Comment

Report: George Zimmerman May Face Hate Crime Charges

241
Targetpractice5/15/2012 6:37:06 pm PDT

re: #234 goddamnedfrank

Under SYG the only real issue at play is the reasonableness of Zimmerman’s belief that the use of deadly force was necessary to prevent his own death, great bodily injury, or becoming the victim of forcible felony. In other words Zimmerman doesn’t actually have to have acted in self defense, as long as his beliefs in the moment are deemed reasonable, which it should go without saying is a highly subjective assessment. This is one of the many problems with the SYG law, that immunity is based in large part on distilling down and attempting to judge nebulous things like momentary beliefs and fears rather than looking at the overall course of action.

And that’s why it’s such a joke, because rather than going to trial and making the defense prove self-defense, it goes to pre-trial where the prosecution has to prove to a judge that there’s no way that GZ could have “reasonably believed” his life was in danger. As we’ve seen in other cases in FL, that can be an insurmountable wall.