Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Putnam is accusing his opponent, Ron DeSantis, of betraying President Donald Trump by siding with “liberal Democrats” in last month’s Stand Your Ground case that occurred in Pinellas County.
Markeis McGlockton was shot and killed on July 19 by Michael Drejka in a dispute over a handicapped parking space outside a convenience store.
DeSantis has take a position that the shooting was not a Stand Your Ground case, which drew criticism from Putnam.
“The state attorney and Pinellas Sheriff (Bob) Gualtieri have far more information on what took place in Clearwater. I trust our law enforcement will make the right decision and uphold the law,” Putnam said. “Congressman DeSantis, on the other hand, ought to be ashamed of siding with Al Sharpton and liberal Democrats instead of standing for Floridians’ constitutional rights.”
DeSantis issued a statement to Politico on Monday expressing his views concerning last month’s case.
“I support the right of Floridians to defend themselves by standing their ground against aggressors,” DeSantis said. “That said, it doesn’t seem to me that the law is even applicable in the case of Markeis McGlockton and I don’t think the Pinellas County Sheriff analyzed the law properly.”
The Putnam campaign accused DeSantis and Democrats of “throwing Florida law enforcement under the bus, instead of allowing the state attorney assigned to the recent shooting in Pinellas County to review all the facts and footage.” The campaign says DeSantis took a cheap jab in order to score political points.
Putnam says he supports Stand Your Ground and believes Floridians have the right to defend themselves, their families and their properties when they are threatened.
Putnam says it’s just another example that DeSantis “doesn’t understand Florida, or the rights of Floridians.”
The issue will likely surface when Putnam and DeSantis meet in Jacksonville Wednesday evening in the next Republican gubernatorial debate.
Somebody sounds desperate and is trying to score political points but it’s not DeSantis.
I’m a retired attorney who handled many criminal cases. The “stand your ground” additional defense to murder is so confusing that it is no wonder that the sheriff in Pinellas County, Florida as well as the several politicians who recently have weighed in on the matter are supremely confused by the law; and for good reason.
Stand your ground laws are not necessary. We have for centuries had laws of self-defense derived from English common law that have been quite adequate. The NRA wrote stand your ground for political reasons, not because it was actually needed. The law requires a subjective determination, which is never a good measure for any law, much less a criminal one. So here we are, not so far along in the history of the Stand Your Ground law, which in fact was passed first in Florida before being copied by other state legislatures in something of a faddish manner. It’s death cannot arrive too soon.