Gabriel Mobley had long claimed self-defense in fatally shooting two unarmed men – one of whom he insisted appeared to be reaching for a weapon under his shirt – during a 2008 scuffle outside a North Miami-Dade restaurant.
On Thursday, a Miami-Dade appeals court agreed.
In a decision under Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground self-defense law, the court ordered the dismissal of Mobley’s murder charges, saying he acted reasonably because the slain men, though apparently unarmed, were the aggressors.
“The shooting at issue did not occur in a vacuum,” Third District Court of Appeals Judge Linda Ann Wells wrote in the 2-1 opinion. “Mobley did not shoot two innocent bystanders who just happened upon him on a sidewalk.”
The ruling, which for now clears the Opa-locka man of killing Jason Jesus Gonzalez and Rolando Carrazana, marks the first time the local appeals court has granted immunity to a defendant under the Stand Your Ground law.
It is gonna be a biatch to play the race card against this guy. The prosecutor is appealing so we will be hearing more about this case.
EWRAHHH!! I like it.
If one bothers to read through the “standard jury instructions” designed by the supreme court of the State of Florida you may see the following; In deciding whether defendant was justified in the use of deadly force, you must judge [him] [her] by the circumstances by which [he] [she] was surrounded at the time the force was used. The danger facing the defendant need not have been actual; however, to justify the use of deadly force, the appearance of danger must have been so real that a reasonably cautious and prudent person under the same circumstances would have believed that the danger could be avoided only through the use of that force. Based upon appearances, the defendant must have actually believed that the danger was real.
Before the lynch mob shows up with greased ropes to hang me, understand I am NOT encouraging ANYBODY to become “trigger happy”. Personally, I want to do everything humanly possible to avoid the use of deadly force.
It is encouraging to see a bit of justice now & then.
Uh, hello? The guy is obviously a White African American and he obviously hates Hispanics due to his obvious racism.
(Hey, if the media can do it, so can I)
Uhm… unfortunately you are wrong. What this article does not tell you is that Mr. Mobley was the ONLY African American in his group. The entire entourage, all of his friends, that he was with on that night are Hispanic. The young man who was punched in the eye was Hispanic. The perpetrators were shot because instead of going home, they went to the back parking lot of Chili’s, waited until Mr. Mobley and his friends exited Chili’s, and attacked. BTW, the article also does not tell you that they were both high as a kite, with cocaine and marijuana in their system. Unfortunately, that night, they attacked the wrong person.
There is a thing called irony. Study it.
Make it your own.
Obviously this man has been using over-the-counter fake tanning products. That is racism right there. And the fact that he was in a crowd of Hispanics only underlines his racism. He obviously planned that behavior as a form of overcompensating to cover for his later actions.
(This is sarcasm……It is making fun of the media and comments made on MSNBC’s various web sites displaying their stunningly (in)accurate portrayal of various white people over the past twenty years who were in conflict with people of other races)
Yep. Probably a Boer.
The beard gives it away.
The big thing is to be able to articulate why you shot, i.e., I felt I was in danger of being seriously injured or killed. Just saying I was scared won’t cut it. Oh, and get a lawyer before you do say anything and be guided by his advice. Not like all the dummies on the TV cop shows.
Whoever MiamiGirl is, thank you for telling the truth because there was a great deal of information left out. Ex. They actually got into their vehicles, left the restaurant, came back and cased the restaurant out, parked out back and waited for Mr. Mobley and Chico to come outside. Not to mention they left their car running in the middle of the parking lot so that they can attack and make a clean get away. They even changed some of their clothing and took off their jewelry and left it in the console door of the running car.
[…] I covered the case of Gabriel Mobley before. Thanks to our friends in VPC, I found an article in ThinkProgress dealing with this situation. Taking a big grain of salt for accuracy, I was amazed to see the reason the original Judge denied SYG to Mr. Mobley: […]