Sorry, the Zimmerman Case Still Has Nothing to Do With 'Stand Your Ground'

Reason ^ | July 14, 2013 | Jacob Sullum

[NotYourAverageDhimmi]

I did not hear Judge Nelson's instructions to the jury. Much of jury instructions is boiler-plate language. There is a chance that Nelson was merely instructing the jury with boiler-plate language what they may consider as defenses in homicide and manslaughter cases; but since the entire trial revolved around self-defense and not Stand Your Ground -- it's the self-defense claim the jury likely deliberated on.

Here's the generally biased but here quite fair New York Times on the trial...

In Zimmerman Case, Self-Defense Was Hard to Topple

“Classic self-defense,” Mr. O’Mara said.

Soon after Mr. Zimmerman was arrested, there appeared to be a chance that the defense would invoke a provision of Florida self-defense law known as Stand Your Ground. Ultimately it was not part of Mr. O’Mara’s courtroom strategy, though it did play a pivotal role immediately after the shooting.

The provision, enacted by the Florida Legislature in 2005 and since adopted by more than 20 other states, allows people who fear great harm or death not to retreat, even if they can safely do so. If an attacker is retreating, people are still permitted to use deadly force.

The provision also allows a defendant claiming self-defense to seek civil and criminal immunity at a pretrial hearing.

Mr. O’Mara said he did not rely on Stand Your Ground as a defense because Mr. Zimmerman had no option to retreat. A pretrial immunity hearing, which prosecutors said they had been expecting, would only have divulged his case. So Mr. O’Mara gambled on a jury trial.

“That was a brilliant strategic move,” Mr. Sharpstein said. “It precluded the state from previewing the defense.”

But Stand Your Ground did play a role when the police were contemplating whether to charge Mr. Zimmerman, said Tamara Lave, an associate professor of law at the University of Miami.

Under the law, if the police believe there is probable cause that someone acted in self-defense, as Mr. Zimmerman said he had, they are not allowed to make an arrest, she said. The self-defense claim also may have affected how thoroughly the police interviewed witnesses, preserved the crime scene and screened Mr. Zimmerman.

Eventually, the police arrested Mr. Zimmerman, but only after Gov. Rick Scott of Florida had appointed Ms. Corey as prosecutor.

At a news conference after the verdict, Ms. Corey said prosecutors had been hindered by the fact they inherited the case well into the investigation. Still, she forged ahead.

www.In Zimmerman Case, Self-Defense Was Hard to Topple.com

[cdcdawg]

I’m wearing down on this issue. I’ve tried, I’ve typed, I’ve talked, on and on. I’m still running across people who think Zimmerman “walked because of Florida’s crazy Stand Your Ground Law”. A year ago it looked like it might be factor, so all of the pundits read up on it, and got their marching orders from the activists and academics. It’s all they learn about, so they had to talk about it. Thank you for the link. I will let Jacob Sullum at Reason do the work on this.

[mlo]

"I do not believe that is correct, because I heard the Judge say it when she was reading the law that was going back with the Jury to deliberate on. She mentioned stand your ground and self defense."

Read the entire article. Particularly the end.

[mlo]

"If an attacker is retreating, people are still permitted to use deadly force."

I know it will be a shock but the Times is wrong. The law does not allow you to shoot a retreating attacker.

[mlo]

“That was a brilliant strategic move,” Mr. Sharpstein said. “It precluded the state from previewing the defense.”

They wouldn't have had to preview the same defense, and it's not like the prosecution didn't know what the defense knew.

I suspect the reason they didn't go for the hearing was they knew their judge would never have gone along, and then it would be on record that a judge denied it was self-defense.

[faucetman]

I believe I heard that defense would be a first step decided by a judge. Z’s team decided to forgo “stand your ground” as it was too risky (just a judge) and self defense was a sure thing.

[Iron Munro]

Even the despicable Florida Prosecutor, Angela Corey, understood that this was a self-defense case, not a stand-your-ground case. In fact, in her speech last night, she took time out from congratulating herself to acknowledge that very fact.

But there are reasons that Obama voters are known as low-information, racist, mooching idiots.

The inability to understand simple concepts like this is one of them.

[Sivad]

Are you sure you understand what Gay State Conservative
is saying? I believe he is saying he thinks Obama is going
to sick the Justice Dept on GZ for violating Trayvon’s civil
rights. That IS being contemplated. If you are attacking
GSC then your effort seems to be misplaced. What am I
missing?

[Graybeard58]

It's still legal to protect yourself. No requirement to run away first or beg the government for help.

Or to suffer any wounds whatsoever. The prosecution tried to make a big issue of Zimmerman's wounds, "Not being serious enough to elicit a fatal response". One doesn't have to be injured at all to be threatened with death or great bodily harm.

[Spunky]

Thanks for pointing that out.

[Piranha]

Don’t be distracted. The Federal government is going to use sleight of hand, to keep our attention focussed on riots and demonstrations like the ones in Oakland, San Francisco and elsewhere, to try and give Boehner and Cantor breathing room to force amnesty for illegal aliens down our throats. DON’T LET THEM DO THIS!!

[TChad]

You might think that, given all we now know about Zimmerman's actual defense, critics of "stand your ground" laws would have to find a different, more apposite case to illustrate their concerns. Instead they just barrel along, citing the same phony example again and again, without regard to the facts.

Yesterday I heard some black female talking head on television refer to Zimmerman as "white." She had apparently decided that Zimmerman didn't even merit the racial designation that was coined to describe him, "White Hispanic." She needed for him to be white so she could get away with calling him a racist without anyone objecting.

Meet the new America. Bottom of the class and damn proud of it.

[cynwoody]

Small factual issue: Z was not standing his ground when the gun went off. At the time the gun went off, he was on his back, getting pummeled by a guy whose stated intention was to kill him.

You can't stand your ground when you are on your back. But you can commit self-defense. Thank God.

[marktwain]

Here is the article:

Values, the O.J. Verdict, and Right-To-Carry, or A Statistician Explains a Conundrum (Zimmerman)

http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-statistician-explains-conundrum-by.html