STAND YOUR GROUND COURT DECISION

The Florida Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that Florida law enforcement officers can invoke the state’s “stand your ground” law to protect them from criminal prosecution in a shooting. The ruling came in the case of a Broward County sheriff’s deputy, charged with manslaughter in the 2013 fatal shooting of a man carrying what turned out to be an air rifle. The justices agreed with two lower court rulings, which concluded that the law applies to law enforcement officers the same as anyone else. The family of the man he shot plans to pursue a federal civil rights lawsuit against the deputy.