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To: willibeaux
Was stand your ground an issue here? I don’t remember that being part of the defense.

I think it was included in the instructions to the jury once they started deliberating, but not one of them has mentioned it as a factor up to this point.

6 posted on 08/02/2013 7:34:35 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: Moonman62

it was included in the instructions to the jury ..
Yes it was, by a judge who wanted to somehow attach ‘stand your ground’ to a trail that wasn’t going the way she wanted. Stand your ground is a defense against ‘duty to retreat’ as a determinant of unlawful death. The defense, however, never brought it in to the trail because it was not applicable in a situation where the defendant was being held down on his back; how could he retreat?
The judges action makes no more sense that her incorporating the designated hitter rule into her instructions, pure theater.


12 posted on 08/02/2013 8:10:26 PM PDT by Old North State
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To: Moonman62
I think it was included in the instructions to the jury once they started deliberating, but not one of them has mentioned it as a factor up to this point.

At least one did:

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/07/trayvon-juror-race-not-a-factor-both-at-fault.html:

"Juror B-37 says they found the law 'very confusing' but decided that they had to focus on the moments immediately before Martin was shot, even if Zimmerman instigated the altercation, 'because of the heat of the moment and the stand your ground.'"

Here's the SYG portion of the jury instructions:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/153354467/George-Zimmerman-Trial-Final-Jury-Instructions

“If George Zimmerman was not engaged in an unlawful activity and was attacked in anyplace where he had a right to be, he had no duty to retreat and had the right to stand his ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he reasonably believed that it was necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.”

21 posted on 08/03/2013 12:22:15 AM PDT by TChad
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