| > What happens when you have two people claiming stand your ground? One of them initiated the violence or the reason for justified violence, and that person (the aggressor) is in the wrong, generally speaking. > Dead men can’t speak. Stand your ground is an affirmative defense. Its an affirmative defense to charges of assault, yes. This is why it applies to Martin even if everything Zimmerman said is true. > Honest question, are you saying the prosecution should have ignored years of case law and argued on purely circumstantial evidence? No, they should have relied on the facts not in dispute, which is that Zimmerman followed a person home, that person was unknown to him and had every right to be there, and Zimmerman acted contrary to the wishes of the 911 operator when he exited the safety of his vehicle to pursue a teenager down the path. For this reason, Martin's alleged reaction to attack Zimmerman was an act of self-defense by a cornered juvenile. > Because Martin’s girlfriend was a baaaaaaaad witness. Like beyond bad. Like I would have been ashamed to have her as my star witness. Why would the one person who could hear the struggle of the fight have an attitude, on the stand, towards the prosecutor fighting for her bf?!?!! Yes, she was a bad witness because she lacked the signs of class and education that would have made her likely to arise sympathy in the hearts of the audience. and Martin was a bad victim because he was a young, healthy, skinny black kid. None of that changes the part where an adult male followed a kid home and provoked an assault. |