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Politics : View from the Center and Left
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To: Thomas M. who wrote (227755)7/15/2013 8:00:17 AM
From: Bread Upon The Water  Read Replies (1) of 540756
 
It is my information that "stand your ground' laws REMOVE THE REQUIREMENT under the self defense doctrine that one has a duty to retreat from conflicts before one can evoke the self-defense law--as you note.

Presumably, prior to the conflict that resulted in the killing herein, if Zimmerman had followed that "duty to retreat" there would have been no killing. BUT, It does all depend at what point in time a reasonable person would have been expected to perceive a "threat" of "deadly force" to oneself, and, at that point in time, whether Z would have been able to retreat. So in the instant case whether the outcome would have been different is unknowable.

However, the whole concept of the duty to retreat is to put in place the responsibility on people to avoid a conflict if possible thus making for a more peaceful society. With the revocation of this duty to retreat by the "stand your ground laws", it is more likely, IMHO, that these type of ambiguous situations that lead to deaths will increase rather than decrease. Not a good thing.

As to the rest of your scenario, I think you are speculating as to how things went down based on the defendant's version of the facts. I do think the verdict was a product of the jury deciding that those facts could not be known to a certainty beyond reasonable doubt and therefore they voted to acquit on that basis.
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