The Sanford police have said that once Mr. Zimmerman declared that he had shot Trayvon in the chest in self-defense, they were barred from arresting him by the states now-famous Stand Your Ground law, the broadest protection of self-defense in the country. It immediately requires law enforcement officials to prove that a suspect did not act in self-defense, and sets the case on a slow track.
Angela B. Corey, the state attorney for the Jacksonville area who has been appointed special prosecutor in the Trayvon Martin case, said that the controversial 2005 law has changed the rules for prosecutors. Making arrests, filing charges and securing convictions are more difficult and time consuming. Now, she said, there is a different standard.
Ms. Corey said her office has handled hundreds of these self-defense cases at least three or four every month. The law constantly challenges the authorities, with people citing it for conflicts like bar fights and road rage. Weve lost Stand Your Ground motions that in my experience showed the shooter should not have shot, she said. Stand Your Ground needs a second look.
But Mr. Crump and Natalie Jackson, the lawyers for Trayvons family, said that the law does not preclude the police from properly investigating a homicide: collecting evidence, thoroughly interviewing the suspect and aggressively questioning witnesses much of which, they maintained, did not occur in the death of Trayvon Martin.
