George Zimmerman suing parents of Trayvon Martin among others

[EgoDeath]

I've looked up the Florida Criminal Jury Instructions for 2012-2013. Here are the instructions for a second-degree murder charge. They have to prove that "There was an unlawful killing of (Trayvon Martin) by an act imminently dangerous to another and demonstrating a depraved mind [Defined as  and act that "a person of ordinary judgment would know is reasonably certain to kill or do serious bodily injury to another, and is done from ill will, hatred, spite, or an evil intent, and is of such a nature that the act itself indicates an indifference to human life."] without regard for human life." And, unfortunately, Zimmerman was able to spin the events in such a way that it was really hard to prove "ill will, hatred, spite, or an evil intent."

And meanwhile, here's the instructions for manslaughter. And looking at the "Culpable Negligence" section really got me thinking:

I will now define “culpable negligence” for you. As I have said, every person has a duty to act reasonably toward others.  If there is a violation of that duty, without any conscious intention to harm, that violation is negligence.  But culpable negligence is more than a failure to use ordinary care toward others.  In order for negligence to be culpable, it must be gross and flagrant.  Culpable negligence is a course of conduct showing reckless disregard of human life, or of the safety of persons exposed to its dangerous effects, or such an entire want of care as to raise a presumption of a conscious indifference to consequences, or which shows wantonness or recklessness, or a grossly careless disregard for the safety and welfare of the public, or such an indifference to the rights of others as is equivalent to an intentional violation of such rights.

The negligent act or omission must have been committed with an utter disregard for the safety of others.  Culpable negligence is consciously doing an act or following a course of conduct that the defendant must have known, or reasonably should have known, was likely to cause death or great bodily injury.

That 911 dispatcher (not quite the legally binding words of police, but still) telling him to not follow Trayvon Martin would seem to support that last sentence.

And, yes, there are many lawyers who would agree with my interpretation.

Of course, it may not be as easy as reducing the charges to manslaughter, especially given that, in the original trial, he was charged with Second Degree murder with a lesser included offense of manslaughter. And he got off on both charges.

Yeah... so like I said, I think the Zimmerman case fits the definition for the Florida statute for 2nd degree murder. The prosecutors felt that way at the time and still feel that way.

I think the issue was the stand your ground law, which basically says, if we apply it to the Zimmerman case, that if Zimmerman felt threatened by Martin, he had every right to shoot him dead.

I used to be a proponent of the stand your ground laws... until I saw how it was used and abused by assholes who wanted to pick a fight and then use their gun on someone, i.e. bullies. Look up the Michael Drejka case. Now, should Markeis McGlockton have shoved Drejka, unprovoked? No. That mistake of trying to be a tough guy cost him his life. But does that give Drejka the right to shoot a man - just because he was shoved? No. Not in any world I live in.

Anyway... back to the main point... I think it's a trope we hear all too often, "They were overcharged!", and I'm just not convinced that there's any merit to the idea.

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Shot and killed a boy who was on top of him, beating his ass........ Somehow that gets overlooked....


And - I had no idea you were on the jury.

They saw the evidence.

Everybody else just saw shit that got posted on the internet by anyone who thought they had a dog in the fight....

Maybe if you get your ass beat by a 17 year old young man who you were following and harassing, unprovoked, you deserved an ass beating.
Does that make it okay to shoot someone, because you got beat up?