* Call it a win for public safety, the sort of victory that is too infrequent when it comes to the law and guns in this state. When Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court Judge Susan Barthle made the decision that Curtis Reeve didn’t kill Chad Oulson in Stand Your Ground-rationalized self-defense, she also made a de facto statement that the process hasn’t been totally hijacked by Marion Hammer and the NRA puppeteers.
By allowing the case to proceed to trial, Judge Barthle made the point that credible physical evidence was lacking. By so doing, she also indicated that firing a weapon in response to tossed popcorn just might be as legally flawed as it is common-sensically absurd.
* In another win for the forces of fairness and common sense, Gov. Rick Scott has signed into law a requirement that all 12 members of a jury must agree for a death sentence to be imposed. The previous requirement–10 out of 12 jurors–was thrown out as unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court last October.
The bottom line, and it took a frustratingly long time to get to it, was this. Invoking the ultimate penalty, one that is reached in far-from-infallible context, should require nothing less than jury unanimity. Of course it should.