“Tonight, the protesters again asked that I call a special
session of the legislature to repeal Florida’s ‘stand your ground’ law,” Scott
told reporters in a written statement. “I told them I agree with the Task Force
on Citizen Safety and Protection, which concurred with the law.”
Former FAMU Student Body President Phillip Agnew, executive
director of the Dream Defenders, said he and the more than 70 nonviolent
demonstrators will continue their sit-in at Scott’s office until the governor
takes action to do away with the controversial statute.
The language of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law states: “A
person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any
other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has
the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including
deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to
prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to
prevent the commission of a forcible felony.”
Last week, a jury announced a “not guilty” verdict for George
Zimmerman, who shot and killed unarmed African American teenager Trayvon Martin
on February 26, 2011 in Sanford, Fla. One juror said she and other six members of
the jury acquitted Zimmerman based upon, in large part “because of the heat of
the moment and the Stand Your Ground.”
Read more about the Dream Defenders here.