If all he did was follow Martin and ask him his business, though, then Zimmerman isn’t criminally responsible for Martin’s death. You guys are so obsessed with the fact Zimmerman created “the situation”, unless “the situation” was in itself a situation that was intrinsically dangerous to human life then just creating the situation isn’t a criminal act. If Zimmerman started the physical confrontation, then that’s something, but we don’t know who started the physical confrontation, and the fact that Zimmerman created “the situation” is not grounds, under any reading of Florida laws I’ve seen, to convict him of second degree murder, manslaughter, or unnecessary homicide.
It’s not just this thread but a long history on these boards where people use the word murder willy-nilly. I honestly think it is disgustingly ignorant for people to continually use the word murder that way.
Homicide - Any killing of one person by another, criminal or not.
Murder - Specific statutory crime defined exhaustively by the common law and statute.
Murder is a highly specific term and it doesn’t really help that every couple of posts people keep throwing it about.
Of course we have no conclusive evidence Zimmerman started the physical confrontation, and various evidence I’ve seen people pull out to that effect is not “clear and conclusive” and would be heavily contested in court, and is also just a small portion of the total evidence in the case and we don’t know what we don’t know.
That being said if Zimmerman was the initial aggressor, which I think the prosecution will have great difficulty factually proving (even though it is “all but obvious” to various persons) a reasonable person who has another person on top of them beating them about the head could probably make a good case before a jury that he was unable to flee because he was pinned down and being hit in the face, and thus was justified in using lethal force to defend himself from further serious bodily harm.
Something I’ve wondered early on in this thread hinges on a scenario in which Zimmerman provokes Martin.
Under the law, if I provoke you into assaulting me, in many jurisdictions, that can negate the criminality of the assault and even if you kill me it can significantly decrease the penalty for the killing.
So let’s presume Zimmerman provoked Trayvon, that means that under the law if Martin had not been killed but police arrived, and clear evidence existed of provocation, Martin’s assault crime would have either been negated or the punishment diminished. (I say **or **because I don’t know if provocation negates assault in Florida or can just diminish the penalty.)
Now, assuming Zimmerman provoked Trayvon into starting the physical confrontation, but then during the physical confrontation a situation was created in which Zimmerman was legally entitled to use lethal self defense, again, just assume that. That means that the actual shooting was legitimate self defense and not a criminal action.
However, while it seems to be tortuous logic, I wonder if a prosecutor in Florida could say “yes, the shooting itself was self-defense, but because Zimmerman provoked Trayvon it was through his culpable negligence that the physical altercation began, so Zimmerman is still criminally liable for his death even though the actual shooting was self-defense and you must convict him of manslaughter.”
This is the Florida manslaughter statute:
So I think it’s a stretch, but I do sort of wonder if it could be argued that if Zimmerman provoked Martin, or even started the physical confrontation, does that mean you could argue his “culpable negligence” created the situation itself so that can constitute manslaughter even though the pulling of the trigger was lawful.
Most of Stoid’s cites agree with your statement.
If I were to guess, I would say you’ve described what actually happened. I suspect it will be impossible to prove.
If I were to guess, I would say Zimmerman, believing (without a valid reason) that Martin was likely an armed criminal, used deadly force without trying any other means of escape. But that too is probably impossible to prove.
Maybe if they could show based on the number of bruises how early in the confrontation he shot. But probably not.
Right, my scenario was assuming all the elements of it were “proven”, I was just curious about the legal situation in such a scenario. Obviously in this scenario I have serious doubts about the ability to prove any case against Zimmerman, based on what we know now (which isn’t the totality of the evidence.)
Personally, I find the logic that Zimmerman was OK to shoot Trayvon because he was “standing his ground” and Trayvon had quite obviously punched him to be extremely tortuous.
No SYG law anyplace, that I am aware of anyway, permits you to cause a confrontation then shoot the person you confronted when that person acts in any kind of defensive manner that is short of an attempt to kill you.
What we know at a minimum is that Trayvon was doing nothing wrong and totally minding his own business. We also know that Zimmerman called the police on Trayvon, apparently because Trayvon was “walking while Black”, then followed him. Characterize the following however you choose; stalking, pursuing, or merely keeping under observation. But the fact that Zimmerman did this is not to be denied.
