The judge  in the George Zimmerman murder trial made a much-anticipated ruling regarding Trayvon Martin’s cellphone texts on fighting and a defense animation depicting the fight between Martin and Zimmerman. According to her, neither will be introduced as evidence at Zimmerman’s trial.

Judge Debra Nelson made her ruling Wednesday, a day after she heard arguments on the matter well into the night. The court became a heated chamber when Nelson walked abruptly adjourned the proceedings around 10pm ET and walked out as the defense tried to persuade her to give a ruling then.

On Wednesday, she finally did.

The judge says the animation can’t be introduced as evidence that can be reviewed by jurors during their deliberations but defense attorneys may be able to use it during closing arguments.

The judge says she agrees with prosecutors’ objections to introducing the 17-year-old’s text messages. On Tuesday, she raised the issue that it’s possible someone else might have used Martin’s phone to send messages and take pictures that could show an affinity for fighting and violence. That would have been crucial evidence for the defense, as it would have bolstered the argument that Martin was the aggressor in the struggle that eventually led to his death.

Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watch volunteer, is charged with second-degree murder for shooting and killing Martin during a fight in Zimmerman’s neighborhood. He’s pleading not guilty, claiming self-defense.

In yet another serious blow to the prosecutions case for second degree murder, forensic pathologist Dr. Vincent DiMaio testified on Tuesday that the evidence was “consistent” with George Zimmerman’s version of events that ended in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

When prompted by the defense to give his take on the medical evidence, DiMaio said the evidence available suggests Martin was leaning over Zimmerman when he was shot. The testimony seemingly provides even more credibility to the defense’s claim that Martin was on top of Zimmerman while punching him and slamming his head on the concrete before the defendant used his firearm in self-defense.

SANFORD, FL – JULY 9: Dr. Vincent DiMaio, a forensic pathologist and gunshot wound expert, describes the injuries of George Zimmerman while testifying for the defense in the trial in Seminole circuit court, July 9, 2013 in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder for the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Credit: Getty Images

“The most important point is the nature of the defect in the clothing and the powder tattooing. That is, if you lean over somebody, you would notice that the clothing tends to fall away from the chest,” DiMaio testified. “If, instead, you’re lying on your back and somebody shoots you, the clothing is going to be against your chest. So the fact that we know the clothing was two to four inches away is consistent with somebody leaning over the person doing the shooting and that the clothing is two to four inches away from the person firing.”

The forensic expert also testified on the injuries Zimmerman sustained during his fight with Martin. While DiMaio said the quality of the photographs made it difficult to distinguish the marks perfectly, he said that he observed “punctate abrasions,” which are “little reddish markings, and that indicate that there was impact with a surface that was not really smooth.”

The defense then asked him if concrete found on “your everyday sidewalk” could have caused that type of injury.

“Yes,” DiMaio replied.

“Is this injury consistent with Mr. Zimmerman’s head having impacted a sidewalk?” the defense pressed.

“Yes,” he said again.

“The testimony, taken if full, would seem to support the defense’s case that Martin was attacking Zimmerman at the time of the gunshot that killed him,” Mediaite’s Evan McMurry notes.

 

A Florida judge has denied a request from George Zimmerman’s defense attorney to acquit the neighborhood watch volunteer of second-degree murder for fatally shooting Trayvon Martin.

Defense attorney Mark O’Mara argued for acquittal Friday after prosecutors rested their case.

O’Mara said prosecutors hadn’t proved their case. He said there was enormous evidence presented over the past two weeks that Zimmerman had acted in self-defense.

Prosecutor Richard Mantei argued the state had met its burden and that Zimmerman had lied about what happened.

Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder for fatally shooting 17-year-old Martin last year. He pleaded not guilty, claiming self-defense.

Prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda told the judge Friday afternoon that the state would rest its case.

Over two weeks, prosecutors called more than three dozen witnesses. Those witnesses included Zimmerman’s neighbors, who heard parts of the fight between Zimmerman and Martin; Martin’s friend, who was talking to him moments before he was shot; police officers who responded to the scene; and medical experts who testified on Zimmerman’s injuries.

Zimmerman’s defense attorneys will now present their witnesses.

Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder for fatally shooting the 17-year-old. He is pleading not guilty, claiming self-defense.

A neighbor of George Zimmerman, who had perhaps the best view of the struggle between the neighborhood watch volunteer and Trayvon Martin, testified at Zimmerman’s murder trial Friday that it appeared the teen was striking Zimmerman while straddling him.

However, Jonathan Good said he did not see anyone’s head being slammed into the concrete sidewalk, which Zimmerman has said Martin did.

Zimmerman has claimed that he fatally shot 17-year-old Martin last year in self-defense as the Miami-area teen was banging his head into the concrete sidewalk behind the townhomes in a gated community.

But under prosecution questioning, Jonathan Good said he never saw anyone being attacked that way during the fight between Zimmerman and Martin.

Good, the second person to take the witness stand Friday, said he heard a noise behind his townhome in February 2012, and he saw what looked like a tussle when he stepped out onto his patio to see what was happening.

He said he yelled, “What’s going on? Stop it.”

Good testified he saw a person in black clothing on top of another person with “white or red” clothing. He said he couldn’t see faces but he “could tell that the person on the bottom had a lighter skin color.”

Martin was black and wearing a dark hoodie. Zimmerman identifies as Hispanic and was wearing a red jacket.

Later, under cross-examination, he said that it looked like the person on top was straddling the person on bottom in a mixed-martial arts move known as “ground and pound.” When defense attorney Mark O’Mara asked him if the person on top was Martin, Good said, “Correct, that’s what it looked like.”

Good also said the person on the bottom yelled for help.

During cross-examination, O’Mara got on his knees to recreate the fighting as he asked Good to walk him through it.

Good was in the middle of dialing 911 inside his townhome when he heard a gunshot, he said.

Zimmerman, 29, could get life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder. He has denied the confrontation had anything to do with race, as Martin’s family and their supporters have claimed.

Jurors already have been shown some of the state’s biggest pieces of evidence, including the 911 call featuring cries for help prosecutors believe came from Martin.

On Thursday, a friend of Martin who had been on the phone with him when he was shot testified about what she heard during his confrontation with Zimmerman. Rachel Jeantel dominated headlines with her refusal to acknowledge the term “creepy a** cracker” to be racial or offensive, further shocking the audience after saying she couldn’t read a letter she supposedly wrote because it was in cursive script.

Common Sense: Criminal charges against a West Virginia eighth-grader who was arrested and suspended after he wore a National Rifle Association T-shirt to school have been dropped.

Logan County Judge Eric O’Briant signed a dismissal order Thursday for 14-year-old Jared Marcum, who had been facing one year in jail on an obstruction charge after he refused to take off the “Protect Your Right” shirt with an image of a rifle.

The ordeal began in April when a teacher at Logan Middle School told Marcum to change his shirt. Dress code policy prohibits clothing that displays profanity, violence or discriminatory images or messages, but says nothing about guns. Marcum argued with the teacher, and was ultimately arrested for obstructing a police officer — because the teen refused to stop talking.

“The state of West Virginia is not interested in creating a juvenile criminal record for this defendant,” the judge’s order Thursday reads.

Ben White, the family’s attorney, hailed the decision as a win both for the prosecution and the defense, saying justice is alive and well in the county.

“The gun issue, with what’s going on, this is a victory for common sense,” White told WOWK.

While the criminal issue is finished, the family says they plan to move forward with a civil suit against the Logan County School District.

Jurors were shown tons of evidence Tuesday in the murder trial of George Zimmerman, including the 9-mm. handgun used to fatally shoot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, a bag of Skittles and graphic crime scene photos.

Prosecutors presented graphic photos of Martin’s body, a police officer described trying to revive Martin as bubbling sounds came from his chest, and a police manager described how she helped Zimmerman set up the neighborhood watch.

SANFORD, FL – JUNE 25: Diana Smith, crime scene technician for the Sanford Police Department, shows the jury a bag of Skittles that was collected as evidence at the crime scene, during George Zimmerman’s trial in Seminole circuit court June 25, 2013 in Sanford, Florida. Credit: Getty Images

SANFORD, FL – JUNE 25: The State of Florida shows photos of the shirt that Trayvon Martin wore underneath his hoodie, focusing on the place where the bullets exited his body the night of the shooting, as evidence during George Zimmerman’s trial in Seminole circuit court June 25, 2013 in Sanford, Florida. Credit: Getty Images

On Tuesday, the judge listened to those five calls and weighed whether to let the jury hear them, too.

