The statues previously cited in this thread seem to pretty clearly indicate justification is not available to someone who provokes the use of force "unless such force is so great that the person reasonably believes that he or she is in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm and that he or she has exhausted every reasonable means to escape such danger".
When I previously stated Zimmerman's self-defense claim goes out the window if it can be determined he instigated the altercation, I forgot we were still pretending he was the victim of a near-fatal beating. Mea culpa.
Please stop personalizing the discussion. It's a violation of forum rules and only adds unnecessary hostility to an already heated topic.
It is no violation of the rules to point out your strawmen, or incorrect claims about the law, and about the facts of this case.
There is no rule that says responding to your incorrect claims is 'personalizing' anything, so spare me that strawman.
When you post unbelievable claims, you are going to be called on it.
Nothing in the law requires hospitalization for serious injuries, you are simply making that up.
And fear of a gun about to be used
even if the gun is one's own is more than sufficient to meet the 'reasonable fear of death or great bodily harm' Supreme Court standard that I've cited and linked to over, and over.
Zimmerman's *claim* is that he reasonably feared that his own gun was going to be used against him. Whether that happened or not, the claim does meet the threshold for invoking self defense.
You weren't there, you don't have psychic powers, and based on what little is available, you have no proof.
Inconsistencies, speculations, and suspicions that his story won't add up in court have been pointed out (again, repeatedly), but your assertion that his self defense claim under 2(a) would be denied
because he started the encounter is not true.
Whether it fits your imagination or not, the law operates under TOTC.