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August 5, 2013

Dream Defenders Win "Stand Your Ground" Hearings, Remain in Florida Capitol 
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In Florida, the group Dream Defenders is continuing to occupy the
Florida State Capitol where they have been demanding the repeal of
Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law for nearly three weeks. The
demonstrators celebrated a partial victory Friday when Florida House
Speaker Will Weatherford announced he will order hearings this fall to
review the law, which impacted instructions to the jury that acquitted
George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin. But Weatherford
assigned a staunch supporter of Stand Your Ground to chair the hearings
— Republican state Congressmember Matt Gaetz, who on said Friday,
"I don’t support changing one damn comma" of the Stand Your Ground
law. Dream Defenders executive director Philip Agnew called the hearings
a "critical first step," but said the group will continue sitting in
against Stand Your Ground and other wider issues including racial
profiling and the school-to-prison pipeline.

 

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