Prosecutors want to use them to bolster their argument that Zimmerman was increasingly frustrated with repeated burglaries and had reached a breaking point the night he shot the unarmed teenager.

The recordings show Zimmerman’s “ill will,” prosecutor Richard Mantei told Judge Debra Nelson.

“It shows the context in which the defendant sought out his encounter with Trayvon Martin,” Mantei said.

Defense attorney Mark O’Mara argued that the calls were irrelevant and that nothing matters but the seven or eight minutes before Zimmerman fired the deadly shot into Martin’s chest.

The prosecution is “going to ask the jury to make a leap from a good, responsible, citizen behavior to seething behavior,” O’Mara said.

The judge did not immediately rule on whether to admit the recordings.

Prosecutors played the calls with the jurors out of the courtroom at the beginning of a day in which a former Zimmerman neighbor testified about what she saw of the

 

confrontation.

In the calls, Zimmerman identifies himself as a neighborhood watch volunteer and recounts that his neighborhood has had a rash of recent break-ins. In one call, he asks that officers respond quickly since the suspects “typically get away quickly.”

In another, he describes suspicious black men hanging around a garage and mentions his neighborhood had a recent garage break-in.

Zimmerman, 29, could get life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder for gunning down Martin as the young man walked from a convenience store. Zimmerman followed him in his truck and called a police dispatch number before he and the teen got into a fight.

Zimmerman has claimed self-defense, saying he opened fire after the teenager jumped him and began slamming his head against the concrete sidewalk.

Zimmerman, whose father is white and whose mother is Hispanic, has denied the confrontation with the black teenager had anything to do with race, as Martin’s family and its supporters have charged.

On Tuesday, Day 2 of testimony, prosecutors called to the stand a former Zimmerman neighbor, Selene Bahadoor, the first witness to say she saw part of the struggle.

She described the sound of movement from left to right outside her townhouse and said she heard what sounded like someone saying, “No” or “Uh.”

She said that when she looked out a window she saw arms flailing in the dark. She said she left to turn off a stove and then heard a gunshot. The next time she looked out, she saw a body on the ground, she testified.

In cross-examining her, O’Mara accused Bahadoor of never mentioning the left-to-right movement in previous interviews.
Zimmerman contends he lost track of Martin and was returning to his car when he was attacked. But Bahadoor’s testimony appeared to suggest Zimmerman was moving away from his vehicle.

A Sanford police sergeant who was the second officer to arrive on the scene also testified. Sgt. Tony Raimondo said he tried to seal a bullet wound in Martin’s chest with a plastic bag and attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Bubbling sounds indicated air was escaping the teen’s chest, Raimondo said. Martin was pronounced dead a short time later.

During Raimondo’s testimony, prosecutors showed jurors a photo of a dead Martin face-down in the grass, another of Martin’s body face up with his eyes slightly open, and a third of the bullet wound. Martin’s father, Tracy Martin, walked out of the courtroom during the testimony.

Wendy Dorival, former coordinator of the Sanford Police Department’s neighborhood watch program, testified how she had worked with Zimmerman to set up a watch in his neighborhood.

When asked by prosecutor John Guy if neighborhood watch participants should follow or engage with suspicious people, she said no.

“They are the eyes and ears of law enforcement,” Dorival said. “They’re not supposed to take matters into their own hands.”

Similarly, Donald O’Brien, president of Zimmerman’s homeowners association, said it was his understanding that neighborhood watch members are supposed to “stay at a safe distance” and “let the police handle it.”

But Dorival said she was impressed with Zimmerman’s professionalism and dedication to his community.

“He seemed like he really wanted to make changes in his community, to make it better,” she said.

Gun enthusiasts who rushed to purchase AR-15s at the height of Congress’s recent debate over gun control may soon regret having spent so much money.

It appears that the market for the popular rifle has bottomed out.

