Kirata
Posts: 15477
Joined: 2/11/2006 From: USA Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Nosathro Zimmerman did envoke the "stand your ground law" that is why he was released the night of Martin death. As do others. I sugguest you read the law. Zimmerman was released because the state attorney's office deemed the evidence available at the time insufficient to support probable cause for an arrest. The "stand your ground" provision in Florida's Justifiable Use of Force statute only removes the duty to retreat. According to Zimmerman, Trayvon never presented him with a threat from which he could have retreated, so the removal of a duty to retreat is irrelevant. He never had the option. Retreat to avoid is moot after you've been hit in the face and knocked down, so the relevance of the SYG provision evaporates. That brings it down to whether or not the prosecution can prove that he did not have grounds to reasonably believe that deadly force was necessary to prevent great bodily harm or imminent death. In other words, plain vanilla self-defense. What people are questioning is the adequacy of "reasonable belief" as a standard for the justifiable use of deadly force. Unfortunately, however, and despite its potential for abuse, it's difficult to see what one could fairly replace it with. K.
< Message edited by Kirata -- 6/5/2012 9:26:08 AM >
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