Listening to Trayvon Martin trial

[pnwmom]

77. Sure. And this one's even worse. The circumstances are similar to GZ: the shooter followed

the victim.

The reason you don’t see more of these cases at trial is that judges dismiss them on the grounds of stand your ground or the Castle doctrine before they ever get to a jury. Like this Florida case:

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/29/us/stand-your-ground

Proponents of Florida's Stand Your Ground law say it was never intended to apply to people who pursue someone and then use deadly force. "There's nothing in the statute that authorizes pursuit, confrontation or provocation and altercation," said Rep. Dennis Baxley, one of the sponsors of the 2005 law.

"Everything in this statute says, 'Defend yourself if you are a law-abiding citizen,'" he added. "We stand by you and the presumption of the law is with you."

But how much on the defensive was Greyston Garcia when he chased a suspected thief for a block and confronted him before killing him early on the morning of January 25, 2011? Where should authorities draw the line?

Police arrested Garcia, and prosecutors believed they had enough evidence to charge him with second-degree murder. But a judge dismissed the case late last month, citing Stand Your Ground.