The average price of an AR-15 has in recent weeks returned to the $800-$1,050 range, down from its all-time high of $2,500 (averaged), according to the gun blog The Truth About Guns.

“After the gun control scare earlier this year, demand for AR-15 rifles went through the roof. People were maxing out their credit cards on fears that America’s favorite firearm was about to be banned by the powers that be,” writes Nick Leghorn, the testing and reviews editor for the blog.

“This cleared the entire available stock of guns, and made manufacturers ramp up to meet demand.

“It was good times for manufacturers, but now the AR-15 bubble has burst and things are looking downright depressing for manufacturers,” he adds.

And it appears the supply of AR-15s, once feared by many to have run dry, is flowing again. Below is a photo Leghorn snapped recently while in a Cabela’s sporting goods store:

No shortage here. (The Truth About Guns)

“By now, everyone who ‘needed’ an AR-15 has found one. Even if they emptied their bank accounts to do it, they have their rifle,” the report continues.

“But with sales slowing down, the price of an AR-15 is cratering. People are no longer willing to buy at the inflated panic-level prices, and dealers are starting to discount the guns in order to clear their shelves,” it adds.

And although this news may come as a bit of a headache for those who maxed out their credit cards a few months ago, those who held out for lower prices are in luck. Coupled with increased manufacturing and dwindling demand, now is a great time to buy an AR-15.

“[Y]ou have the pick of the litter when it comes to guns,” Legorn writes.

However, there is still a problem: ammo.

“[A]mmunition is still scarce,” he adds. “It’s on the shelves, but stores haven’t lifted their ‘one box per person’ limit yet. So while you can buy a gun, you still can’t feed it. And God help you if you need some .22lr.”

George Zimmerman was fed up with “punks” getting away with crime and shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin “because he wanted to,” not because he had to, prosecutors argued Monday, while the neighborhood watch volunteer’s attorney said the killing was self-defense against a young man who was slamming Zimmerman’s head against the pavement.

The prosecution began opening statements in the long-awaited murder trial with shocking language, repeating obscenities Zimmerman uttered while talking to a police dispatcher moments before the deadly confrontation.

The defense opened with a knock-knock joke about the difficulty of picking a jury for a case that stirred nationwide debate over racial profiling, vigilantism and Florida’s expansive laws on the use of deadly force.

“Knock. Knock,” said defense attorney Don West.

“Who is there?”

“George Zimmerman.”

“George Zimmerman who?”

“All right, good. You’re on the jury.”

Zimmerman, 29, could get life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder for gunning down Martin on Feb. 26, 2012, as the unarmed black teenager, wearing a hoodie on a dark, rainy night, walked from a convenience store through the gated townhouse community where he was staying.

The case took on racial dimensions after Martin’s family claimed that Zimmerman had racially profiled Martin and that police were dragging their feet in bringing charges. Zimmerman, whose mother is Hispanic and whose father is white, has denied the confrontation had anything to do with race.

Prosecutor John Guy’s first words to the jury recounted what Zimmerman told a dispatcher in a call shortly after spotting Martin: “F—— punks. These a——-. They always get away.”

Zimmerman was profiling Martin as he followed him, Guy said. He said Zimmerman viewed the teen “as someone about to a commit a crime in his neighborhood.”

“And he acted on it. That’s why we’re here,” the prosecutor said.

Zimmerman didn’t have to shoot Martin, Guy said. “He shot him for the worst of all reasons: because he wanted to,” he said.

The prosecutor portrayed the watch captain as a vigilante, saying, “Zimmerman thought it was his right to rid his neighborhood of anyone who did not belong.”

West told jurors a different story: Martin sucker-punched Zimmerman and then pounded the neighborhood watch volunteer’s head against the concrete sidewalk, and that’s when Zimmerman opened fire.

Showing the jury photos of a bloodied and bruised Zimmerman, the defense attorney said, “He had just taken tremendous blows to his face, tremendous blows to his head.”

West said the story that Martin was unarmed is untrue: “Trayvon Martin armed himself with a concrete sidewalk and used it to smash George Zimmerman’s head.”

The prosecutor, however, disputed elements of Zimmerman’s story, including his claim that Martin put his hands over Zimmerman’s mouth and reached for the man’s gun. Guy said none of Zimmerman’s DNA was found on Martin’s body, and none of the teenager’s DNA was on the weapon or the holster.