Zimmerman’s state of mind? Apparently paranoid. I won’t characterize this as a fact as I will characterize what I listed in the last paragraph, but it is certainly a reasonable conclusion based upon all facts that we do know.
We also DO have a witness. Trayvon’s girlfriend says Trayvon said: “I’m being followed” just before the fight and shooting. This would lead one to legitimately conclude that Trayvon has identified a threat to his safety; commonly if someone unknown is following you, it is reasonable to assume that you are facing a threat.
So then, there was a confrontation whose details are unknown, and a fight in which, at a minimum. Trayvon gave as good as he got.
There seems little doubt that Zimmerman initiated the confrontation. If this is true, then there is no way the SYG law can apply to him, unless Trayvon were to have had a gun and pulled it.
Even if, after saying “I’m being followed”, Trayvon was to have turned to Zimmerman and confronted him, then this occurred after his words indicated that he was responding to what he perceived as a threat. In this case, Zimmerman may have a defense against murder, but not against manslaughter because it was still Zimmerman’s actions that triggered the confrontation.
I won’t say Zimmerman is guilty; there remains a presumption of innocence. But I don’t see how the police could have failed to make an arrest; the fact pattern appears to support it regardless of anything else. This stinks to high heaven.
Actually no, It’s a pretty fair assumption, but we don’t know it.
We *know *very little.
Ummm… He created the situation of shooting him. If it wasn’t self-defense, what was it?
Unfortunately this thread reminds me of the SDMB thread on the Duke lacrosse case. A lot of misinformation and folks jumping to conclusions. We just don’t have enough informatio and everything thus far is speculation (and people adding their own thoughts/hopes/conspiracy theories). It seems to me that Zimmerman was far too aggressive initially (had the been problems before, break ins in the area? Did he have a history with the victim?) but frankly I don’t know and nor does anyone else here.
a man who outweighs another by 100 lbs has the advantage of mass. even though Martin got the better of him he should be able to swat him off without resorting to deadly force.
What will be difficult in court is to prove what provoked Martin in the first place. We do know that Martin felt threatened. His girlfriend will testify to that in court. What we also know is that Zimmerman viewed him as messed up and possibly armed. He believes Martin to be dangerous.
So there are 2 people who get in a fight fearing the other, one knows he has a gun and thinks the other might, and one isn’t armed but fears a stalker who got out of his car and appears to continue on foot.
It’s a recipe for disaster that was started and finished by Zimmerman. His frame of mind (based on perception) and Martin’s frame of mind (based on Zimmerman’s actions) are what this event is about.
The question is how responsible is Zimmerman for the situation that unfolded. Did he instigate a confrontation that lead to a death? If so, he shares some responsibility and should account for it. It wouldn’t be much of a sentence and I suspect the black community will object to that if the case even goes that far.
There are three streets in that neighborhood which GZ has lived in for a while.
Just saying that is, “odd.”
28°47’37.42"N 81°19’50.78"W
eight burglaries, nine thefts and one other shooting in the year prior to the incident.
Did you hear the door open, the door ajar beeper and the door shut around 2:05 to 2:15?
And are we deciding that the girlfriend is lying? Because if we believe her to be honest, then Martin was moving away from Zimmerman, and Zimmerman was out of his truck and approached Martin.
Because the girlfriend reported that Martin was trying to get away from Zimmerman, not go toward him, and yet Zimmerman was next to Martin and Martin was asking why he was following him. Therefore Zimmerman approached Martin. In order to have done that, he had to exit his vehicle and do MORE than simply look at a street sign.
[QUOTE=Martin Hyde;14900147
So I think it’s a stretch, but I do sort of wonder if it could be argued that if Zimmerman provoked Martin, or even started the physical confrontation, does that mean you could argue his “culpable negligence” created the situation itself so that can constitute manslaughter even though the pulling of the trigger was lawful.[/QUOTE]
What do you mean by “the pulling of the trigger was lawful?” If pulling the trigger is lawful, doesn’t that equate to ** lawful justification according to the provisions of chapter 776 (Justifiable Use of Force)**?
Yes. And the wind hitting the mic after the when it wasn’t before.
Excellent and disturbing examination of why the Florida SYG law is nuts:
Certainly explains the insanity of the cops saying “Well, he said it was self-defense…”