Florida Man Invokes ‘Stand Your Ground’ After Shooting Sheriff’s Deputy

A Pensacola, FL court is set to decide on Friday whether 24-year-old Keenan Finkelstein is criminally liable for shooting a deputy sheriff in the leg in March of 2013. According to the Pensacola News-Journal, Finkelstein and his defense team are pinning their hopes on the controversial “Stand Your Ground” law.
On the night of March 20, 2013, Escambia County Sheriff’s Deputy Sgt. Shedrick Johnson and other police officers were searching on foot for a robbery suspect in the Scenic Hills area of Pensacola. A robbery victim told police that someone from a home located on the 8800 block of Burning Tree Road had stolen marijuana and a handgun from his residence.
Police converged on the home and saw Finkelstein — who was not the subject the police were searching for — emerge from the house’s garage. Sgt. Johnson said that he emerged from a hiding place behind a tree and identified himself as a sheriff’s deputy.
Finkelstein produced a gun and fired, striking Johnson in the leg.

Original Quill wrote:In Florida...again.  The guy could win if the deputy sheriff is Black, and   Finklestein is white.

We all know that stand your grand is like bleach...only works for whites.

Original Quill wrote:It is interesting.  The judge ruled that Finkelstein had notice that the man he shot was a police officer, thus he could not use the stand your ground defense.  Stand your ground only means you do not have a duty to retreat when defending yourself or others.  When a police officer identifies himself, the self-defense situation no longer applies as a matter of law.

Nevertheless, the factual circumstances surrounding stand your ground always vary, and given it was Florida I have my suspicions that had Finkelstein been a white man, some exception would have been found.

Raggamuffin wrote:

Original Quill wrote:It is interesting.  The judge ruled that Finkelstein had notice that the man he shot was a police officer, thus he could not use the stand your ground defense.  Stand your ground only means you do not have a duty to retreat when defending yourself or others.  When a police officer identifies himself, the self-defense situation no longer applies as a matter of law.

Nevertheless, the factual circumstances surrounding stand your ground always vary, and given it was Florida I have my suspicions that had Finkelstein been a white man, some exception would have been found.

I doubt it - Finkelstein shot a police officer, not just any old person. In any case, Finkelstein is about as white as George Zimmerman, who isn't actually white at all IMO, but many people claim he is.

Shedrick Johnson was actually awarded the Purple Heart because of that incident.

Interestingly, he was also involved in a slight cock up whereby a black police officer was treated rather roughly by accident.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/03/18/25667.htm

I think the officers were exonerated in that case, but I'm not entirely sure because the document I was reading about it was rather long.

Original Quill wrote:

Raggamuffin wrote:

I doubt it - Finkelstein shot a police officer, not just any old person. In any case, Finkelstein is about as white as George Zimmerman, who isn't actually white at all IMO, but many people claim he is.

Shedrick Johnson was actually awarded the Purple Heart because of that incident.

Interestingly, he was also involved in a slight cock up whereby a black police officer was treated rather roughly by accident.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/03/18/25667.htm

I think the officers were exonerated in that case, but I'm not entirely sure because the document I was reading about it was rather long.

I have not seen the documentation on Mr. Finkelstein's race.  Could you provide it?