But West said that doesn’t prove anything, arguing that crime-scene technicians didn’t properly protect Martin’s hands from contamination.

Two police dispatch phone calls that could be important evidence for both sides were played for the jury by the defense. Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, left the courtroom before the second recording, which has the sound of the gunshot that killed Martin.

The first was a call Zimmerman made to a nonemergency police dispatcher, who told him he didn’t need to be following Martin.

The second 911 call, from a witness, captures screams in the distant background from the struggle between Zimmerman and Martin. Martin’s parents said the screams are from their son, while Zimmerman’s father contends they are his son’s.

Circuit Judge Debra Nelson ruled last weekend that audio experts for the prosecution won’t be able to testify that the screams belong to Martin, saying the methods used were unreliable.

On Monday, one of the first witnesses for the prosecution was a custodian of police dispatch calls. During the witness’ testimony, prosecutors started playing police calls Zimmerman had made in the months before he shot Martin. The defense objected, arguing the calls were irrelevant.

The judge said she would address the matter Tuesday and sent the jurors to the hotel where they are being sequestered for the duration of the trial, which could last several weeks

Other witnesses who testified Monday included a convenience store clerk and the 911 dispatcher who took Zimmerman’s call when he was following Martin. Martin had gone to the convenience store to buy Skittles and a can of iced tea.

The 911 dispatcher, Sean Noffke, testified that he had advised Zimmerman not to follow Martin.

Randy McClean, a criminal defense attorney in Florida with no connection to the case, called the prosecution’s opening statement “brilliant” in that it described Zimmerman’s state of mind. But he described the knock-knock joke as less than stellar.

“If you’re defending your client for second-degree murder, you probably shouldn’t start your opening with a joke,” McClean said.

One thing missing on Monday was visible demonstrations outside the courthouse.

Late Monday, the Seminole County NAACP held a town hall meeting at a church near a memorial site for Martin.

Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump, who as a potential witness in the case can’t be present in the courtroom until he testifies, told the crowd that the outcome of the case would have far-reaching implications.

“It became a civil rights matter the night the police did not arrest the killer of an unarmed child,” Crump said. “It’s going to be a litmus test to show how far we have come.”

 

Self Defense. American society recognizes that there are certain circumstances in which the use of force, even deadly force, against another person may be necessary and justified.  When this is so, the use of that force is deemed not a crime, and even if the state can prove beyond a reasonable doubt each and every element of, say, murder, the fact that the act was done in lawful self-defense requires an acquittal.

This is, really, a remarkable degree of autonomous power held by the individual citizen.  A person who reasonably believes that they are being threatened with imminent and otherwise unavoidable death or grave bodily harm may in that instant take the life of their attacker, with absolutely no requirement for prior permission from any governmental authority.  In contrast, think about how long it usually takes the government to execute someone who has been proven guilty of a capital crime with all due process of law.

Where the government does enter the picture in a self-defense scenario, of course, is after the fact.  Examining events in hindsight they seek to determine whether the use of force did, in fact, adhere to all five legal principles of self-defense.  If they can prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that any single one of those principles has been violated, the defendant’s right to claim self defense disappears.

That said, let’s briefly discuss each of the five principles of the law of self-defense:  Innocence, Imminence, Proportionality, Avoidance, and Reasonableness.

For the State to win on the issue of self-defense in the Zimmerman case it must prove, busing the facts in evidence and beyond a reasonable doubt. one or more of these fundamental principles to be false.

Innocence—Aggressors Need Not Apply

The principle of Innocence refers to the notion that a person who initiates a conflict should not later be permitted to justify his use of force as self defense.  It is this principle that is captured in Florida statute .  It is, however, possible for the initial aggressor of a conflict to regain his “innocence” under certain circumstances., and thereby regain his right to justifiably use force in self defense

What I expect we will see at trial with regard to the principle of Innocence is the State arguing that Zimmerman engaged in conduct of a nature sufficient to qualify as “aggression”.  The defense will respond that nothing Zimmerman did could reasonably qualify as an act of “aggression,” and at the same time that even if he did engage in such conduct he nevertheless “regained his innocence” afterwards.

