Trayvon Martin is responsible for his own death because he began an illegal physical confrontation

[gejohnston]

96. no

because for all the other guy knows we could be going in the same direction by coincidence. For example, if I'm walking down my road and some guy happens to be walking or running behind me. I have no idea who it is or why. Do I have the right to attack him based on that? No. If I do attack, does he or she have every right to use appropriate including lethal force (taken in account in disparity of force, see my example of Chris Hayes and Matt from Operation Repo.)? Yes.

That said, if the guy following is either bigger and stronger than I am, and/or has an artifact that can be used as a weapon making making threats like "I'm going to beat your Obama voting liberal head in" then that is a game changer.

At least that is how it works in Florida and Wyoming (which doesn't have a SD statute that covers outside the house, being common law.) I'm guessing that is true everywhere. Your state may vary. Some states have variations, for example I read that California allows the defender chase down the initial attacker.

Remember the Florida case where white guy who had had issues with car stereo playing Hip Hop and shot the black people because he felt threatened by the shotgun sitting on the back seat? He drove off and claimed SYG when the cops caught up with him? Investigation showed his self defense claim is bullshit and is now sitting in one of Rick Scott's prisons. Same concept.