Hill.TV’s Jamal Simmons on Tuesday discussed a recent shooting of a black man in Florida involving the “stand your ground” law, saying the cases surrounding the law feel like a “one-man lynch mob.”
“There is some evidence that the race of the victim in these cases actually matters more than the race of the shooter,” Simmons told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton on “Rising,” citing a Tampa Bay Times study.
The study found that people who killed a black person citing the law walked free 73 percent of the time, but those who killed a white person walked free 59 percent of the time.
“So if a black person is the one who is killed, you are more likely to get away with a stand your ground offense than if a white person is the one who was killed. And I think that matters, and we just have to take a look at that when we’re looking at these cases,” Simmons said. “It feels an awful lot like sort of a one-man lynch mob,” he said.
Simmons’s comments come after Pinellas County police announced on Monday that a man who shot another after an argument in a parking lot last week would not face charges.
Michael Drejka, who is white, told authorities he shot Markeis McGlockton, who is black, out of fear for his life.
However, McGlockton’s girlfriend disputed Drejka’s account, saying her boyfriend backed away from Drejka after he pushed him.
Drejka was not arrested.
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office cited the “stand your ground” law, which permits citizens to use deadly force in situations if they fear “imminent death or great bodily harm.”
The controversial law was also the subject of headlines in 2012 after George Zimmerman shot unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin.
— Julia Manchester
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