THE ZIMMERMAN VERDICT, PART 1

Once again a Florida jury has seen through the smoke and mirrors of what I can only assume to be dishonest prosecution done in the interest of politics over justice and rendered a “Not Guilty” verdict.

Florida has a habit of getting it right, thankfully.

Mas, I had a feeling you might have been consulted or involved in this case since we have heard little from you about it. I was surprised tonight to hear the verdict, but pleased our jury system worked. I do fear this verdict, however may give license and cover for some to commit crimes because they didn’t get what they wanted in a verdict.

From my classes in LFI years ago and later MAG40 and in your book In The Gravest Extreme which I have passed out many copies of to shooting friends and new gun owners over the years I have heard echos of things from the Zimmerman trial you have said we would experience if, as an armed citizen here in the US I ever had to defend my life and/or that of my wife. I thank you for standing up to help any and all armed citizens who would listen and learn when and more importantly when not to use deadly force unless in the gravest extreme, as you aptly put it.

My wife and I look forward to completing the shooting part of your MAG40 class we took in SC last fall and hopefully will be able to pick your brain more when we see you next in class re. the Zimmerman trial and its outcome. We are in prayer for
cool heads to prevail in the aftermath of this case. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Martin family, but also to the LEOs out there who are keeping watch tonight in case of trouble.

We look forward to reading your subsequent columns on Zimmerman. Best HL in NC 7/13

Under Florida law, he should never have been charged!

I really thought that the deck was stacked against Mr. Zimmerman, even though the evidence seemed to lean toward self defense. Yes, there are perhaps many things George could have done differently, but I firmly believe that young Mr. Martin would be alive today if he had not confronted Mr. Zimmerman.

The way the media and the government have worked this thing up into a frenzy, I’m not sure Mr. Zimmerman will be safe anywhere in the country.

MAS, this would be another good addition to your book “In The Gravest Extreme” of what one can expect if and when you have to use a firearm in self defense.

Well….. I wouldn’t say that, Vince, I don’t agree with the verdict on the Casey Anthony case and not many of us here in FL do, but we believe in the justice system and the verdict is what it is. That being said, as a resident of Sanford, an NRA firearms instructor, and someone who respects Mr. Ayoob very much, I’m looking forward to his inside information!

I am looking forward to hearing more about this… based on what little I did know, I was glad that they got this one right.

As Mr. West so aptly stated the jury prevented a tragedy from turning into a travesty.

Looking forward to some interesting reading.

Good to hear! Lots of mistakes were made that night, by both parties. Looking forward to reading your following posts!

Florida DID get it right this time, Thank God.
But Casey Anthony?…….
Anyway, Justice was done here, great victory for evidence over emotion, as well as our second amendment.

Mas, thank you for the explanation as to your earlier brief involvement and promise to now speak further on this wrongful prosecution. I await the DOJ decision on whether there will be a civil rights violation case and what action may be taken against Corey et al. on their questionable actions to date. It ought to get interesting as we wait to see what may or may not happen form those who may seek violence. Your comments are eagerly anticipated and I hope they bring clarification and serve to prevent further legal complications on this self defense incident. Your advice over our years of training at LFI have served me well in avoiding the type of situation we have seen unfold the last nearly 18 months. Be safe…

Mas,
I had to explain to my wife what this means. Nobody won in this case. I listened to Zimmerman’s brother talk to about the case. He made a very good point and I thought I heard your voice in his answers to questions. Of coarse the race card is still being said…I don’t get it. I hope I NEVER have to use your skills. But ifr I do…I will prevail. THANK YOU for teaching what you know.
Doc Adams

Having recently taken your mag-40 class, I watched the Zimmerman trial very carefully paying close attention to all of the facts presented. My conclusion was that if Mr. Zimmerman did not start the altercation and was pinned to the ground with Mr. Martin pounding his head into the concrete pavement, then Mr. Zimmerman was in a situation of immediate and unavoidable danger of death or grave bodily harm justifying his use of lethal force. Even if the “stand your ground” law did not exist in Florida, Mr. Zimmerman would not have been able to retreat once he was pinned to the ground, so I don’t see how that law really applies in this case. I must also note, however, that if he had simply not followed Mr. Martin after calling the police, the whole tragedy would have been averted and he would have avoided the attendant loss of freedom, anonymity, and financial resources in addition to the negative psychosocial consequences the incident has certainly generated.

Mr. Ayoob,

As an armed citezen, I’d be very interested in your thoughts on other charges the prosecution could or should have sought. For example how do you think a charge of “reckless endangerment” have played out in this specific case?

Just heard Zimmermans brother on Piers Morgan. Articulate and calm he laid out the truth of the case. In the end in response to a question from Don Lemon he spoke the truth. The sad truth. Treyvon was a young punk who was involved with drugs, guns, and criminal activity. He made a decision that nite to lay in wait for Zimmerman and then beat him savagely. He reaped what he sowed.

i look forward to your detailed review of the shooting. I am so proud to be sponsoring you again and we will try hard to have another filled class in Tucson.

