Bias

Many Factors in Stand Your Ground

Race in 200 cases of Florida law examined.

Is justice color-blind? That question drove a Tampa Bay Times investigation of whether or not racial bias is present in the application of Florida’s Stand Your Ground defense, which came to national attention after the shooting of African-American teen Trayvon Martin earlier this year. A team of the paper’s researchers and reporters examined nearly 200 cases in the state and found that a defendant charged with killing a black person was let off 73 percent of the time, while a defendant charged with killing a white person was allowed to walk in 59 percent of the cases. Further analysis showed that the question of racial bias in the law’s application is not so simple—white defendants who invoked Stand Your Ground were charged and convicted at the same rate as black defendants.