So, if one is immune from prosecution under Iowa's new "Stand Your Ground" law, why was this guy being prosecuted?

via Bearing Arms

Prior to Gov. Terry Branstad signing the SYG bill passed in April 2017 by the legislature into law, Iowans needed to make a reasonable effort to retreat from a perceived danger before using deadly force, unless they were in their homes or reasonably believed themselves to be in immediate danger of death or severe injury.

The facts in the Ped Mall shooting case weren’t in dispute. Wilson admitted shooting the three men who confronted him on the Ped Mall in the earlier hours of Aug. 27. The prosecution did not dispute that those three men were armed. But in a pre-trial hearing, Judge Paul Miller ruled that whether the SYG law applied in Wilson’s case would only be considered in a post-conviction hearing, if he was convicted.

Since the legislature did not specify at what stage in a criminal proceeding a SYG defense should apply, Miller relied on the 1989 Iowa Supreme Court ruling in State v. King to make his decision. In that case, the defendant claimed a state law providing immunity to anyone reporting a case of child abuse should apply to her, because even though she was the person who injured the child, she was also the person who brought the child to the doctor for treatment. The trial court judge in that case ruled that the immunity claim would not be considered until after the jury’s verdict. The state Supreme Court upheld that decision.

Read more here .