Don’t claim to be an attorney, but my reading of the law is that if the fight started as an aggravated assault (or other felony) by Zimmerman on Martin, he loses the right to claim self-defense. There are varioius categories of felonies and I have no idea how they’d play in.
There are “possibly” various exceptions to the rule above, but since the fight in question apparently lasted well under a minute, I don’t see how they could come into play.
But there’s a guy around here who will probably show up soon and show me why that’s wrong. :) I learned a lot from him yesterday.
I know it’s somewhat of a gray area,
but I just don’t see how it would become an obligation to die
even if you threw the first punch.
I was told in self-defense class that when your attacker is no longer a threat,
if you continue to use force, you legally become the attacker.