Frank, there is another element that you are ignoring, you can’t put it all on Zimmerman. Even if Zimmerman followed Martin, had Martin not attacked Zimmerman, he would still be alive.

We look forward to hearing your insight Mas. As yet another of your students, I kept thinking that, in addition to what we learned technically about the law, and shooting, and everything else, that one of the most important things you taught us was the responsibility of being armed and avoiding putting yourself in situations where you have to use the gun if you have any other options. Even though the right legal result was reached, I’m sure GZ understands how clearly, as do we all, how much better off he would have been if there was any other options made earlier which would allow him to have avoided this entire confrontation.

“KryptosXLayer2 Says:
July 13th, 2013
Well….. I wouldn’t say that, Vince, I don’t agree with the verdict on the Casey Anthony case and not many of us here in FL do, but we believe in the justice system and the verdict is what it is. That being said, as a resident of Sanford, an NRA firearms instructor, and someone who respects Mr. Ayoob very much, I’m looking forward to his inside information!”

I had the Alvarez / Johnson shooting in mind when I typed my reply. I have no opinion on the Casey Anthony case.

I too look forward to the information he can share regarding this case.

Vince

Interested in hearing your comments as this seems like a really good example of how NOT to go about your concealed carry lives.

(In the end, presumably the innocent man is free, however his life will definitely be ruined.)

Mas, do you think there is sufficient evidence for a wrongful prosecution lawsuit to be brought against the Florida DA’s office. The trial & the state’s own witnesses demonstrated that there never was any validity to the charges, and the withholding of evidence about the extent of Zimmerman’s injuries as well when they sought to bring charges I think demonstrate that they knew then that they had no ethical or legal basis to bring forth a 2nd degree murder charge.

Am I off base here? B/c I think that for there to truly be closure, the crime of maliciously prosecuting a man the state knew it had no legal probable cause to charge needs to be addressed, and those guilty of pursuing a political prosecution punished.

The FL special prosecutor said she was “going to get justice for Trayvon”… Well Miss Tyrant, I think law abiding armed citizens deserve to see justice for George’s prosecution.

Mas,

I feel nearly everything Mr. Zimmerman did that night, after his first call to the police from the community club house, was reckless and irresponsible. He probably did more damage to the cause of civilian firearm ownership and the future of concealed carry laws in this country, since the last mass shooting. No one but he will ever know what really happened that night, and luckily he was acquitted. Quite possibly, on a different week, with a different jury and the same evidence, he might have been convicted.

I will not cry for Zimmerman because although acquitted, and possibly even innocent, he needlessly started a progression that evening that ended with the death of a young man just trying to go home unmolested.

Mas, I know the following sentiment is your forte, so don’t be to hard on me if I don’t say it right.

Most of us that follow your philosophy know to do everything possible, especially when carrying a deadly weapon, to avoid potentially dangerous, escalation prone situations as happened that evening.
We learn to just walk away if someone insults are best girl.
We say “excuse me” even when it was the other guy that bumps into us.
Usually, this way everyone carries on, alive, no extra holes, without handcuffs, and without a huge legal bill to pay even if we used justifiable force in a situation.

I’m not saying there will never be a time for deadly self-defense, and when that time comes to act decisively, but we can make it much more of a rarity.

I’m confident you are going to hit on that theme strongly, a thousand times better than I said it. If we can use this tragedy, as a lessons learned, to spread the word of situational avoidance, to the millions of casual firearms owners and bearers, something positive can come from this tragedy.

God bless Trayvon and the Martins, and good luck to George and the Zimmermans.

Looking forward to reading more about your views on this. Personally, I am glad for Zimmerman. (By the way, I never met you, Massad, but I remember your name very clearly as one of the big-name gun experts and a recognized firearms authority, having been the copy editor for Guns & Ammo, HANDGUNS, RifleShooter, and HUNTING magazines [moving around occasionally, but mostly with G&A] from July ’89 to January ’98. I honestly miss my days there.)

All of that being said; Zimmerman still pulled a stupid by following him.

The trial of Zimmerman turned into an attack on concealed carry here in FL. If Zimmerman had been convicted I would have been down at the County Commission meeting. I would have been DEMANDING that all LEO in the county carry the issued Glocks with empty chambers. This would be necessary because the Zimmerman case proved a loaded chamber is indicative of intent to kill. Geoff Who thinks LEOs should have more options in Florida.

Mas,

I wondered why you were silent on the case; I thought it was because you were waiting for FACTS and also didn’t want to possibly cause any confusion for the defense or prosecution.

Recent statements by the former Sanford Police Chief and the IT Director who was fired Thursday, paint an interesting picture of the state’s handling of the case.

I think Mr. Zimmerman’s legal counsel must investigate whether his Civil Rights were violated by the state’s conduct.m

The 6 jurors deserve a round of applause for focusing on the facts and not allowing the ‘circus’ to sway their verdict.

