Quote:
Originally Posted by Igottago
What about Martin's fear for his own safety when a random guy on a power trip seems to be stalking him in a threatening manner, and for no apparent reason at all? And you know what -- even if Martin threw the first punch, why does it automatically allow someone to pull a gun and kill him? What happens in a bar fight? Some guy hits you and you can gun him down without consequence?.
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These are fair questions. Defenders argued that Martin could have just walked home after Zimmerman dropped his pursuit, if that was the case I don't think it's reasonable to believe that Martin feared for his life. He didn't need to go back, by doing so he became the aggressor and threat.
If Martin threw the first punch, it doesn't give anyone the right to kill him. No one has argued that. However, if Zimmerman believed his life was in danger, he had the right to defend himself from his attacker. That was the argument.
Bar fights, while forgetting about SYG for one second, can usually be prevented by walking away. Usually. If a person walks away from a bar fight and is assaulted from the back, that's not a fight and the guy could legally defend himself if he thought his life was in jeopardy. Usually though the bar fights cooler-heads don't prevail and both parties refuse to leave, you can't claim self-defense if there's an option of getting out of the situation you didn't try to exercise. Now that's a bit different with SYG laws, but this wasn't a SYG case so it's a bit irrelevant. And of course self-defense laws vary from place to place.