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fishingcomic
Senior MemberPosts: 24,745 Senior Member
How is this guy different than George Zimmerman?
fishingcomic
Senior MemberPosts: 24,745 Senior Member
http://www.radiofacts.com/stand-ground-law-doesnt-apply/
http://www.policymic.com/articles/77603/this-man-s-case-proves-the-truth-about-florida-s-stand-your-ground-law
http://thegrio.com/2013/12/04/us-airman-stands-his-ground-in-florida-sentenced-to-25-years/
http://www.policymic.com/articles/77603/this-man-s-case-proves-the-truth-about-florida-s-stand-your-ground-law
http://thegrio.com/2013/12/04/us-airman-stands-his-ground-in-florida-sentenced-to-25-years/
'I've spoken of the Shining City all my political life. …In my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.'" Ronald Reagan
Replies
Giles is not involved in a fight. He goes to his car and gets a gun. Then he walks back into the middle of the fight. He -surprise, surprise- gets hit in the middle of this total brawl he walked into on purpose. He then pulls his gun and shoots the guy who punched him.
It's 'cause he's black, right?
Nothing good ever happens at a nightclub involving drunk people and guns.
That and it's illegal to carry a gun into a bar/nightclub in Florida.
Second, Giles' lawyers told him not to plead stand your ground. There must have been some reason they thought it wouldn't apply (I bet they were white and wanted him to go to jail).
Maybe the guy who hit him walked off and Giles then shot him or something. His lawyers may have felt that the jury would find that his fear was unreasonable. Unfortunately, there are no court transcripts that I can find.
Anyway, 25 years seems a lot, but that's an issue of mandatory sentencing.
or perhaps, of differential sentencing for black defendants (which yes, is statistically real).
I personally don't see that strong of a similarity to the Zimmerman case, and think this case proves nothing -- but yes, the law is applied differently based on color in this country.
I am assuming he told the truth about leaving his car expecting a confrontation with a suspected criminal while possessing a gun.
My question is, in what way is it different? He carried a gun into a potentially confrontational situation, and fired when he was in fear of his life. To be honest I am having a hard time figuring out how there is not a strong similarity.
How is this different?
The facts are he shot him while he was being hit in order to get the guy off of him.
Not inside the club.
This wasn't Zimmerman's testimony. Zimmerman always carried. He testified that he was no longer following Martin, as ordered by the police, when Martin jumped him.
And you know this how? I can't find anything to suggest this. That Giles was hit, yes? But that the guy was on him?
He intentionally went to his car to get a gun and return into the club with it...which is illegal. He could have just left the club and went out to his car and drove away.
There is zero similarity between this and the Zimmerman case.
There was also testimony of Martin complaining he was being followed by some cracker. In either case Giles was not following or confronting his attacker.
He was not in the club, he was outside the club where he was legally permitted to carry.
I can't find that article now. Do you have one that says the guy was shot while walking away? Giles claimed he was in fear of his life.
I understand that, as I read your report you posted about the incident that happened outside.
However....He intentionally went outside of the club to his car to get a gun, with the intention to return inside the club...which is illegal. He could have just left the club and went out to his car and drove away. Instead he decided to return to the club with a gun and randomly got punched before he made it back inside.
At the time this guy decided to walk out to his car and get a gun, he was not being bothered or attacked by anyone. No similarity to Zimmerman case.
Edit to add: If Thrower was on Giles, we wouldn't be discussing stand your ground.
"A defendant, under Florida law, loses his “stand your ground” defense if he provoked the encounter — but he retains traditional self-defense if he reasonably believed his life was in danger and his only recourse was to employ deadly force."
A jury might think that Giles provoked the encounter by entering the fray, so he had a duty to retreat, if he could. If Thrower wasn't on him, a jury might have believed Giles had other recourses other than deadly force. Even if we believe Zim provoked the encounter, he was getting his head bashed in.
Not even remotely believable.
I thought we believed he provoked it.
Well, he could have avoided it by staying in his car.
But let's say he didn't provoke it by walking into the fray. The big difference is still that he has to rely on stand your ground and Zimmerman didn't.
Personally, I'd give Giles a medal, but the law's the law. Scott should pardon him.
BTW he was trying to find and potentially protect his friends.
Scott only pardons medicare frauds.
I don't believe he was getting his head bashed in. The evidence does not support that. His injuries were not even sufficient to keep him in the hospital.
I would fully support the verdict in Giles case had the jury in Zimmerman's trial come to the same verdict. I don't like gun toting vigilantes. It seems there are some gun right advocates however that only support certain gun toting vigilantes.
It appears that if you want Shawn Hannity and the NRA to defend your rights, you better not have too high of a melanin count.
The way I originally read the article it sounded like he was in the night club. I stand corrected.
But again, he could have left and went home and went to bed. He didn't have to go and get a gun and return with it for any reason at all. My guess is that beer muscles were in force.