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34 Am. J. Trial Advoc. 105 (2010-2011)
Deadly Combinations: How Self-Defense Laws Pairing Immunity with a Presumption of Fear Allow Criminals to Get away with Murder

handle is hein.journals/amjtrad34 and id is 109 raw text is: Deadly Combinations: How Self- Defense Laws Pairing Immunity with a Presumption of Fear Allow Criminals to Get Away with Murder Elizabeth B. Megalet Abstract This Article identifies as problematic the intersection ofFlorida s Immun- ity Statute and its current Castle Doctrine, which presumes reasonable fear where one acts in self-defense in the castle. The coupling together of immunity and the presumption of reasonable fear creates a bar to prosecution in Castle self-defense cases. The Article addresses problems associated with the lack of guidelines to ensure the equal application of the law to self-defense cases, and the lack ofprocedural tools available for the assertion of immunity arising from a self-defense act. Don't Dial 911 - Use .357' I. Introduction After two years injail awaiting trial on a charge of first degree murder, Jimmy Ray Hair was granted immunity under Florida statute section 776.0322 and released from jail by Florida's First District Court of Appeal.3 In Hair v. State, Hair shot and killed Charles Harper following t B.B.A. (1998), Mercer University; J.D. (2002), Mercer University School of Law. Professor Megale is an Assistant Professor of Law at Barry University School of Law, Orlando, Florida. This Article was presented at the New Scholars Workshop, South- eastern Association of Law Schools in 2009. The author wishes to thank in particular Professors Judith Koons and Patrick To Ian for their patience, guidance, and assistance during the process of writing this piece. She also expresses appreciation to her very helpful research assistant, Ana Cristina Torres, and to Barry University School of Law for its very generous support. 'The author saw this on a bumper sticker in Orlando, Florida in March 2010. Five years after passage of the Stand Your Ground laws in Florida, it typifies the opinion of many Floridians that it is better to use a gun than to call the police. 2 FLA. STAT. § 776.032 (2005). 3 Hair v. State, 17 So. 3d 804, 806 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2009) (per curiam); see also Will Brown, Man Facing First-Degree Murder Charge Freed, TALLAHASSEE DEMO- CRAT, July 22, 2009.

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