On Apr 5, 12:27*am, "Robert Green" wrote:
"Oren" wrote in message

...





On Wed, 4 Apr 2012 11:19:03 -0400, "Robert Green"
wrote:

The ONLY thing that
counts is what I believed and whether that which I believed is the same
thing that a "reasonable person" would also believe.

You say that but my experience is that what happens is someone gets to
decide what your state of mind was. *It could be the State's Attorney, as
it
seems to have been here, or it could be the grand jury, a trial jury or a
trial judge.

I guess that depends on the evidence. *If I follow the CD/SYG law in
Florida, a "justified" shooting, provides immunity from arrest or
civil liabilities. Each CD/SYG state have variations of what applies.

I agree. *A lot will depend on what evidence is collected. *The catch is
that under the law it has to be a "justified" shooting. *That word just
screams someone's going to judge whether is was justified or not. *DA's can
be wrong. *Looking at Mike Nifong's relentless (and baseless) prosecution of
the Dukies.

Prosecutorial misconduct is so widespread that the Supremes just ruled only
a pattern of illegal behavior can be the basis for a suit. *(-: *One-off's
don't even count anymore. *There's a lot of external pressure being brought
to bear in this case and sometimes that causes justice to deflect a little.
It seems that some people hate the idea that a miscreant like Sharpton can
actually affect outcomes. *He couldn't be effective unless the media was
complicit in giving him a soapbox. *They do that to sell newspapers.

There's a concept in liability law about who has the "last clear chance to
prevent an accident." *This was not a guy on his way home accosted by
muggers, this was someone who engaged in confrontational behavior while
armed on what seems to be a fairly regular basis. *Trouble was bound to
happen. I'm going to be most interested in what Z considered suspicious
about M.

According to Z, after the police told him not to follow, he continued
walking to the end of the street, about a block to get an address to
give to police so they would know the correct spot. Martin had made
a 90 deg turn onto another sidewalk and he had lost sight of him.
Z turned around and was walking back to his car when M reappeared,
walked up to him and said "You have a problem?" Z said, "No"
Martin said "Well you do now." and punched him.

AFAIK, no one has a differing account of the engagement.
Nothing in that scenario nor what's in evidence on the calls
suggests that Z was the aggressor.