Reply to Child killed by Neighborhood Watch captain while walking home

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[quote=Anonymous]I posted the following in the other thread on this topic - thought it might be of interest here.  This is the relevant Florida statutory section:

Fla. St. 776.013(3) - A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.

So, if Zimmerman was attacked, he had the right to shoot ("meet force with force, including deadly force") if he reasonably felt he was in danger of death or great bodily harm. The defense doesn't seem to apply if Zimmerman threw the first punch (which would be "engaged in unlawful activity"). It looks like a gray area if Zimmerman provoked a confrontation (but still stayed on the side of "acting lawfully"), but didn't initiate any violence (although this may be addressed in cases construing the law). Although it appears ridiculous, I'm not sure getting out of the car, following Trayvon, or even initiating a verbal confrontation with him or accosting him verbally would constitute engaging in an unlawful activity such that the defense is not available (but again, I haven't looked at any cases on this).

Separate and apart from the horrific facts here, where it certainly appears that a trigger-happy racist killed someone who was minding his own business simply because he was black, there are many, many flaws in laws like this. [/quote]

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