BILL FILED to establish “stand your ground” rights.
Rep. Dwight Tosh, R-Jonesboro, filed a “stand your ground” bill Tuesday that would expand protections for citizens using deadly force as well as insulate them from subsequent civil lawsuits.
There was little action on the House or Senate floor Tuesday, with House members approving a handful of bills, including legislation that would limit how close a level-four sex offender can live to a church or place of worship. The onslaught of new bill filings continued, however, with more than two dozen new bills submitted.
House Bill 1240, to be known as the Stand Your Ground Law, would eliminate the language of state Statute 5-2-607 governing the use of deadly force that requires a citizen to “retreat” from a potentially deadly situation if possible.
A person “not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is in any place where he or she has a legal right to be present” and is confronted with someone committing a felony using force or violence does not have to “retreat.”
The legislation also gives citizens immunity from civil action if they follow the law while using deadly force. It would also require the party bringing the lawsuit to pay for court and attorney fees if the citizen was justified in using force.
“If someone has to use deadly force in saving someone’s life and they follow the letter of the law … it’s a shame that someone could come along and sue them,” Tosh, a former Arkansas state trooper, said. A lawsuit “could cost them their livelihood in action where they were doing something good for society.”
The head of the Arkansas Sheriff’s Association, Ronnie Baldwin, said his group hasn’t discussed Tosh’s bill but typically does not want to get in the way of citizens protecting themselves.
The Arkansas Prosecuting Attorneys Association strongly opposed similar legislation in 2007. Bob McMahan, the state’s prosecutor coordinator, said the association was reading the legislation and gauging the reaction of the state’s prosecutors before taking a stance.
McMahan said some of the same concerns from 2007 could arise from the language in Tosh’s bill.
Meanwhile, the House approved a handful of bills Tuesday including House Bill 1164, which prohibits a level 4 sex offender — an offender who is considered by state risk assessments to be a sexually violent predator — from residing within 2,000 feet of a church or place of worship.
Under Arkansas law, level 3 and level 4 sex offenders are currently prohibited from living within 2,000 feet of a public or private elementary or secondary school, public park, youth center or day- care facility.
Rep. Charlene Fite, R-Van Buren, sponsored the bill, which passed 75-7 with another seven members voting present and others remaining silent during the roll call vote Tuesday.
Rep. John Walker, D-Little Rock, asked whether the law would prohibit the sex offender from exercising his First Amendment right to freedom of religion.
Fite said the bill would not prohibit the offender from attending services, but the law likely already prohibits that person’s attendance at church events where minors are present in large numbers.
The chamber also passed House Bill 1081, sponsored by Rep. John Vines, D-Hot Springs, which allows sheriff’s offices to award service weapons to deputies or sheriff’s upon their retirement.
Lawmakers also approved House Bill 1118, sponsored by Rep. Betty Overbey, D-Lamar, which requires that county assessors maintain inactive homestead credit documents for five years. They also approved House Bill 1180, sponsored by Vines, to amend the criminal offense of battery in the second degree to include instances where a person recklessly causes serious physical injury while operating a motorboat.
The Senate approved a handful of bills that clarify rules in the state’s teacher retirement system.