Juror Speaking Out on Anderson Cooper 360

[Spazito]

103. The Judge did in her jury instructions...

citing the Statute on Justifiable Use of Force which is the actual name of the statute often referred to as the Stand Your Ground Laws. The defense was predicated on that Statute.

Here is the section of the Statute which can also be found in the Judge's final jury instructions:

"A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony."

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String&URL=0700-0799/0776/Sections/0776.013.html

Here it is in the jury instructions under the heading "Justifiable Use of Deadly Force":


"If George Zimmerman was not engaged in an unlawful activity and was attacked in any place where he had a right to be, he had no duty to retreat and had the right to stand his ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he reasonably believed that it was necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony."

http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/news/documents/2013/07/12/jury_instructions_1.pdf