Patience.
A little bit of patience was all that was needed.
Investigations have been done.
They guy has now been charged with manslaughter and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.
“Stand your ground” turned out to be a complete non-issue after all.
I have no doubt the guy will be convicted and will receive a just sentence.
The system worked.
The laws need no change.
I hope he is convicted
One thing is missing. Sheriff Bob Gualtieri should be disciplined for putting his personal opinion of the Stand your Ground law over public interest and justice and just plain good sense.
How so? The sheriff does not determine who is charged with a crime…
The sheriff was the one that said it looked like a justified use of stand your ground and that the law needed changed, when the case was quite apparent that it had nothing to do with stand your ground.
Why on earth would you think that? The police charge people with crimes every day.
As wrong as I think the Sheriff’s judgement was, it was within his discretion to take the action he did.
In 2020, the voters of Pinellas County will exercise their judgement as to whether they agree with his judgement.
As was his judgement… The district attorney is charged with prosecuting, not the sheriff…
No they don’t, district attorneys and grand juries charge people with crimes…
Actually, both law enforcement and DA’s are involved in setting charges.
Example: I get a speeding ticket. The officer has thus charged me with speeding. In GA, I can go to court and negotiate with the Solicitor / DA to have the charge reduced to a non - moving violation so that I don’t have points on my license and don’t have to pay increased insurance rates. The police officer set the initial charge, and the DA changed the charge to a non - moving violation charge. (I have actually done this before).
Why did you negotiate with the Solicitor/DA? Why didn’t you negotiate with the police department?
I’ve actually negotiated with officers before as well. I have talked myself out of speeding tickets at the scene on 2 occasions.
Negotiating with the court is kind of a fallback position if negotiating with the officer doesn’t work.
Any peace officer can charge you with a crime.
Almost every arrested defendant is held initially on police charges. Police HAVE to charge you to hold you in custody.
Afterwards, the United States Attorney’s department or District Attorney will file superseding charges or obtain a formal Grand Jury indictment, which supersedes the original police officer charges. The police must file charges for purposes of holding a defendant in custody, but those are NOT typically the charges that the defendant will ultimately go to trial on.
Traffic violations are not relevant to the discussion. Most traffic violations are civil infractions, not criminal violations and the District Attorney is not involved, even if the case goes to trial. Instead, the officer himself must show up and testify.
And if the US Attorney or District Attorney declines to pursue the charges?
Then that would typically be the end of the matter.
So the person deciding whether or not to pursue charges IS the US Attorney or District Attorney… Can law enforcement decide to pursue if they disagree? No…
Of course not.
The point I am making is that any peace officer can initially charge a suspect.
Obviously, the District Attorney can overrule and dismiss charges down the road.
Just as they can overrule a peace officers decision NOT to arrest.
The shooter was on his knees so there was no way he could have left. “Stand your ground” was never relevant from the beginning. Either the shooter reasonably believed he was still at risk after he pulled the gun and it was self defense or he did not and it was some other form of homicide. Properly up to the jury now.
You are splitting hairs. The Sheriff made the conscious decision to not arrest the man based on his obvious dislike of the SYG law. Only when that overt act sparked outrage did he forward the case to the DA.