Imminence—Right NOW!

The principle of Imminence refers to the notion that you can defend yourself with force only against a threatened danger that is about to happen RIGHT NOW.  You can’t use force to prevent a danger that may arise at some later time—the law expects you to seek an alternative resolution in the mean time, such as calling the police–nor may you use force in response to a danger that has already occurred or passed—doing so would be retaliation, not self defense.

The principle of Imminence may come into play around the arguments that Zimmerman was the initial aggressor, in that his observation/following of Martin would create in a reasonable person’s mind (in this case, Martin) a fear of imminent harm.  The defense will, naturally, argue the contrary.

Proportionality—The “Goldilocks” Principle (Just Right)

The principle of Proportionality refers to the notion that the degree of force you may use in self-defense must be proportional to the degree of force with which you are threatened.  Briefly, a non-deadly threat may only be countered with a non-deadly defense.  A threat capable of causing death or grave bodily harm (e.g., a broken bone, blinding, a rape) may be met with deadly force.

Usually, the use of deadly force against an unarmed attacker is fatal to a claim of self defense.  If you nevertheless wants to argue self defense you will have to convince the court that the unique circumstances warranted your use of deadly force despite the fact that the attacker was unarmed.

In many states, the fact that the attack occurred in the defendant’s home often raises a legal presumption of a threat of death or grave bodily harm (e.g., the so-called “make-my-day” laws).  That, of course, is not relevant in the Zimmerman case.  In all states, however, if the unarmed attack is of such ferocity that it nevertheless raises a reasonable fear of death or grave bodily harm, the use of deadly force in self defense would be justified.

Much has been made in the public narrative about the fact that Zimmerman shot and killed an unarmed Martin.  For Zimmerman to be successful in arguing self defense as a legal justification for the shooting he will need to present the court with a compelling narrative of his own recounting his reasonable fear of death or grave bodily harm.  The success of Zimmerman’s narrative will surely be a function of the unremitting nature of Martin’s attack—straddling the prone Zimmerman and punching him “MMA-style” even after Zimmerman was clearly no longer any apparent threat and was, by eye-witness account, screaming for help—and the extensiveness of Zimmerman’s injuries as evidenced by medical reports and contemporaneous photos.

Avoidance—A Duty to Retreat as Long as Safely Possible

The principle of Avoidance refers to the notion that you should not use force in self-defense if you can avoid the need to do so by making use of a safe avenue of retreat.

Florida is, of course, a “stand your ground” state (776.013(3)), where a person acting in justifiable self defense has no general duty to retreat before doing so.  This does not, however, take the principle of Avoidance out of this trial.

As previously mentioned, it is is possible that the State will argue that Zimmerman was the initial aggressor.  As the aggressor he would not be eligible to argue self-defense unless he first “recovered his innocence.”  A condition to “recovering innocence” is that you have “exhausted every reasonable means to escape” or that you “withdraw from physical contact with the assailant.”  (An alternative means of “recovering” innocence comes into play when the aggressor’s non-deadly attack is countered by a deadly-force attack.)

In this way the principle of Avoidance and a legal duty to retreat can arise even in a Stand Your Ground state, like Florida, which has no general duty to retreat before using force in self-defense.

Reasonableness—Meet the “Reasonable and Prudent Man”

The principle of Reasonableness is really an umbrella principle that applies to each of the previous four.  The issue here is whether your perceptions and conduct in self-defense were those of a reasonable and prudent person under the same or similar circumstances.  If they were not, any claim to self-defense fails.

So, if you believed the other person was an aggressor, but a reasonable person would not have believed this, you did not act in lawful self-defense.  Similarly if you believed that the threat was imminent but a reasonable person would not have, or that the force you used was proportional to the threat but a reasonable person would not have, or that you could not have avoided the threat but a reasonable person would have . . . in each case the claim to self defense fails.

It is within the contours of the principle of Reasonableness that the attacker’s prior acts and/or reputation might be made relevant at trial, even if they were unknown to you at the time.  The reasonableness of your perception that the attacker’s behavior was threatening would be buttressed if your attacker had a reputation in the community for behaving in threatening manner.  Similarly, the reasonableness of your perception that the attacker was acting in an irrational and frightening manner would be buttressed if your attacker habitually used intoxicants, and was in fact intoxicated at the time of the attack.

