Trayvon Martin: ‘Justifiable homicide’ cases double across US in last decade

They claim Mr Zimmerman was guilty of an unprovoked attack on the teenager,
who he allegedly considered suspicious because he was wearing a “hoodie”
– a hooded sweatshirt – and was black.

The decision by Sanford police not to prosecute Mr Zimmerman, 28, whose father
is white and mother Hispanic, is being reviewed by prosecutors amid
allegations that it was motivated by racism.

In his first interview since the shooting, Trayvon’s older brother Jahvaris
Fulton, a student at Florida International University, criticised the police
for allowing Mr Zimmerman to take advantage of Stand Your Ground. He told
CBS: “I think it sends the wrong message.

It tells people that you can murder someone, no one sees it, and you can say
it’s self-defence.”

A number of politicians are now calling for a review of Stand Your Ground and
similar laws, which have been adopted by 26 states including Texas and
Georgia, where rates of justifiable homicide have doubled.

Over the same period, annual murder statistics have fallen as a percentage of
population across the United States. The state of New York, which does not
have a self-defence law on its statutes, had no incidences of justifiable
homicide in the last decade.

The figures on rates of justifiable homicide were compiled by the Wall Street
Journal from analysis of FBI and Florida police data.

They show that in general murder cases where the victim and perpetrator were
of different races, it was most common for the killer to be black and the
dead person white. However, in instances of justifiable homicide, the
positions were reversed.

Some prosecutors in affected states claim that self defence laws have been
used by known criminals to avoid prosecution, with gang members able to kill
rivals without retribution by claiming they feared for their life.

Last week, a judge in Miami, Florida, dismissed charges against Greyston
Garcia, who chased and stabbed to death Pedro Roteta, a thief he claimed had
just stolen his car radio.

The judge said that Mr Garcia was “well within his rights to pursue the
victim and demand the return of his property.” His lawyer, Eduardo
Pereira, added: “Mr Garcia defended himself when attacked by an armed
burglar.”

Meanwhile, analysis of the emergency phone call made just before Trayvon was
shot have cast further doubt that Mr Zimmerman carried out the shooting in
self-defence, as voice experts claimed that screams heard during the call
were likely to have come from the 17-year-old.

A neighbour of Mr Zimmerman, who claims Trayvon attacked him first, has come
forward to say he appeared bruised and was bandaged on the day following
teenager’s death.

Insisting that the former security guard was not racist, the unnamed man told
Fox News: “I don’t think race is involved at all, because

I’ve seen black, African-American folks come to George’s house.

“I saw George. He was banged up. His head had two big bandages, that
weren’t flat, had a bump on them.”

Surveillance footage of Mr Zimmerman entering a police station less than an
hour after the shooting apparently shows him uninjured.

But the neighbour said: “Once you get into a fight you don’t show bruises
that day, it shows the next day. I think something happened that night where
he had to defend himself.”

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