Man who shot assailant released in 'great test case' of Iowa's stand your ground law

An Iowa man accused of fatally shooting an attacker has been released and granted immunity under Iowa's new stand your ground law.

The court ruling filed Monday ordered the release of Kevin Duane Staley, 39, of Red Oak, who was scheduled to go on trial Tuesday. Staley acknowledged shooting Devin Alexander Davis, 27, of Villisca, on Oct. 11 near downtown Red Oak.

The new law says law-abiding people don't have to retreat before using deadly force if they believe they're in danger, even if they are wrong in estimating the danger they face.

District Judge James Heckerman said in his order that Staley was ambushed in an alley by two men wearing hoodies and bandannas as they screamed and ran toward him. Staley pulled his registered handgun after he was knocked down and shot Davis. Both attackers ran off, and Davis collapsed and died a few moments later. A knife was later found near Davis' body.

"A reasonable person being attacked in a dark alley by masked men would believe their life to be in jeopardy," Heckerman wrote in his order.

Staley's lawyer, DeShawne Bird-Sell, called the outcome "exactly in line with what the Legislature put in place" and praised Heckerman for having "enough guts to actually rule" on the stand your ground issue.

"This is the very first of its kind in Iowa, the very first ruling," she said. "So I think it was groundbreaking."

Mark Swanson, an assistant Montgomery County attorney, called Staley's case "a great test case for this new statute" and said he doesn't believe his office will appeal.

"If you’re legally carrying a concealed weapon and you’re jumped in an alley, it probably tells you that you can shoot somebody," he said.

Swanson said prosecutors weren't aware of the statute when they began working on the case.

"It's brand new," he said. "We're just a small county. We haven't had this issue."

Heckerman said in his order that Iowa has not developed procedures to determine "stand your ground" immunity since the law took effect last July, so he relied on precedent in other states, primarily Florida, which has had a stand your ground law in effect since 2005.

He found Staley had acted in accordance with the law, based upon a preponderance of the evidence standard.

Bird-Sell agreed that Iowa law is not clear on how to raise the issue of immunity under stand your ground.

"No, absolutely not," she said. "The Legislature has determined that this is our statute; however, they give you no implementation of the statute when they write this law."

In other states that have stand your ground laws, Bird-Sell said, it has taken years for procedure to be established through case law or through legislative revision.

"Alabama went through and actually legislated what the procedure is," she said.

She said it would be helpful for the Legislature to revisit the statute to clarify what procedures to follow, but added that many legislators aren't familiar with how pretrial procedures work and that someone familiar with Iowa's criminal law system should be involved in drafting such a revision.

For instance, Bird-Sell said, many Iowans, including attorneys and police officers, don't realize that the law allows defendants to claim complete immunity from prosecution rather than simply claiming self-defense at trial, which they could already do under existing law.

Heckerman's approach of holding a pretrial evidentiary hearing on stand your ground immunity differed from the procedure followed in another Iowa case where the defendant used a stand your ground defense.

In that case, Johnson County District Court Judge Paul Miller chose to let Lamar C. Wilson's case go to trial rather than holding a pretrial evidentiary hearing, as Wilson's lawyers requested. Miller said such a hearing could give a defendant "a preview of the state's case against him."

Wilson was convicted earlier this month of voluntary manslaughter, intimidation with a dangerous weapon and two counts of assault for fatally shooting one man and injuring two others on Iowa City's pedestrian mall. But even after being convicted, Wilson could still receive immunity under stand your ground and be released if Miller rules in his favor. A hearing to decide the issue will be held next week in Johnson County.

A judge last year ruled that the defense was not valid for a Des Moines woman accused of killing her stepfather because the slaying occurred before the law took effect.