Wrap-Up

So, those are the five principles of the law of self-defense in a nutshell.  Obviously, a ton of detail has been left out, so take it for what it is, a concise overview.  Hopefully, this can serve as a useful conceptual framework and context into which we can place the specifics of Florida law and the particular facts of this case in the days to come.

George Zimmerman, charged in the shooting death of a 17-year-old Florida boy, is suing NBC Universal for using “the oldest form of yellow journalism” by editing an audio tape of his 911 call to make him sound racist, the lawsuit says.

Zimmerman is seeking “damages in excess of the jurisdictional limit” in Seminole County Circuit Court in Florida, where the lawsuit was filed Thursday.

Zimmerman, who is Hispanic and is charged with second-degree murder, is accused of fatally shooting Trayvon Martin, who was African-American. The February incident has provoked national controversy.

Zimmerman says he shot Martin in self-defense. Attorneys for Martin’s family say the teen was shot and killed “in cold blood.”

Read more: George Zimmerman defense releases new photo

“Because of NBC’s deceptive and exploitative manipulations, the public wrongly believes that Zimmerman ‘use(d) a racial epithet’ while describing Martin during the call to the dispatcher on that fateful night,” the suit says.

NBC Universal disputed the accusations Friday.

“There was no intent to portray Mr. Zimmerman unfairly,” the company said in a prepared statement. “We intend to vigorously defend our position in court.”

The defamation lawsuit accuses the network of sensationalizing and manipulating a potential “racial powder keg that would result in months, if not years, of topics for their failing news program, particularly the plummeting ratings for their ailing Today Show.”

The edited recordings included multiple deletions, removed intervening dialogue between Zimmerman and the dispatcher, and juxtaposed unrelated content “to make it appear that Zimmerman was a racist, and that he was racially profiling Trayvon Martin,” the lawsuit says.

NBC aired various edited versions of the 911 call on March 19, 20, 22 and 27, the suit says.

The suit accuses the network of malice, highlighting correspondent Ron Allen’s segment on “The Today Show” on March 27.

“Allen’s broadcast removed a critical aspect of the dialogue between Zimmerman and the dispatcher, bringing the ‘up to no good’ and ‘he looks black’ statements even closer together, to further the false and defamatory implication that Zimmerman had said he believed Martin was ‘up to no good’ because ‘he looks black,'” the suit says.

The lawsuit accuses NBC of falsely claiming that Zimmerman said “f—— coons” on the February 26 call.

“The truth, as known to the defendants, was that Zimmerman said ‘f—— punks’ and there was no evidence, or reason to believe, that Zimmerman uttered a racial epithet during the call,” the suit says.

Zimmerman mentioned Martin’s race only when prompted by the dispatcher, the suit says.

NBC never aired an “earnest” retraction and never apologized to Zimmerman, who has since experienced death threats, a bounty on his head and a genuine fear for his life, the suit says. He now lives in hiding, court documents say.

NBC News President Steve Capus “made a bogus non-apology that claimed the doctoring was merely a ‘mistake,'” the suit says.

Because of the death threats, Zimmerman wears a bulletproof vest and was even dismissed from his college because it felt fellow students could be endangered, the lawsuit says. At the time of the incident with Martin, Zimmerman was living in a community known as The Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford, Florida, court papers say.

“Due to the defendants’ journalistic crimes, Zimmerman has been transformed into one of the most hated men in America,” the suit says.

Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara, told “In Session’s” Jean Casarez that NBC tried “to get ahead of the curve coverage thinking that they had themselves a person who was a racist, and they were wrong.”

The suit also names as defendants Lilia Rodriguez Luciano of Dade County, Florida, who was reporting directly from Sanford. Her employment was terminated by NBC as a result of her reporting, the suit says.

Also named as a defendant is Jeffrey Burnside of Dade County, another journalist who was reporting from Sanford to his station, NBC-owned WTVJ in Miami, the suit says. Burnside was also fired by NBC, the suit said.

Zimmerman attorney: We won’t take plea deal