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"A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony."
Turley said it "reads like a stump speech where sound bites become elements of a criminal defense. The result is sound bite justice."
On March 21, Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page headlined, "An invitation to murder?" saying:
Trayvon's killing is all too familiar "to those of us who have raised young black males." Any "suspicious looking" Black youth can be killed in "self-defense.""Prosecutors, gun-control advocates and other critics called it a 'shoot-first' law and, more bluntly, a 'license to kill and go free.' Born in controversy, the law is living down to the low expectation of its critics."
Trayvon's case and hundreds like it show why legalized murder laws demand repealing. More likely, tougher ones will be enacted followed perhaps by greater numbers of killings.
Public Rage Demands Justice
Protest rallies across America demand justice for Trayvon. Over 500,000 signed an online Moveon.org petition, wanting Zimmerman prosecuted.
For what it's worth, political Washington noticed belatedly. Weeks after the killing, Obama's Justice Department said its Civil Rights Division and FBI would investigate. How many previous "investigations," in fact, sanitized what should have brought prosecutions.
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