As a West Palm Beach home owner confronted two intruders in March, the encounter turned deadly. One intruder was shot and killed.
Weeks later, two men were fatally shot in a dispute aboard a boat near Phil Foster Park in Riviera Beach. Initially charged with murder, the boat's owner, a 65-year-old man, was later set free after a judge cited the state's controversial "Stand Your Ground" statute.
And in July, a 19-year-old was killed after he allegedly broke into a Greenacres home and charged at the homeowner with knives.
Though Palm Beach County's overall homicide rate continued to decline in 2011, authorities say justifiable homicides increased.
"There definitely was an increase in the Stand Your Ground claims in 2011," said Terri Skiles, chief of the Major Violent Crimes Division in the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office.
Not counting three fatal shootings that involved officers, six of the county's 84 homicides last year were either determined to be justifiable or resulted in no charges against the alleged assailant. That is the highest number of justifiable homicides involving private citizens since the Stand Your Ground law went into effect in late 2005, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
There were four justifiable homicides involving private citizens in 2010, and three each in 2008 and 2009, FDLE statistics show.
Law enforcement officials caution that it's too soon to determine whether the increase reflects an emerging trend.
The law says people who are attacked on their property have no duty to retreat and can meet force with deadly force to protect themselves.
After a December 29 incident in Royal Palm Beach, Palm Beach County sheriff's detectives determined that a man fired his gun out of fear when he confronted a teen and two others who were allegedly trying to steal his motorcycle. The 37-year old man told detectives that he fired his gun at them after one of the men pointed a gun at him while the man was shouting at them from his townhouse's second-floor bedroom window.
The shooting left a 19-year-old man dead on the townhouse complex's pavement.
Despite the spike in alleged justifiable homicides last year, the county's overall number continued to drop: There were 11 fewer killings in 2011 than in 2010. The total of 84 marked the third straight year that Palm Beach County had fewer than 100 homicides.
Stand Your Ground is a powerful weapon against violent crime. This is because the law permits law-abiding citizens to use lethal force to defend themselves. No longer do Florida citizens merely have to accept being a victim. The law is clear: lethal force can be used if you commit a crime against a person or inside of their property.
Stand Your Ground was intended to be a bar to prosecution, not merely a trial defense (although it can be used at trial when the prosecution believes that a factual dispute exists).
Eric Matheny is a criminal attorney serving Miami-Dade and Broward. He can be reached at 305-542-9491.