Peter Hancock has replaced liberal activist Scott Rothschild as the Lawrence Journal-World's statehouse reporter. However, he appears to have the same odd obsession with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as Rothschild had.
In a December 5 article, Hancock writes about Kansas state legislators attending an ALEC meeting. In the article, Hancock makes the following claim:
ALEC has come under fire in recent years, and several of its corporate members have dropped out. Some of those, such as General Motors, have cited ALEC's support for "Stand Your Ground" laws that allow people to use deadly force to defend themselves in any place where they have a lawful right to be if they reasonably believe they face an immediate threat of bodily harm or death.
A Florida version of that law was used in 2013 to acquit George Zimmerman for the killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager.
Of course, Stand Your Ground was not used to acquit George Zimmerman, as
ABC News noted earlier this year:
When a Florida jury deadlocked on the first degree murder charge against software developer Michael Dunn, the state's controversial "Stand Your Ground Law" was once again hoisted into the media spotlight.
Dunn was convicted on four other charges in the case, in which he fired 10 times at an SUV after an argument with the teens inside about how loud their music was, and will likely be sentenced to a minimum of 60 years behind bars.
As in the case of George Zimmerman, acquitted in the killing of Trayvon Martin, the public outrage was often directed or misdirected, at the Florida law.
Many, including legal commentators who should know better, repeatedly citing the statute as a crucial issue in both cases.
And yet neither defendant invoked the controversial aspects of Florida's law. In fact, both defendants argued basic self defense law that would have been similar in just about every state in the nation.
