If 'Stand your ground' was good enough for him it should be good enough for 'white' George Zimmerman.
Posted on 09/06/2012 3:00:08 PM PDT by kanawa
SANFORD — In May, Circuit Judge Debra Nelson, who has taken over the George Zimmerman murder case, rejected the "stand your ground" claim of a 21-year-old Sanford man who was charged with murder.
A month later, a Seminole County jury acquitted him.
That case, Florida v. Kishawn Jones, is important because it could signal what's ahead for Zimmerman, the 28-year-old Neighborhood Watch volunteer who killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old.
Zimmerman is expected to use Florida's "stand your ground" law to try to clear himself. Passed by the Florida Legislature in 2005, the law grants immunity to anyone who uses deadly force if he has a reasonable fear of imminent death or great bodily injury.
Zimmerman says he killed Trayvon in self-defense on a rainy February evening in a Sanford gated community after he spotted the Miami Gardens teenager and called the police, describing him as suspicious.
Since Trayvon's death, there has been an influx of "stand your ground" motions in Seminole County.
"We never had them before the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman case," said Assistant State Attorney John Mannion Jr. "Now, they're getting to be routine."
Nelson is the judge who must decide whether Zimmerman deserves immunity. To date, she has held one "stand your ground" hearing — in the case of Jones, a homeless Sanford man who was charged with second-degree murder.
He shot and killed a close friend, 28-year-old Leonard Boone, at a Sanford apartment complex in June 2011 in a dispute over a cheap gun and $20.
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.orlandosentinel.com ...
If criminals would figure out that it’s a “bad idea” to attack an armed “victim”, there wouldn’t be so many “Stand your Ground” cases, would there?
They are not using the stand your ground defense and the cases aren’t even similar.
If 'Stand your ground' was good enough for him it should be good enough for 'white' George Zimmerman.
If 'Stand your ground' was good enough for him it should be good enough for 'white' George Zimmerman.
Z was on the ground, with a big mother on top of him, banging his head against the concrete. ‘Stand Your Ground’ does not apply and is unnecessary if you have no means of escape.
The "stand your ground" defense and the Florida "stand your ground" law are two different things. The law provides for a preliminary hearing in which the judge can throw the whole case out (civil included) if the preponderance of the evidence indicates the defendant acted in self defense. It is not necessary to assert the defense in order to claim the right to the hearing.
Why do they keep taliking about “stand your ground” when Zimmerman shot from the ground? You aren’t “standing” when you’re off your feet.
If that’s the case, then it’s a highly misleadingly named law.
Not all self defense in Florida is Stand Your Ground related, right? SYG doesn’t seem to apply to Zimmerman, because he wasn’t at at his house etc.
Stand your ground doesn’t relate because George Zimmerman did not pull his gun while he was standing. George Zimmerman did not have the option of turning his back and walking away because Trayvon Martin was sitting on top of him.
Actually, Zimmerman’s defense would be well advised to not use SYG, because the fastest way to kill a law is to overuse it when other laws are more appropriate.
In this case, based on the evidence, Zimmerman walks with a self-defense defense. It is pretty open and shut. The autopsy of Martin was inconclusive as to their relative positions, but could have happened in only two ways:
either they were calmly facing each other, Zimmerman raised his gun to heart level and shot, which is unlikely, or it is as he said, that Martin tackled him.
His attorney has said it ten times in the last month....They will not use stand your ground....it’s strictly a “self-defense” case.
No comparison of the two cases.
My post in the comments section...
Two questions to the author.
Why are you attempting to frame this as a SYG case when the defense has clearly stated it will be presenting a traditional self-defense argument?
and...
Do you think referring to TM by his first name while only using GZ’s full or last name shows bias on your part?
"If" #
#
Can someone explain to me why Zimmerman even *wants* to cite the Stand Your Ground law? It seems to me much more a straight case of self defense. Zim *couldn’t* leave if he wanted to because Trayvon was on his chest. Why isn’t this just self defense?
Here — post this:
It’s about time they were subpoenaed.
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