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4 Rutgers J. L. & Pub. Pol'y 504 (2006-2007)
Stand Your Ground: Florida's Castle Doctrine for the Twenty-First Century

handle is hein.journals/rutjulp4 and id is 504 raw text is: Rutgers Journal of Law & Public Policy STAND YOUR GROUND: FLORIDA'S CASTLE DOCTRINE FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY Christine Catalfamo I. INTRODUCTION In October 2005, Florida, a notoriously violent state, codified its castle doctrine and doctrine of self-defense into a group of statutes known as the Stand Your Ground law. This new statutory scheme abrogates the duty to retreat before using deadly force and is built upon hard, bright-line rules and presumptions that appear to do away with some of the traditional considerations of necessity and proportionality. Florida has all the ingredients for . disaster with laws involving deadly force: it is a high-crime state with heavy urbanization, a massively overcrowded prison system, and an extremely diverse (and often tense) racial population.1 Critics of the law fear that it goes too far and will turn the state into a modern Wild West, rather than simply secure a person's right to protect himself, his family, and his fortress against wrongful attack and intrusion. Despite the bright lines drawn by the statute, the broad rights granted by the Stand Your Ground law (alternately called the Shoot First law by its critics and opponents)2 are 1 Clayton E. Cramer & David B. Kopel, Shall Issue: The New Wave of Concealed Handgun Permit Laws, 62 TENN. L. REV. 679, 690 (1995). 2 Shoot First is an abbreviation of Shoot First, Ask Questions Later. Linda Kliendienst, Welcome to Florida, But Look Out: Expanded Self-Defense Law Sparks Campaign to Alert Guests, SUN-SENTINEL (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.), Broward Metro Edition, Sept. 26, 2005, at lB. 504 Fall 2007 V01 4:3

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