Despite warning from NRA, Wyoming Senate guts immunity provision in 'stand your ground' bill

CHEYENNE — The Wyoming Senate gutted a so-called “stand your ground” bill that sought to provide initial immunity from arrest and prosecution for assault or murder to anyone who claimed self-defense.

In a contentious vote Tuesday, the Senate removed the immunity provision and brought the measure inline with current Wyoming law, which allows individuals to use force in self-defense but only if doing so is reasonable. Prosecutors may still bring charges against someone who claims to have acted in self-defense if law enforcement believes the more reasonable option would have been to retreat or de-escalate the situation.

“It’s very, very close to what Wyoming law is now,” Sen. Drew Perkins, R-Casper, said of the amended bill. “You have the obligation to do as a reasonable man would.”

The original measure would have stated that individuals never had a duty to retreat when feeling threatened, even if a jury or prosecutor believed that doing so would have been the best option. Police would have been prohibited from arresting or detaining anyone who had acted in self-defense. The Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police came out in opposition to that provision, noting it would be difficult for an officer to determine in the heat of the moment whether a suspect was legitimately defending him or herself.

Read more: http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/despite-warning-from-nra-wyoming-senate-guts-immunity-provision-in/article_68b7395c-d507-5d74-a619-8f82bbf0300f.html