Hey, I'm just standin' my ground here.... BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM!!!!
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Attorneys for a man who police said shot three people at the culmination of a neighborhood feud have filed a motion demanding a jury determine whether William T. Woodward’s murder charges should be dismissed under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law.
The motion says Woodward had been the target of a variety of threats and “exercised his right under Florida law to defend himself and his family that night.”
“It’s probably best that you don’t make threats against people, they may take you seriously,” said Robert Berry, an attorney representing Woodward.
Officials say Woodward snuck up on a Labor Day barbecue and opened fire at about 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 3, 2012.
Police arrived and found Gary Lee Hembree, Roger Picior and Bruce Timothy Blake all had been shot. Hembree and Picior died of their injuries. Blake, who was hit 11 times, survived.
Woodward, 44, is accused of two counts of first-degree felony murder and attempted first-degree felony murder.
Before the incident, police had responded numerous times to the ongoing dispute, according to a release. Woodward and Hembree went to court to discuss the dispute before Judge John D. Moxley. Moxley did not issue an injunction.
The motion filed by Woodward’s attorneys says in the hours prior to the shooting, all three men were yelling at Woodward and that this type of behavior had been ongoing for over a month.
In the hours before the shooting, the men called him names, and said “Come on boys. We’re going to get him. We’re going to get him, all three of us.”
Florida law allows people to use deadly force to protect against “imminent death or…prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony.”
So what is “imminent”?
Assistant State Attorney Wayne Holmes explained that imminence in a Stand Your Ground case would be determined based on the facts and circumstances of the case – there isn’t a concrete legal definition.
“As with many things in not only the law, but life in general, you’ve got to have a certain amount of flexibility,” he said, later adding: “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.”