The Florida State law commonly referred to as Stand Your Ground has been increasingly controversial over the years, especially since 2012. George Zimmerman was accused of having fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin that year, sparking an intense reaction from the Black community. The same year, Michael Dunn was accused of killing Jordan Davis of the same age in like manner at a gas station. Dunn was convicted of murder, but Zimmerman was acquitted.
Curtis Reeves, a retired police captain, has now been accused of fatally shooting Chad Oulson in a movie theater after Oulson threw popcorn at the Reeves in response to the Reeves telling him to put his cell phone away in 2014. Curtis’s wife, Vivian, testifies, “It happened very quickly, and [Oulson’s] whole upper body just came forward, and I thought that he was coming over.” Reeves’s defense attorney has invoked the Stand Your Ground law as his argument in favor of Reeves’s acquittal. He also argues that the theater’s camera shows that Oulson attacked Reeves.
