The Associated Press announced late Monday that the U.S. Department of Justice announced they will be investigating death of Trayvon Martin at the hands of a neighborhood watch captain who pursued the teen, even after 911 dispatchers asked him not to.
According to the Associated Press:
The Justice Department said in a statement late Monday that the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office will join in the agency’s investigation.
“The department will conduct a thorough and independent review of all the evidence and take appropriate action at the conclusion of the investigation,” the agency said.
This case has exemplified the reasons that detractors were against Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, which allows people to use deadly force to defend themselves, even if their alleged attacker is retreating. According to the same AP release, Criminal Defense Attorney David Hill described the law like this:
“If there is nobody around and you pull a gun, you just say, `Hey, I reasonably believed I was under imminent attack. Hey, sorry. Too bad. But you can’t prosecute me,'”
Even with the “Stand Your Ground” law, it should prove a challenge for Zimmerman’s defense team, should he be arrested, to explain how the death of an unarmed teenager was warranted, especially given that the shooter had already been told not to pursue Martin.
For more on the death of Trayvon Martin, read Cornelius’ Walker’s Walking While Black and Jackie Summers’ Shoot First, Ask Later?