We know there was a physical fight. Which of the two was “the attacker” is not known. It appears that at the time the gun went off the shootee was on top and probably winning the fight.
This is not inherently inconsistent with him defending himself from an attack by Zimmerman, or at least believing he was defending himself.
I don’t KNOW what happened, and neither does anybody but Zimmerman, and his recollections are inevitably colored by emotion, etc.
What does seem pretty clear is that the ancient common law rule of “duty to retreat” had a good common sense basis behind it. Two guys get in a fight, and one is killed.
Such fights do not always lend themselves to classifying one guy as the attacker and the other as the victim. Sometimes two guys are both at fault. The law should not allow for whichever person survives to claim self-defense. Both can be guilty of attempted murder, with one succeeding.
Please note I do not know this is what happened here. Only that ancient common law principles evolved for a reason.
You think Zimmerman had a duty to attempt to dig an escape hole, as he was on the ground getting his face smashed in?
And the press posse wants to hang the survivor without getting to the fact. Fox New is reporting that there is a contemporaneous statement by an eyewitness who said Zimmerman was on the ground with Martin on top; also it is reported that Zimmerman had a broken nose.
The problem is that the MSM is NOT trying to report both sides of the proffered information and they are locking themselves into a locked position as they did with the Jena Six. There is a lot to come out yet, but MSM is deliberately sowing racial hate.
There is zero evidence that Zimmerman prevented a potential crime, or that Martin had criminal intent. And it is plausible to believe Martin felt threatened by Zimmerman's behavior and was, in his 17 year old brain, defending himself.
The left will do what the left does...exploit victims. They'll turn the Martin kid into a martyred saint for the cause.
But so far, it seems Zimmerman could have simply phoned it in and left it alone. No crime had been committed, nor was one in progress. His decision to pursue Martin has brought enormous turmoil to Zimmerman's own family, a dead 17 year old, and given the victim pimps a new corpse to parade in front of the cameras.
This was a completely unnecessary tragedy.
Oh come on.
Z might not be the brightest bulb and maybe overzealous protecting the neighborhood and call cops, but people carrying concealed weapons, would rarely ever start a physical confrontation. I just don't see it.
I could be wrong, but I think when this all shakes out, you'll find Martin initiated the physical altercation.
Could you educate us on that "ancient common law"? My understanding of historical conventions doesn't indicate much of a "duty to retreat".