Comment on Two fatal shootings test Iowa's "stand your ground" law

Two early tests of Iowa’s new “stand your ground” deadly force law have exposed the measures’s ambiguities, leading different judges to apply it differently and raising concerns it could be invoked to shield dubious behavior. “We’re making it up as we go along,” said 6th Judicial District Judge Paul Miller recently in overseeing the ongoing case of a fatal shooting last year on Iowa City’s Pedestrian Mall and who could decide this week whether the shooter will go to prison or go free. Iowa is one of at least 24 states with stand-your-ground laws that allow people to use reasonable force — including deadly force — against another to defend themselves and others against perceived threats, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Iowa’s law, adopted by the Legislature in 2017 as part of a sweeping expansion of gun rights, does not require that a person be correct in his or her estimation of the danger, or about how much force is necessary to counter it “as long as there is a reasonable basis for the belief … and the person acts reasonably in response to that belief.” Iowa’s measure also says a law-abiding person relying on the statute is “immune from criminal or civil liability” for using force against an aggressor — a clause that’s led to confusion in the early cases. TWO CASES, TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES Two fatal shootings — in Johnson County and Montgomery County, in southwestern Iowa — underscore the uncertainty surrounding the state’s stand-your-ground law. In the Johnson County case, Miller is being asked to determine if Lamar Wilson, 24, of Iowa City, should be granted immunity from serving prison time for fatally shooting one man and injuring two others Aug.