Use of Force and Trayvon Martin

I kind of think that George Zimmerman is going to be cooked for murdering Trayvon Martin.

Generally, the law does not reward people who act with unclean hands. What that means is that you cannot, as the saying goes, murder your parents and then ask for mercy because you are an orphan. The "stand your ground" laws were enacted to remove the requirement that victims of a crime have to try to outrun their attackers before defending themselves.

Stand your ground laws do not, or should not, give aggressors an out. You don't get to start a fight and then claim self-defense. Of course, that determination requires that there be a living witness, for absent bullet wounds in the back, the dead guy isn't going to testify.

Stand your ground laws should not be used by some crazy-ass police-wannabee who fancies himself as some sort of vigilante. The role of Neighborhood Watch is to observe and report suspicious activity to the cops. They are not supposed to jump out of their cars and confront people who are just perambulating down the sidewalk.

Under a stand your ground law, Martin would have been justified for killing Zimmerman, who was allegedly using force against Zimmerman. Martin came to the fight with clean hands, he was not committing a crime and, to be frank about it, the reason he was stopped and shot by Zimmerman was for "walking while Black." Zimmerman, on the other hand, was by stopping and confronting Martin, arguably committing a crime of false arrest or false imprisonment. He was not, in my view, privileged to use force.

I submit that if Martin had killed Zimmerman, that Martin would have been arrested.

But Zimmerman is walking around free. I don't think that state of affairs will be permitted to stand for much longer.