Stand-Your-Ground Cited with 'Unexpected Frequency'; Will It Be Used in Death of Visiting Salesman?
A lawyer for a Florida man accused of killing a door-to-door salesman says it’s too early to say whether the state’s stand-your-ground law will be part of the defense.
The defendant, Kenneth Bailey Roop of Cape Coral, was accused last week of killing a door-to-door salesman selling frozen lobster and steaks, according to the News-Press and the Marco Island Sun Times. Police say Roop had just arrived at his property in his pickup truck when he encountered the salesman, Nick Rainey, and fired his gun, striking him in the shoulder. After Rainey fell to the ground, police allege, Roop shot him again in the back of the head.
According to a Tampa Bay Tribune investigation, Florida’s stand-your-ground law is “being invoked with unexpected frequency, in ways no one imagined, to free killers and violent attackers whose self-defense claims seem questionable at best.” The newspaper identified 200 cases where the law was cited. In nearly a third of the cases, the defendants went free even though they started the fight, shot an unarmed person or pursued the victim.
Will the statute be used in Roop’s case? His lawyer, Marquin Rinard, told the Marco Island Sun Times it’s too early to tell. “Obviously, whatever avenues are available, we will explore them,” he said.
