[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

So if the problem is that the law was written poorly, what *should* the law have been here? That's the part that's troubling to me. I firmly believe that Zimmerman bears some level of moral responsibility for Martin's death, but tend to think that he bears little/no legal responsibility. Yet I'm at a loss for how we could change the laws to make him bear any legal responsibility, at least based on the set of provable facts given here. You can't follow a person that you deem suspicious? Racial profiling by a private citizen is illegal? If you're flat on your back having your head pounded into the concrete you are only allowed to punch back, kick the guy in the balls, or shoot him in a leg or arm? I'm just not seeing where there's anything that can be proven that Zimmerman did that should be *illegal*.

More than anything, I find this to be a horribly tragic set of circumstances, one that is made even more volatile by the racial component of it.

Great post.