and it was the petition as a starting point that gave us something to put out on facebook, twitter, as a focus point for that, and it didn t take long. i think that the facts of the case spoke to people very quickly, and kind of instantly engaged them. we saw that despite some people who have been alienated, i think white people and black people all understand how long this was initially, and able to do it s not a lot to sign a petition online, it s easy to do. i think it s an emotionally healthy thing to do and gives people an opportunity to participate. and people responded all around the world, all races and nationalities were astounded there wasn t an arrest here. i remember seeing a stream from a blogger from lebanon when a muslim american retweeted the petition. so it s a human issue and it s
130 cases since 2005. 10 cases pleasest guilty. that s a 14.6% guilty rate for those that used stand your ground as a defense. not high at all, but for george zimmerman, will his defense hold up in a court of law. joining me now is ben montgomery who reported the stand your ground numbers we just showed you. and back with us, ken padowitz who has defended people under stand your ground in florida, and john burris. ken, can you help us understand the stand your ground law, and will it stand in this case? absolutely. basically, you re always entitled to an affirmative
in those cases where someone initiates a. pursuit, it s not rare for that person to be granted immunity in florida courts. what matters is not what happened five minutes before the event, what matters is what happens about 60 seconds before the use of deadly force. it doesn t matter if someone chases someone, so hong as their not in the commission of a felony. if that persona initiated the pursuit and confrontation then has to use deadly force to defend him or herself and can convince the judge he was in great bodily harm and death, they can get granted immunity. how do you do that in this case if this young mand only had skittles, iced tea, was not involved in a crime, and a right to be there. that s what s so problematic.
person acts like somehow whites are the victims in these situations. i was very impressed by the in fact that people were not acting as judge and jury. i can t speak for everyone and i didn t read every single statement that anybody made, obviously, but the consistent demands from the family and from the spokes people were for answers and for investigation, and to get to the bottom of what happened that night. not for anything in particular, and certainly not for anything bad to happen to george zimmerman. not at all. i want to bring in kevin cuninghamm that starts the petition that went viral, it now has 2.2 million signatures. now did it help draw attention this case? i think that originally there was next to no main stream media coverage, only local coverage,
people that suggested that the wheels of justice were turning and other people were kind of being vig lanties. we just wanted the justice system to work. let me show you a new york post front headline. trayvon hoodwinged. tragedy hijacked by race hustlers. i m not shocked, i have been in this all my life, you re going to be attacked, but what i think the public needs to know is in the case of many of us, we were called in by the family. i never heard of this case until they called and asked for us to be involved. so at least the public ought to know facts. it s fun any for me, joan, the article, why didn t i get involved in the case at imf, the rick case, now they re asking