Experts Suggest That Super Bowl Parade Shooters May Have Strong “Stand Your Ground” Defense

(PatriotWise.com) — Some legal experts believe that the two men arrested in the February 14 shooting at the Super Bowl rally could argue self-defense at trial under Missouri’s “stand your ground” law, the Associated Press reported.

Dominic Miller, 18, and Lyndell Mays, 23, are each facing a second-degree murder charge along with other offenses for their roles in the shootout that left one woman dead and nearly two dozen injured.

Kansas City trial attorney Daniel Ross told the Associated Press that he and other defense attorneys in the city believe that Mays and Miller could use “stand your ground” as a defense in their trials. He described “stand your ground” as a “formidable defense” that would place the onus on prosecutors to disprove that the shooting was a lawful self-defense.

However, law professor Eric Rubin from SMU Law School in Dallas said there would be limits to such a defense.

Rubin, who has written extensively on self-defense immunity and “stand your ground” laws, told the Associated Press that while Missouri’s “stand your ground” law was “robust,” it wouldn’t necessarily mean that a defendant could “spray bullets into a crowd” and then claim self-defense.

According to probable cause statements in the February 14 shooting, both Mays and Miller claimed that they opened fire only after being threatened.

Miller, who fired the shot that killed 43-year-old local DJ Lisa Lopez-Galvan, told police that he only fired his weapon in self-defense after he had been shot.

Mays, who had gotten into an argument with a group of men during the rally, told detectives that he pulled his gun after one of the men threatened him.

Marques Harris, a friend of Dominic Miller, told WDAF that Miller had been trying to protect him after he was shot.

Two juveniles were also arrested in connection to the shooting. Both were charged with resisting arrest and gun-related charges.

Missouri is one of over 30 states with some form of “stand your ground” law. It is also a state with few restrictions on firearms.