Whatever the slur was, Florida law will probably not recognize the 77 year-old man's speech as a crime, or especially as an action worthy of physical assault or manslaughter, based on how it traditionally applies the "fighting words" doctrine.
This young man is potentially looking at up to 30 years of incarceration.
VERBAL CONDUCT- FIRST AMENDMENT
Where a defendant engages in purely verbal conduct, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution limits the application of Florida’s disorderly conduct statute to so-called “fighting words” or “words like shouts of ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.” See State v. Saunders, 339 So. 2d 641 (Fla. 1976); Wiltzer v. State, 756 So.2d 1063 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000).
‘Fighting words’ are defined as words “which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace.” White v. State, 330 So. 2d 3, 6 (Fla., 1976) (citing Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568 (1942)).
The Florida Supreme Court has further clarified that “words like shouts of ‘fire’ in crowded theater” means “words, known to be false, reporting some physical hazard in circumstances where such a report creates a clear and present danger of bodily harm to others.” Saunders, 339 So.2d at 644.
Given the strict construction of Section 877.03, words alone are generally insufficient to sustain a conviction for disorderly conduct. A.S.C. v. State, 14 So. 3d 1118 (Fla. 5th DCA 2009) (holding that in the absence of evidence that the juvenile was trying to incite a crowd or that a safety risk was posed from a crowd, loud speech and profanity were insufficient to support a disorderly conduct conviction); W.L. v. State, 769 So. 2d 1132 (Fla. 3d DCA 2000)(
First Amendment protected profanities and offensive speech, and therefore prohibited arrest and delinquency adjudication for disorderly conduct).
Disorderly Conduct- Florida | Breach of Peace