title:  SC Man Uses ‘Stand Your Ground’ Law As Reason For Bail After He ‘Slow Cooked’ Murder Victims
text: Stand your ground laws are reasons for legalized murder, literally, and here South Carolina has given you proof. This is no murky case a la Michael Brown or Trayvon Martin (though, to sane people, those weren t murky, either). But no   one 39-year-old James Edward Loftis of Goose Creek, South Carolina, is using the state s  Stand Your Ground  law to literally get away with cold blooded, pre-meditated murder. It looks like it could work, too.Reports say that Loftis had called a cab to take him home from a strip club, but failed to pay the fare. That s when all hell broke loose. The cab driver, 46-year-old Guma Oz Dubar, along with his friend who was present at the time, 32-year-old Cody Newland, insisted that Loftis make good on the money they owed him for the cab ride. Loftis has provided many different details regarding what transpired next, but his story is the only ones the police have, as Newland and Dubar are dead, by Loftis  hand. The only thing the defendant will confess to is shooting both victims before burning their bodies in graves he dug in his own yard to hide his crimes.Deputy Solicitor Bryan Alfaro said of Loftis s actions: They were essentially just slow-cooked inside the grave site. After that, Loftis s attorney decided to use the state s so-called  stand your ground  law to try to get the defendant off. The law says you can kill people invading your property. However, these people were not invading. They had picked this dude s drunk ass up from a strip club, and he didn t want to pay for the ride home. Doesn t sound like much of an  invasion  to me. This defense, however, got the judge to decide that Loftis is not a flight risk, and, despite his cold-blooded commission of a double murder, Loftis is now out on $250,ooo bail.Loftis s lawyer, Stephen Harris, continues his ludicrous defense, saying: He s a human being. He freaked out and thought he was going to prison, so he tried to hide the bodies. Nobody knows how you re going to react when you kill two people.Well, Mr. Harris, most folks would just pay the cab fare and go in, instead of stiffing the driver and then killing him and his friend. But I suppose that is irrelevant to you and your client, right? Two innocent people are dead over this insanity, and you re going to use South Carolina s insane gun laws to get your client off when he should clearly rot in prison for the rest of his life.I wish there were a Hell so you and Mr. Loftis could burn there. Condolences to the families of the victims your client murdered.Featured image via mugshot/screen capture via Raw Story