeatedly become a social and political flash point. In 2012, police cited the law in initially not arresting George Zimmerman in the shooting death of teen Trayvon Martin, a case that sparked racial tensions and scrutiny on the state’s self-defense law. Zimmerman was later charged but acquitted by a Seminole County jury.

Most vexing for prosecutors, the law allowed judges an easier path to grant “immunity” for someone they deem to be acting in self-defense. Over the years, judges in Miami have thrown out a number of high-profile murder cases.

For years, it was the burden of the defendant to prove to a judge that he or she acted in self-defense.

But last year, Florida lawmakers changed the law, forcing prosecutors to shoulder the burden of disproving a defendant’s claim of self-defense in a hearing before any jury trial takes place.