Attorneys for a man who has been charged with murder after shooting three people, killing two of them, at a Labor Day barbecue in 2012 have filed a motion to have the case thrown out under the controversial "Stand Your Ground" law, according to Florida Today.
Police have said that William T. Woodward "snuck up" on his neighbor's barbecue at around 12:30 a.m. before opening fire and killing two men who had allegedly threatened Woodward earlier in the day, according to Talking Points Memo.
Attorneys for Woodward claim that their client had been in a dispute with the victims for the month leading up to the shooting. The filed motion claims that after the victims called Woodward names and said that they were going to "get him" Woodward "exercised his right under Florida law to defend himself and his family that night," according to CBS News.
"It's probably best that you don't make threats against people, they may take you seriously," Robert Berry, one of Woodward's attorneys, told Florida Today.
Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law came to international notice during the murder trial of George Zimmerman despite the law not being invoked in the case. The law states that a person does not have to retreat from a threat prior to using deadly force if they fear "imminent death or. . . to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony," according to Florida Today.
What the motion is asking the court to define is what sort of time frame is implied by the phrase "imminent death?" Specifically, in this case, did the vague threats made toward Woodward give him justification to shoot the victims hours later?
"As with many thinks in not only the law, but life in general, you've got to have a certain amount of flexibility," Assistant State Attorney Wayne Holmes told Florida Today. "There's a certain amount of ability to take the facts, whatever they may be, and apply it to that law. Sometimes it fits perfectly; sometimes it doesn't fit at all."
Homes also told Florida Today that the majority of "Stand Your Ground" cases that he has seen brought up in Brevard County failed.
"I think legally that term has sort of been evolving especially given changes of our government's definition of 'imminent,'" Berry said. "It's become more expansive than someone putting a gun right to your head. It's things that could become, you know, an immediate threat."
The motion also mentions the "Bush Doctrine," referencing George W. Bush's decision to stage a pre-emptive attack on Iraq because they posed a potential threat in the future.
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