Cato Institute Forum on no retreat laws

I was in the audience for this event. Mr. Jansen's line of argument was, shall we say, nowhere near as elegantly presented as that of either Mr. Cramer or Mr. Ayoob. In particular, I was amused by the fact that Cramer and Ayoob's case references were detailed---dates, places, names, specifics of events---whereas the professional prosecutor "cited" cases in very vague terms, sounding for all the world like a student trying desperately to pad references for a term paper. Jansen apparently wanted to make a very big deal out of the Florida "ice pick" SYG case, but I had to do my own searching to discover any details of the death of Wathson Adelson, which details certainly made the deceased appear to be the aggressor in the ensuing confrontation. I also called him on the use of the Joe Horn case to smear Stand Your Ground---when SYG had nothing to do with the legalities of the Horn case at all.

In all, the best I could make of Jansen's line of argument is that requiring the exercise of discretion in investigating a potentially justified homicide makes things oh so difficult for police and prosecutors, and could the legislature please just add a few more words to the existing mish-mash of language to tell them exactly what to do...

Anyway, that's the two-cents of an interested citizen.

Why does Steven Jansen sound like they found him at a Holiday Inn Express?

To be fair, Mr. Jansen had the disadvantage that he was arguing for a silly position--that burden of proof, which is entirely on the prosecutor for guilt, should be on the defendant in arguing that he was fearful of death or great bodily harm.

The video doesn't have the PowerPoint presentation that was up on the screen while I was presenting. You can see it here.