As I understand it, there's no premeditation in murder2. It's possibly closer to manslaughter than to murder1. Or so it was explained to me. I suspect GZ's knowingly entering into the confrontation while armed and aware the police were on their way without knowledge of any crime being committed will play more into the murder2/manslaughter determinations. Witnesses will have more effect the self defense claim.
The evidence seems to suggest that GZ was attacked and defended himself. How many times would you let yourself get punched in the face at close range or have your head banged on the ground before doing whatever you have to in order to stop your attacker?
The only thing the evidence shows for certain was that Zimmerman and Martin had a physical altercation. It is speculative that Martin attacked Zimmerman, and vice versa.
His story is unchanged and backed up by the physical evidence. Anything ancillary to that could have went either way.
The physical evidence could also go either way and doesn't prove self defense. It only backs up that there was a confrontation, not who started it.
I might agree if both guys were beat up but Zimmerman was the only one with injuries from the "confrontation". And no matter what you think it proves, it definitively matches his story of events.
That we've heard about. Again, if he started shoving a scared Martin, and Martin attacked, Martin wouldn't really have injuries. I don't think there's any real way to know until all of the evidence is presented in the trial.
Yeah so if you shove me and I jump on top of you, break your nose, and slam your head to the ground, I am the aggressor. I doubt I could prove I would have been unable to escape.
You guys are greatly expanding self defense. Blows to the head is deadly force. It is in no way legally justified from a shove.
There is plenty to contradict his story, a witness has said the fighting had stopped by the time Trayvon was shot and a witness has changed there statement and said he saw no punches thrown. The only evidence is that Zimmerman was injured in a altercation. Did you just ignore the 4 witnesses that have changed their statements, all of them cast doubt on Zimmermans story.
It is amazing how pro self-defense liberals are now. Time to pass some new laws. I am OK with all of these. Lets call this one the "Don't be a p***y act of 2012": "If someone is able to physical overtake you, it is your own fault and the law offers you no recourse. " I think society will be much more polite.
