Stand Your Ground

A local defense attorney said it's possible Lester's defense team will say Andrew Lester, the 84-year-old who shot 16-year-old Ralph Yarl on his doorstep, had a right to use deadly force to protect his property. That's because of the 'castle doctrine.'

There are no statistics to show how often the accused have invoked Stand Your Ground as a defense. One veteran Kansas City defense attorney says, in the shooting of Ralph Yarl, the facts don’t meet the case.

A new nationwide study found that state laws allowing people to use deadly force in self defense were associated with increases in gun violence.