Wow! It sounds like the JUDGE, not the jury, may have freed Zimmerman.

[AngryOldDem]

229. But was that point EVER brought out by the prosecution?

Of course Zimmerman was the aggressor....the evidence on its face supports that. He had no reason nor the authority to approach Trayvon that night, and had less reason and authority to demand that Trayvon explain why he was there, and even less reason and authority to continue to confront Trayvon after the dispatcher told Zimmerman "you do not need to do that." (I am of the opinion that a police dispatcher is de facto part of the department, and a reasonable person would follow their instructions.)

Prosecution: "Jurors, put yourself in Mr. Martin's place. You're at a location where you have every reason to be, and all of a sudden you are approached, and then pursued, by a total stranger who then forces you into a confrontation. Do you think you have cause to feel threatened, and therefore cause to defend yourself?" Then add Zimmerman's blatantly racist comments and history of seeing trouble where there was none, and then let the jury decide.

Zimmerman loses all right to a claim to self-defense because it is clear he intended to incite. I'm sure the arguments are convoluted because they have to be to justify this flat-out prosecutorial and judicial incompetence. Zimmerman did not act according to any reasonable standard of conduct that night, and yet he gets off scot-free, and vigilantism -- with the implied target of minorities (especially minority males) -- gets a huge thumbs-up by the system.

Zimmerman in so many ways reminds me of the clods who were security guards at a homeless shelter where I worked several years ago. They were ALWAYS looking to start shit, and then be the first to claim that it wasn't their fault. They made our jobs 1000% harder because the staff had, for the most part, pretty good rapport with those who stayed there. One guard kept asking if he could carry his gun. Hell fucking no --- someone would have most certainly wound up dead. Zimmerman is of that ilk. Wants to play big, bad cop but doesn't have the God-given sense of a grapefruit.