Snowden's Secret
Banned
Uh, what? You can't physically assault someone in "self defense" because they might be following you.
You can claim self defense if someone is punching you in the face, hitting your head against concrete, and you feel your life is in danger.
I think you're wrong on this one. Assault is creating the believable threat of bodily harm IIRC (fake edit: an intentional act by one person that creates an apprehension in another of an imminent harmful or offensive contact, per Wikipedia). So if Zimmerman is intentionally following Martin (already established) and Martin believes Zimmerman means harm (also established) then Martin was assaulted. Notice that no physical harm has to have occurred (that would be battery IIRC). This can vary by state obviously.
So if Martin is going home, in the dark (and it was raining?) and Zimmerman is pursuing him in a threatening manner, then Martin has been assaulted. He doesn't have to actually wait for the harmful physical contact to protect himself because it may be too late at that point.