Reply #25

mainly because of the attention the incident received. It does appear that the initial investigation was at the best, flawed. Some reports do say that the local investigator at the scene wanted to charge Zimmerman but was overruled.

Some experts on the law have stated that Zimmerman would not qualify for a stand your ground defense. The law was not written to allow a person to chase and confront another person, refuse to back off from the encounter and to then shoot him if the other person grew angry enough to fight or stood his own ground. The concept was to remove the duty to retreat when a person was attacked or just about to be attacked by another individual who had the intention and the capacity to inflict serious injury or death. Retreating in such a situation is often a viable tactic but may be foolish in others.

A person should always have the right to defend himself against a truly serious attack that he had no role in causing. However if he started the confrontation or argument, he also has an obligation to back off if the encounter threatens to turn violent. Obviously it is smart for a person who legally carries a concealed weapon to be calm and polite. It is a very poor idea to be aggressive, to be a cop wannabe or to play the role of a vigilante when you are "packing heat".

All the details on the Martin shooting are not in. It's fun but foolish to speculate on Zimmerman's guilt or innocence at this time. Therefore I may be a fool but in my opinion if Zimmerman left his vehicle after receiving instructions from a dispatcher to not follow Martin and instead chased and confronted him, any claim of self defense should be rejected. If that is exactly what happened, his actions were responsible for the tragedy and he should be arrested and have his day in court.

The concept of the law is valid but the wording has obviously caused confusion and created ambiguities that might allow a person who murdered another individual to walk especially if there were no witnesses. Of course under the old law the exact same thing could and did happen. All the murderer had to say was, "I did retreat and he continued his attack." If the evidence failed to prove his statement to be a lie, the murderer could escape justice.

I do expect the wording of the "Stand Your Ground" law will be rewritten so as to better clarify those incidents in which such a defense is applicable. I also expect that Zimmerman will be arrested and prosecuted.