Imagine that you’re walking down the street. You see a man holding up an elderly woman at gunpoint. Instinct kicks in: you rush the assailant, disarm him, call the police, and set the gun on the ground. But then it turns out that it was all a movie set. The gun was a prop; the suspect and victim were both actors. No one was actually in danger.

This isn’t a far-fetched Hollywood plot twist. It’s a scenario laid out by Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Barbara Lagoa, analogous to the legal nightmare endured by two Florida diving instructors, John Moore and Tanner Mansell. Their story shows what happens when courts neglect to enforce safeguards painstakingly designed to discourage ill-conceived prosecutions and prevent palpably unjust convictions. 

What happened to Moore and Mansell was just as bizarre as this hypothetical. While leading a diving charter in 2020, they stumbled across an abandoned fishing line they believed to be the work of poachers. They reacted in a responsible manner: They hauled in the line, released the entangled sharks, and brought the rig back to the marina after notifying state officials. 

You’d think Moore and Mansell deserve praise for their act of civic-mindedness.........

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