SB116 spent almost nine months dying a slow death in the state Senate, receiving not even a single vote in any committee

The primary Florida legislative initiative to repeal the state’s Stand-Your-Ground — SB116, embedded below — has officially died a sad little death in the state senate, as reported on the official state Senate legislative tracking site. (This also effectively dooms the complementary bill introduced in the state house, H4003.)

Introduced by Florida state Senator Geraldine F. “Geri” Thompson, whose district includes urban Orlando, SB116 met with only limited legislative success.

Oh, did I say “limited legislative success?” Sorry, I meant “no success.” Literally. None.

Filed on August 22, 2013, it was referred to the three committees necessary for any criminal law bill to advance to a full senate vote — the Judiciary, the Criminal Justice, and the Rules committees.

In the Judiciary committee the vote in favor of the bill was . . . well, they never even got it to a vote.

In the Criminal Justice committee . . . ditto. And in the Rule committee. Yeah, the same.

Finally, in an act of unmitigated mercy the bill was finally officially “put down” this past Friday, May 2, after having suffered nine tortious months accomplishing absolutely nothing of substantive value to the citizens of Florida.

Of course, the filing of SB116 was never intended to lead to passage or actual repeal of Stand-Your-Ground, because Stand-Your-Ground remains wildly popular throughout Florida. SB116 was merely a sad effort to extend the political circus that had emerged from Trayvon Martin’s unlawful attack upon George Zimmerman, and the entirely foreseeable consequences that followed.

For those interested in seeing what a deceased state senate bill looks like, here you go:

–-Andrew, @LawSelfDefense

Andrew F. Branca is an MA lawyer and the author of the seminal book “The Law of Self Defense, 2nd Edition,” available at the Law of Self Defense blog, Amazon.com (paperback and Kindle), Barnes & Noble (paperback and Nook), and elsewhere.



