So suppose a woman is walking alone along a dark road.

[rrneck]

61. Ooh, I like to play pretend.

What if your hypothetical woman is someone like Aileen Wuornos? It would be a simple matter to pop some guy in the face with pepper spray, kick him in the head and rob him. But this time he had a gun and somehow got off a lucky shot with his burning eyes closed. Now he has to prove he was defending himself.

In deciding whether George Zimmerman was justified in the use of deadly force, you must judge him by the circumstances by which he was surrounded at the time the force was used.

It looks like the jury was precluded from considering how those circumstances were created. In light of Zimmerman and Martin's respective history, it is obvious to me that Zimmerman was at fault. Although I haven't followed the trial that closely, I expect that if the jury had been allowed to take into consideration the histories of the two men, the verdict would have been much different.

There is a big difference between a woman walking along a lonely road and a teenage male full of piss and vinegar. And hypotheticals are easy to gin up to make a point.