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Quentin Wyche, the man accused of murdering FIU running back Kendall Berry during an on-campus confrontation in March 2010, could walk free without a trial thanks to Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law that was championed by former governor Jeb Bush. At least that’s what his attorneys hope. Wyche’s lawyers claim he fatally stabbed Berry with a pair of scissors in an act of self-defense.
According to CBS News, several of the defense’s witnesses claim Berry started the fight that ultimately led to his death. Though Berry was unarmed, he was backed up by several teammates.
“Berry was walking toward Wyche, squaring up, getting ready to fight… [Berry] was saying, ‘Oh, you did something to my girl,'” witness Garett Cottom claimed in court.
According to witnesses, Wyche tried to run away, but Berry chased him.
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One witness even tells CBS that Berry then “thrust himself against the scissor that the defendant had taken out apparently from his book bag when he was being chased down by this football team.”
The “Stand Your Ground” law says that anyone who is attacked in a place where he or she has reason to be is legally allowed to “meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.”
Prosecutors, however, aren’t buying it.
“This is murder. This is pure and simple murder,” prosecutor Abbe Rifkin said in court. “This is someone who brought a knife to a fistfight, and someone is dead because of it.”
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