A woman struggles with her faith when her son is falsely accused of murder and the odds are stacked against him.
When Jackie Carpenter's (Francine Locke) son, Jason (Drew Matthews), is accused of murder she fights against the odds to free him; but when the prosecution (Sandra W. Van Natta) seeks a life sentence, both Jackie's and Jason's world spins into turmoil sending them on parallel journeys of wavering faith and tentative hope. STAND YOUR GROUND is the true story of a cry for justice and of tragedy, trust and triumph. "Stand Your Ground" will put your faith on trial as the journey of Jackie Carpenter bridges the gap between Cell Block A and a miracle.—Anonymous
A man troubled by persistent thefts of copper from his property that he was to use in constructing several houses, stops a van with three men that turns up there. When they refuse to get out of the vehicle, he fires his shotgun as a warning and then accidentally kills one of them when it goes off when he prods him in the back with it. His mother, who prayed for him to be found innocent, sees this outcome as divine intervention, in this highly distasteful Christian propaganda piece. It addresses neither the issue of the use of deadly force by a professed Christian, the issue of restitution to the family for the accidental killing of a breadwinner, the impact of this death on the local community and most importantly, the applicability of the stand your ground doctrine and its interpretation which seems to imply that fear or one's life provides justification to use a firearm against an unarmed individual who does not pose a demonstrable threat. Another aspect of the movie that I strongly disliked was the emphasis on the mother and not the torment of her son, who clearly experienced profound remorse as there is no doubt that he did not intend to kill anyone. The DA was portrayed as an unscrupulous villain who probably saw a conviction as being beneficial to her career. The audience has no way of knowing how much of what was portrayed in the movie was accurate, including the dialogue that was used in the courtroom scenes. Finally, I am puzzled by the constant unsubtle emphasis on faith and how this is to be interpreted. Did the mother really believe that her faith in G-d would protect her and her family from all harm? History teaches us otherwise. It never seemed to cross her mind that the non-guilty verdict was a foregone conclusion, since invoking stand your ground as a defense seems to work in many cases. Here, I note with interest that "intense fear for one's life" seems to be the excuse given by many police officers who shoot dead unarmed citizens and even companion animals without compunction. Nobody seems to address the fact that the level of gun ownership in the USA is a factor in its murder rate which is several times higher than than that of other industrial countries.
