Under "Stand Your Ground" Trayvon Had The Right To Kill Zimmerman

[Jim Lane]

74. There are two separate issues here.

I think that every U.S. state has the same law on the first issue, namely that the privilege to use deadly force in self-defense is available only to someone who actually and reasonably believes that there's a threat. Whether a defendant who's being tried for homicide had such a belief would normally be a jury question. Some defendants might be acquitted even if they didn't see a gun. Others might be convicted even if there was a gun, if the conduct of the gun owner didn't give the defendant cause to fear for his or her own life. It would all depend on the circumstances.

The point of the retreat rule is that, in some states, even a defendant who had such a belief could still be convicted if s/he could have avoided the problem by retreating. In contrast, in a "Stand Your Ground" state, there is no such requirement.

I was agreeing with you that, under Florida law, Trayvon could probably have shot Zimmerman and yet deserved to be acquitted. My point was that he might well get the same result in other states, where "Stand Your Ground" is not the law.