{"id":161,"date":"2017-11-15T11:18:39","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T16:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tampacriminallawyer.net\/?p=161"},"modified":"2026-01-08T03:14:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T08:14:48","slug":"florida-appeals-court-rules-statutory-prohibition-engaging-criminal-activity-states-stand-ground-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-rules-statutory-prohibition-engaging-criminal-activity-states-stand-ground-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Appeals Court Rules on Statutory Prohibition of &#8220;Engaging in a Criminal Activity&#8221; under State&#8217;s Stand Your Ground Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Florida&#8217;s Stand Your Ground law gives criminal defendants immunity against prosecution if they meet the following three elements:\u00a0 the use of deadly force was (i) reasonable because deadly force was necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to the defendant or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony; (ii) used while the defendant was not engaged in a criminal activity; and (iii) used in a place where the defendant had a right to be. A recent Florida gun crime\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/edca.4dca.org\/DCADocs\/2016\/3006\/163006_1709_11152017_09243764_i.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">case<\/a>, decided on November 15, 2017, considered the second element, whether the defendant was engaged in a criminal activity at the time the alleged self-defense occurred.<\/p>\n<p>The defendant testified at an evidentiary motion to dismiss the second-degree murder charges against him that on the day of the shooting, he took a few hundred dollars out of his pocket when the eventual victim told him that she shouldn&#8217;t walk around with that amount of cash because of the reputation of the neighborhood. The defendant informed the eventual victim that he had &#8220;protection.&#8221; The defendant then continued talking with his friends. The defendant was then attacked from behind and hit on the left side of his face and knocked up against a car. The eventual victim reached for the defendant&#8217;s side and made contact with the defendant&#8217;s gun. The defendant then grabbed his gun and pulled the trigger. The victim did not fall to the ground. They both ran in different directions, although the victim eventually died of his gunshot wounds.<\/p>\n<p>The defendant presented evidence at a pre-trial hearing that corroborated his account of the event. The trial court ruled that as a result, the defendant was entitled to immunity and dismissed the second-degree murder charge against the defendant. The State appealed because the court did not discuss in the written order whether the defendant was engaged in a criminal activity at the time of the shooting, even though both the prosecutor and defense counsel argued this issue at the hearing.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-rules-statutory-prohibition-engaging-criminal-activity-states-stand-ground-law\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Florida Appeals Court Rules on Statutory Prohibition of &#8220;Engaging in a Criminal Activity&#8221; under State&#8217;s Stand Your Ground Law\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Florida&#8217;s Stand Your Ground law gives criminal defendants immunity against prosecution if they meet the following three elements:\u00a0 the use of deadly force was (i) reasonable because deadly force was necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to the defendant or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony; (ii) used while the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defenses","category-violent-crime"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Stand Your Ground &amp; Criminal Activity Rule<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn how a Florida appeals court read the \u201cno criminal activity\u201d rule in Stand Your Ground cases and what it means for self-defense.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-rules-statutory-prohibition-engaging-criminal-activity-states-stand-ground-law\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Stand Your Ground &amp; Criminal Activity Rule\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Learn how a Florida appeals court read the \u201cno criminal activity\u201d rule in Stand Your Ground cases and what it means for self-defense.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/stand-your-ground-appeals-ruling.webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hanlon Law, PA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Stand Your Ground & Criminal Activity Rule","description":"Learn how a Florida appeals court read the \u201cno criminal activity\u201d rule in Stand Your Ground cases and what it means for self-defense.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-rules-statutory-prohibition-engaging-criminal-activity-states-stand-ground-law\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Stand Your Ground & Criminal Activity Rule","twitter_description":"Learn how a Florida appeals court read the \u201cno criminal activity\u201d rule in Stand Your Ground cases and what it means for self-defense.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/stand-your-ground-appeals-ruling.webp","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hanlon Law, PA","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-rules-statutory-prohibition-engaging-criminal-activity-states-stand-ground-law\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-rules-statutory-prohibition-engaging-criminal-activity-states-stand-ground-law\/"},"author":{"name":"Hanlon Law, PA","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837"},"headline":"Florida Appeals Court Rules on Statutory Prohibition of &#8220;Engaging in a Criminal Activity&#8221; 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