A month or so ago I testified for the defense in an Attempted Murder case in Florida. A man with a metal plate in his skull subsequent to multiple brain surgeries was slammed down and had his head smashed into the floor, in his own home, by a 250-pound ex-bouncer, who also assaulted the defendant\u2019s senior citizen mom. The defendant managed to stagger to his room and gain access to a .45 and ordered the man to leave, and when the man instead lunged at him he fired four shots, inflicting three peripheral wounds which made the individual decide to leave after all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clear-cut evidence of self-defense in a blatantly obvious case of disparity of force, the prosecuting authority apparently couldn\u2019t get past \u201che shot an unarmed man!\u201d and charged him. Under Florida\u2019s 10-20-life law he was looking at a minimum mandatory sentence of 25 years to life in prison if convicted. Instead, thanks to a pair of brilliant lawyers named Don Hendry and Kris Parker, the jury took only an hour to come back with \u201cNot Guilty.\u201d The shooting had taken place in March of 2018, and this Sword of Damocles had hung over the defendant\u2019s head for nearly half a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n