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Leaves the door open, to shoot anyone to death if you 'believe' they are a danger.
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So lets say you have to rely on a more "conventional" notion of self defence rather than stand your ground.
In the moments before a victim is stabbed, shot, head pummeled into concrete or whatever.
The victim must make a possibly split second decision on whether or not the threat is gravely dangerous to life or health and if it's possible and safe to flee or if it's safer for them to defend themselves with deadly force if they can.
What if they are wrong about any part of the decision?
What if they decide to flee and get shot in the back?
Then a lack of stand your ground just cost them their lives.
What if the decide to defend themselves and it turns out that they could have ran but for some reason did not, maybe they were too scared to run?
Then the lack of stand your ground means they go to jail for being a victim of a crime.
Without stand your ground laws it puts an awful lot of decisions on the person who is the victim that they should not have to make, nor be penalized for if they decide wrong.
An issue in this case is whether the defendant acted in self-defense. It is a defense to the offense with which George Zimmerman is charged if the death
of Trayvon Martin resulted from the justifiable use of deadly force.
"Deadly force" means force likely to cause death or great bodily harm.
A person is justified in using deadly force if he reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent (1) imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or another or (2) the imminent commission of aggravated battery against himself or another.
Aggravated battery is intentionally touching or striking another against his or her will, and in committing the battery, intentionally or knowingly causing great bodily harm, permanent disability or permanent disfigurement to the other person.
In deciding whether defendant 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. The danger facing the defendant need not have been actual; however, to justify the use of deadly force, the appearance of danger must have been so real that a reasonably cautious and prudent person under the same circumstances would have believed that the danger could be avoided only through the use of that force. Based upon appearances, the defendant must have actually believed that the danger was real.
If the defendant 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 to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.
In considering the issue of self-defense, you may take into account the relative physical abilities and capacities of the defendant and Trayvon Martin.
If in your consideration of the issue of self-defense you have a reasonable doubt on the question of whether the defendant was justified in the use of deadly force, you should find the defendant not guilty.
However, if from the evidence you are convinced that the defendant was not justified in the use of deadly force, you should find him guilty if all the elements of the charge have been proved.
I thought stand your ground had nothing to do with the case?????
Therefore it has nothing to do with it. :-)
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