With Trayvon Martin's grieving mother standing by, the National Bar Association - at its convention in Miami Beach on Monday - demanded new respect for black lives in America and pointed out the best place to start: by repealing Stand Your Ground self-defense laws wherever they exist.
A member of the jury that acquitted George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin has been saying publicly that Florida's Stand Your Ground Law left her no option. On Monday in Miami Beach, Trayvon's mother, Sybrina Fulton, said the same thing with the same memorable phrase
"I just think it assisted the person who killed my son to get away with murder", said Fulton.Fulton shared a stage with lawyers, officials of the mostly black National Bar Association and civil rights leaders, including Jesse Jackson. He said Stand Your Ground laws contributed to the shocking number of unarmed blacks who were killed last year in what were called justifiable homicides.
"136 according to justice statistics, unarmed, all killed by police, vigilantes or killed by security guards", said Jackson. "It means black life has been cheapened"
The NBA's action plan for addressing what its president, John Page, called a "wild, wild west mentality" includes a state-by-state review of stand your ground laws, with pressure on the states to repeal them, bringing George Zimmerman back to court to face civil rights charges in the Trayvon Martin case, and boycotting publishers that try to bring books by Zimmerman's jurors to market.