Quote:
Originally Posted by Kassel
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Alawen, Imo they are different. One has head smashing the other does not. in my eyes the key is head smashing and reasonable assertions of incoming death. Kids standing out side your house screaming IMO is not create a reasonable assertions of incoming death.
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the differences are twofold.
the first major difference is the obligation to retreat. to begin, florida is a SYG state -- meaning zimmerman had no obligation to retreat, regardless of scenario. however, even despite this fact, zimmerman claims he was pinned to the ground, thus nullifying any potential requirement to retreat, regardless of state. he could not have retreated. new york is NOT a stand your ground state. white was not pinned to the ground. his ability to retreat was in no way hampered. thus, white could and should have attempted to retreat from the situation before exercising lethal force. this is really the beginning and end of the case, as this point overwhelms any self defense claim.
the second major difference is that zimmerman suffered physical harm to the extent that a reasonable person could have feared serious bodily harm or death if not for the use of lethal force. white suffered no such harm, and it would be difficult -- but not impossible -- to prove that white reasonably feared imminent, serious bodily harm or death on the basis of the threats the boys were making, prior to any actual violent action being taken. this half of the case is enough to kill self defense for the prosecution, but it could also be won by the defense. it is less concrete than the zimmerman case
and i would be remiss if i didn't mention that a huge difference in these cases was the element of reasonable doubt. this case had witnesses. the court knew, within reason, exactly what happened. the zimmerman case had none of that. it is very possible that if we had 3 witnesses with perfect views of the zimmerman-martin brawl, the outcome in this case could have been different. but we didn't. we don't even know beyond a reasonable doubt who was on top or who was screaming for help, let alone who initiated violence. the case is riddled with reasonable doubt, while the white case left zero room for doubt