[cdcdawg]

what was the first “stand your ground” case, if this is “another” one?

[MrB]

This wasn't "stand your ground", this was an elitist ex-cop with an Erik Cartman "Authoritah" complex.

[jiggyboy]

They really want everything to be a Stand Your Ground case because many of them would of course therefore be “controversial”. Of course the goal is to eliminate SYG.

[Yo-Yo]

As was argued by the prosecution in the Zimmerman trial, you lose your self defense exception if you are the agressor.

[Fresh Wind]

We need to know the race of the shooter and the victim before we can decide on guilt. /s

[G Larry]

Another case of TALKING TOO MUCH.

1. I saw a burglar on my security system.
2. I went to check on him.
3. He attacked me, while reaching in his waistband.
4. I feared for my life and fired.

[basil]

Can you shoot someone in the back and call it self defense?

[RIghtwardHo]

He jumped a fence and chased him? This is murder. This is NOT Stand Your Ground.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

This is going to be extremely hard to try in court, because the shooter made several very bad errors.

1) He pursued the perp after he had taken off. An extremely bad idea, both legally and tactically. Once they have left your personal area, you are not “defending”, you are “hunting”, in the eyes of the law.

2) Likewise, the number of bullets you can reasonably use once you have left your personal area drops drastically. In your area, you can empty your magazine, but on the hunt, if you use more than the minimum, the assumption is “intent to kill in the heat of anger.”

3) A terrible mistake was to flee then hide evidence after the fact, both the gun and the surveillance video recorder. That was a terrible mistake that will cost him plenty at trial.

4) Damning was that the perp had not actually done anything first. Peering through windows like a burglar is not a felony.

Adding it all up, I suspect the shooter will be convicted of some form of homicide.

[BitWielder1]

If you're chasing it's hard to claim you're standing your ground.

[KrisKrinkle]

The story reads kind of like a “Stand Your Ground” case to me.

A guy who wasn’t for certain at the time doing anything much wrong, except maybe looking in windows, was chased down by an aggressor, tried to stand his ground, and got shot.

[SoFloFreeper]

...okay, check the race of each person in the episode. This will tell you whether or not the Obama buttlickers in the media will care.

[a fool in paradise]

“Another”?

Name the first one.

That wasn’t George Zimmerman’s defense.

So far it hasn’t been the theater shooter’s defense either.

[zencycler]

This line from the story caught my attention:

And Smith, unlike Zimmerman, reportedly admitted to physically restraining the person he suspected at gunpoint.

Hmmmm - so it would seem that the author wants to imply that Zimmerman actually did this too, but just never revealed or admitted to it.

The accurate and unbiased way to contrast these cases, with regard to this point, would be to write:

And certainly one factor here, which was not present in Zimmerman's case, will be Smith's reported admission that he physically restrained the person he suspected at gunpoint.