The judge in the fatal Clearwater shooting that has stirred debate over Florida's "stand your ground" law made it very clear Thursday that he doesn't care the term "stand your ground."
During a hearing over reducing Michael Drejka's bond, Judge Joseph A. Bulone made a point to tell those in the court that it was not a "stand your ground" hearing.
"Some people like to call it that, but it's an immunity hearing," Bulone said.
"Since we're all here," he said. "We should probably call it the right thing. An immunity hearing is an immunity hearing ... and the defense would be asserting the justifiable use of deadly force, also known as self-defense. There's one line in the statutes about 'stand your ground' where it says that a defendant does not have a duty to retreat and has the right to stand his ground, and for some reason based upon that one line we call it 'stand your ground' statute, a 'stand your ground' hearing and a 'stand your ground' defense, and it's really not."
"It would be nice if the lawyers would call things what they are," the judge said.
Bulone refused to lower Drejka's $100,000 bail.
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