So the Zimmerman trial boils down to this

[MillennialDem]

38. Trayvon RAN for 5 minutes after Zimmerman was "stalking" him in his truck. If someone is

giving you the creeps by following you around and you run away from them for FIVE MINUTES and they still catch up to you, I think that probably gave Martin fear in his mind that Zimmerman could have done him harm.

Self defense only requires a reasonable sense of fear that you will be harmed. It does not require the "offending" party commits an illegal act.

Let's say for example a woman is beaten by her husband repeatedly. He also has a favorite insult word to use on her while he beats her up, let's just say he calls her "fatty". She decides to run away all the way across the country, well over a thousand miles away. She does not get a restraining order.

Out of the blue while in a public place, her now ex husband shows up. She sees him and tries to run away from him, he chases her and yells "come here fatty!". None of that is illegal.

Would she be justified in self defense? Most likely yes. Almost certainly the use of non-deadly force self defense.