Case Study: Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law

– Authored by: Mary Castillo, Esq.

How a Self-Defense Investigation Can Change the Course of a Serious Criminal Case

In August 2026, Gilbert Garcia Group represented a client charged with second-degree murder in a case involving a claim of lawful self-defense. After investigating the circumstances, developing the evidence, and litigating a Stand Your Ground motion, the Court granted the motion and dismissed the murder charge.

The result illustrates an important feature of Florida law that is sometimes misunderstood: Stand Your Ground is not simply a defense that can be raised before a jury at trial. Under appropriate circumstances, Florida law provides immunity from criminal prosecution for a person whose use or threatened use of force was legally justified.

What Does “Stand Your Ground” Actually Mean?

Florida’s self-defense laws are primarily found in Chapter 776 of the Florida Statutes.

Florida law generally permits a person to use or threaten to use force when the person reasonably believes that doing so is necessary to defend against another person’s imminent use of unlawful force. Deadly force is subject to additional requirements and may be justified when a person reasonably believes it is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to themselves or another person, or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony. Fla. Stat. §§ 776.012(1)–(2).

When the statutory requirements are satisfied, a person who is in a place where he or she has a right to be generally has no duty to retreat before using or threatening force as authorized by Florida law. Fla. Stat. § 776.012(2).

But the significance of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law goes beyond the absence of a duty to retreat.

Under Fla. Stat. § 776.032, a person who uses or threatens force as permitted by specified provisions of Chapter 776 is immune from criminal prosecution and civil action for that use or threatened use of force, subject to the limitations contained in the statute.

That immunity can allow the defense to challenge the prosecution before a criminal case ever reaches a jury.

How A Stand Your Ground Hearing Is Different From a Trial

Florida courts have recognized that statutory immunity is distinct from simply asserting self-defense at trial.

In Dennis v. State, 51 So. 3d 456 (Fla. 2010), the Florida Supreme Court held that a defendant claiming immunity under section 776.032 is entitled to a pretrial evidentiary hearing on the immunity claim rather than being required to wait until trial to present self-defense to a jury.

Florida’s Legislature subsequently amended section 776.032 to establish the burden-of-proof procedure that governs these hearings. Under the current statutory framework, once a defendant makes a prima facie claim of self-defense immunity, the burden shifts to the State to overcome the immunity claim by clear and convincing evidence. Fla. Stat. § 776.032(4).

The Florida Supreme Court has confirmed that this statutory burden applies at the pretrial immunity hearing. Love v. State, 286 So. 3d 177 (Fla. 2019).

The distinction matters. A successful Stand Your Ground motion can result in immunity from prosecution—and therefore dismissal—without requiring the accused to proceed through a full criminal trial.

Can You Build a Stand Your Ground Case on Claiming “Self-Defense”?

Stand Your Ground litigation is intensely fact-specific. The existence of a confrontation, an injury, or even a death does not by itself determine whether the use of force was lawful.

Effective representation requires counsel to reconstruct the encounter and examine the evidence from the perspective required by Florida’s self-defense statutes.

Depending on the case, our investigation may include:

• Reviewing surveillance, cellphone, body-camera, dash-camera, and other available video evidence;
• Locating and interviewing witnesses rather than relying exclusively on summaries contained in police reports;
• Analyzing 911 calls, dispatch records, text messages, photographs, social-media evidence, and other communications;
• Examining physical and forensic evidence to determine whether it supports or contradicts the accounts given by witnesses;
• Investigating the events leading up to the confrontation and determining which facts were known to the accused at the time force was used;
• Comparing witness statements given at different stages of the investigation for inconsistencies or corroboration;
• Examining whether the evidence establishes an imminent threat of death, great bodily harm, unlawful force, or a forcible felony;
• Evaluating statutory limitations on self-defense, including whether the accused was engaged in criminal activity or whether the circumstances implicate Florida’s initial-aggressor provisions; and
• Preparing witnesses, exhibits, cross-examination, and legal argument for a contested evidentiary hearing.

The central question is not simply whether force was used. The analysis focuses on why force was used, what was happening at that moment, what the accused reasonably perceived, and whether those circumstances satisfy Florida’s statutory requirements for justified force.

Why Early Investigation Matters

In a homicide or other violent-felony prosecution, the State’s charging decision may occur before the defense has completed its own investigation. Police reports also do not necessarily contain every fact relevant to a statutory immunity claim.

For that reason, identifying a potential Stand Your Ground issue early can be critical.

Defense counsel can independently investigate the circumstances, preserve evidence that may otherwise disappear, identify witnesses, analyze the prosecution’s theory, and determine whether the evidence supports filing a motion for immunity under Fla. Stat. § 776.032.

Where the facts and law support immunity, the defense can then present that evidence to the court at a pretrial hearing and require the State to meet the burden imposed by Florida law.

The Result

On August 6, 2026, Attorney Mary E. Castillo litigated a Stand Your Ground hearing on behalf of a client facing a second-degree murder charge. Following the evidentiary hearing, the Court granted the defense’s Stand Your Ground motion and dismissed the charge.

Every case is different, and a prior result does not guarantee a similar outcome in another matter. But the case demonstrates why a self-defense claim should be evaluated as more than a potential argument for trial.

When Florida’s statutory requirements are satisfied, Stand Your Ground can provide something substantially more powerful: immunity from prosecution itself.