Timothy Allen Davis, Sr. v. City of Apopka, Florida

I. Whether the federal court denied effect to the immunity provision of the state statute when it concluded that the arrest of Mr. Davis was objectively reasonable, even in light of Florida's “Justifiable Use of Force” Statute or so-called "Stand Your Ground" law, Fla. Stat. §§ 776.012, 776.032, and that actual probable cause to arrest existed although the arresting officers had no specific evidence or witness statement that the force Mr. Davis used against his son was in fact unlawful, based on the totality of circumstances known to the officers at the scene of the arrest? II. Whether the decision of the Eleventh Circuit to require that a self-defense claim be “conclusively established” by the accused at the time of arrest in order to avoid an arrest, rather than the express prohibition against arrests in Section 776.032(2) Fla. Stat. (2010) “unless [law enforcement] determines that there is probable cause that the force that was used or threatened was unlawful,” is an unconstitutional change of state law by a federal court? III. Whether the Eleventh Circuit and the District Court should have honored the Plaintiff’s request and certified the question to the Florida Supreme Court of whether Section 776.032(2) of the Florida Statutes (2011) requires specific evidence of “probable cause that the force that was used or threatened was unlawful” as a condition to arrest?