Originally Posted by Malorn
Presumption of innocence means the investigators have to prove he acted unlawfully. If they have evidence of that, they can bring him to trial for it per 776.032 (2).
They have no such evidence, thus he has not been arrested.
There's nothing shady about that immunity law. If you look at it closely it protects people against being charged with civil action too. Remember the OJ Simpson case where he got off on the murder charge and then faced a civil court case and lost? That can't happen because of this law - it protects Zimmerman from the Martin family bringing civil wrongful death suit against him because the court will have already deemed it a lawful use of force.
That's a good thing. Civil cases like that are bullshit. That doesn't mean he can't ever be tried for the criminal case though. But like all things they must have evidence that the use of force was unnecessary. With the injuries sustained and a lack of witnesses it is not an easy thing to prove. You can't convict him on the evidence currently presented it's too circumstantial and putting someone away for life or worse on such evidence would be an injustice in its own right.
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He confessed to killing Martin. Under other state's better laws, he has to justify why he did that. He SHOULD have to justify it now. Like I said, self-defense is an affirmative defense. The prosecutor shows up, says here is our evidence for you killing Martin: it was your gun, you were there, you admit it. THEN if Zimmerman has the witnesses, evidence of his injuries, ect. Take it to court. That immunity keeps him free, just because he said so.
Civil cases should work with double jeopardy, imo.
Did you read the link earlier? A man chased down another, stabbed him to death, then initially denied it. After a video tape surfaced, he claims self-defense because the victim
made a motion like he was going to stab him. The victim was unarmed. Because of this law, he walks.
Remember are hypothetical fight we had earlier? How would the court
prove I acted unlawfully? By defending yourself, you attacked me. I recently just had open heart surgery as well, so a hit to the chest
would really fuck me up. Because I am the victor, I get to claim self-defense and walk, when in reality, you were defending yourself from me.
Let's say you never even hit me back, if it came down to me breaking my own nose or going to jail for the rest of my life. I'm breaking my nose. It's a shitty law.