1 week Ago
Someone cuts you off in traffic, nearly hits you, and waves a gun as he does it. Is it self-defense to follow him for nine miles? Is it justified, when he stops, gets out and yells don’t follow me — gun in hand — to shoot him in the back? A lot of people would say no. But state law considers it “stand your ground” .
.. and it’s legal.
Although far from perfectly legal. This case illustrates the myriad problems with South Carolina's stand your ground and gun laws, which often seem more about testosterone than self-defense. In fact, law enforcement types — many of whom detest stand your ground and open carry — privately call the mix a license to kill.
A North Myrtle Beach shooting tests that assertion. As The Wall Street Journal reports, it's a perfect storm of questionable decisions from all participants. And, indirectly, lawmakers who've muddied South Carolina’s legal waters.
On Sept. 9, 2023, Scott Spivey had seven beers, three shots of Fireball and a cheeseburger before leaving a local restaurant. According to Weldon Boyd and his passenger, Brandon Williams, Spivey soon swerved within inches of them on Highway 9, then flashed a gun.
Spivey, they say, cut in front of them and braked. Boyd — a military veteran and definite fan of police (he even had his own dashcam) — gave chase and called 911. “Hey, I’ve got a guy pointing a gun at me driving,” he told a dispatcher.
“We’re armed as well. He keeps throwing the gun in our faces, acting like he’s about to shoot us. If he keeps this up, I’m going to shoot him.
” You'd expect dispatchers to ask for a tag number and suggest the caller peel off, but Boyd said he was keeping eyes on Spivey until police arrived. Within 15 minutes, Spivey turned onto the road where he lived. He stopped beside the road, got out of his truck.
Witnesses say he was carrying a gun, and yelled for Boyd and Williams to stop following him. The shooting soon started. Investigators haven't said whether Spivey fired, but Boyd and Williams shot through their windshield.
Spivey eventually crawled back into his truck and died. EMTs say he was shot in the back. Local cops and SLED quickly cleared the pair and closed the investigation.
But Horry County police later asked the feds to review the case after a chief deputy was forced to resign. Recordings suggested he’d put investigators on the case to assure his friend, Boyd, wouldn’t face charges. Spivey’s family has filed a civil lawsuit, which is on hold until the feds finish.
Yes, it's a mess, thanks in large part to pandering politicians. "Stand your ground” has been around for decades as kind of a traveling castle doctrine. Castle doctrine is fine — people absolutely have the right to defend themselves and their property on their property .
If someone’s breaking into to your house, you can shoot. Warnings are optional. But stand your ground allows people to use deadly force if they feel threatened or fear for their life anywhere they're legally allowed to be.
Even if they instigated the run-in. A few years ago, when lawmakers declared anyone over 18 could carry guns pretty much anywhere (except the Statehouse), many predicted “stand your ground” would become a common defense in manslaughter cases. It has.
Police don’t like armed people on the streets because it makes their job even more dangerous. But prosecutors detest the murky stand your ground law, which makes their jobs nearly impossible. Boyd and Williams invoked stand your ground early on.
Should a judge have ruled immediately whether it applied? Probably. Prosecutors say self-defense doesn’t work here, but stand your ground may (there are complications, including recorded phone calls of the pair). But there are no standards, no process for this.
Defendants can drag stand your ground into a case anytime. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. A guy in an Anderson bar fight tried it after the fact, and it didn’t work.
But a young man who shot a guy after a drug deal, when the other dealer then tried to rob him, had his charges dismissed. Is that what the Legislature wanted? Public opinion here doesn't matter. Boyd and Williams may qualify for stand your ground, as Horry County and SLED determined, if they weren’t doing anything illegal at the time Spivey simply displayed a gun.
Law types say that doesn't make it right. Boyd and Williams made the decision to put themselves into a dangerous situation with an armed man, which isn't the same as self-defense. But state lawmakers, catering to people who want to carry guns — which certainly escalated this tragedy — have transformed the justice system.
And made everyone in South Carolina less safe..
