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Marcia Clark of O.J. trial infamy was on Judge Jeanine last night and was claiming that GZ’s “self defense” claim would only be valid if a reasonable person thought he was in imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm, that he may subjectively have thought he was in danger but that a reasonable person might not given that his injuries were not severe enough...sounded like she was hoping for a “manslaughter” verdict.

Zimmerman has two points in his favor here:

First, a reasonable person could think he was in danger of being beaten to death at the point when the back of that person's head was bleeding from being pounded against concrete. We know from physical evidence that George Zimmerman was in that condition when he fired the shot, unless he injured himself and Trayvon Martin's knuckles after shooting. It's implausible that he could have faked that well enough to fool professionals.

Second, Zimmerman specifically reported that Trayvon Martin said, “You’re gonna die tonight” as he reached for George Zimmerman’s gun. At the point when you are beaten to death and your attacker says he's going to kill you and reaches for a gun, it's completely and totally reasonable to think that you are in imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm. George Zimmerman had just lost a physical struggle against Trayvon Martin and could not reasonably have been expected to bet his life on winning a struggle for the gun without firing a shot.

Reasonable doubt is a slam dunk. Even if the prosecution could prove that Zimmerman provoked the attack (impossible to prove without a witness), at the time when the shot was fired it would have been lawful even for the aggressor to shoot.

The problem with an all-female jury and a female judge is that, chances are, none of those ladies have ever been in a serious physical altercation of any kind, much less had their head beaten against concrete. Their only reference to that kind of violence is movies, television and video games. In those, a person gets back up and bashes their opponent, instead of dying from a concussion.

It's very nice to speculate from a place of perfect safety how someone should react when they are being severely beaten and their attacker is telling him that he will die tonight--and is trying to grab control of a deadly weapon. Like all those limousine liberals in gated communities who want everyone except the cops to be disarmed.

There was a Democrat on FNC the other night who was opining that GZ should have just hit Trayvon on the side of his head with the gun. What a maroon.