What a great victory for the American Justice system! The unfortunate part is that it should never have gotten as far as it did. Both parties did things wrong and as all CCW holders need to realize, avoiding confrontation is one of the first rules. With that said, if I were on Community Watch and saw someone slinking along next to windows close to houses where they did not belong, I would be keeping an eye on him too. If he was up to no good then I would expect some confrontation and aggressive behavior, which is what appears to have happened. Martin may have been totally innocent, but he might have also been looking for an opportunity or “casing” the area. Zimmerman is certainly not “Free”. He will spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder and concerned about his family because there is a faction that wants revenge. There really is no “Good” ending for those directly involved. The only good in this case is that our justice system worked when it was allowed to, despite total politicization from the highest levels.

I think I am in the minority here but I think Zimmerman got away with negligent
homicide. He had no plan, no back up, no escape route. If he had stayed in his car and waited for a real cop to show up the other guy would still be alive. He followed the guy way too closely! Everything he did escalated the situation. Not the behavior of a responsible adult gun owner. (I have a very strong gut feeling that he probably showed the gun and then the kid went ballastic.)

I have had a bit of training re;use of force and deadly force. Just a bit. If Zimmerman had any training he chose to ignore it. You use your head first! It’s like the old joke;when all you have is a hammer,everything starts to look like a nail!

All this case will do is make it harder for people like me to get a carry permit.

I agree with others here that the prosecution did a bad job. Zimmerman had the better lawyers. he got lucky. In my state, I do think the outcome would have been different.

Mr. Ayoob, I was also wondering why you had not said anything about the case.
I do hope all the facts come to light now. I have your books and I watch your videos on you tube etc.

I hope you can now speak freely about this case.

Hey Mas!

Long time no see, probably last at one of the IDPA regional matches run by Mike Briggs up at Pioneer.

Thanks for the kind reference to my posts about the Zimmerman trial at Legal Insurrection. It’s been a great run, and an exultant win last night. Although, of course, any “win” in such a scenario must be tempered by the realization that the battle won need never have been fought.

In any case, I was hoping to get a mailing address to which I could send you a copy of the just released “The Law of Self Defense, 2nd Edition,” with my compliments. The LFI-I course I took in 1997 very much inspired the 1st edition of the book, back in 1998, and that of carries over to this edition as well.

I don’t want to leave an email address here, but there’s a contract form on my own blog that can be used to reach me in confidence.

http://lawofselfdefense.com/contact-us/

(If anybody here knows how to contact Mas more directly, assistance would be much appreciated.)

Best,

–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense

Mas,

I wanted to ask you about this case in your mag-20 class in Memphis recently, but I figured you had a good reason for not talking about it.

In the beginning my own feeling was that it appeared Zimmerman could have been the initial aggressor which could have disallowed his plea of self-defense even through, in the end, his use of force might have been justifiable.

I look forward to your comments.

Ah, I found a P.O. Box for Mas over at the MAG web site. Book is on the way!

–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense

I too am looking forward to Mas’ further comments. I had kind of guessed that something was afoot with Mas’ silence.

However, the expert witness from TX, a retired medical examiner, I believe, did a good job. His testimony about the singed hole in Marvin’s hoody being ringed in carbon showed that the gun muzzle was in contact with the hoody but with the peppering of the powder granules on the body being approximately 2×2 in. showed that the muzzle was about 2-4 in. away from the body. In other words there was a 2-4 in gap between the hoody and Martin’s body. The only conclusion could be was that Martin was bending over, allowing the hoody to fall away from his body. Just as Zimmerman had stated in his police interrogation. Also he was able to show the jury that when shot in the heart, the heart will keep on beating until it runs out of blood through leakage of the bullet hole through and through. Thus Martin could have lived for 15 seconds to 2 minutes before expiring and had time to pull his arms back underneath himself just as shown in the photos. I believe we covered that in our Mag 40 class. If you need to immediately cause the attacker to be incapacitated a lower brain shot is what is called for. See Mas I wasn’t really sleeping.

The other point that was interesting and that also irritated me was towards the end of the trial when Judge Nelson asked Zimmerman if he was going to testify in his own defense. West kept objecting and the Judge kept overruling and continued to ask Zimmerman. Zimmerman was obviously confused. I would have asked the Judge if she was revoking my right to consult with counsel.

I believe the Judge was biased against Zimmerman, maybe because he had apparently tried hiding his assets from the court for purposes to keep the bail set low.

Heh, now it all makes sense, along with your comment (or lack of comment) from Houston. Looking forward to the ‘rest of the story’…

The Casey Anthony jury got it right, too, Gary.

Had that whiny Orange County deputy actually gone into the woods and checked out the bag six or so months prior instead of berating Roy Kronk for his own clumsiness in falling in the mud, perhaps there would have been some forensic evidence.

I listened to the whole trial, being unemployed at the time, thanks to the intelligence of the electorate in putting democrats in charge, and the State proved nothing.

My opinion? A stupid young mother who got careless with some homemade chloroform. Probably worked once or twice and the last time it killed her.

Negligent homicide? Yep But there was no criminal intent as you cannot convince me she purposely intended for her kid to die. The State went overboard in charging her.

I would specifically like to see you address the issue of mandatory minimum enhancements associated with gun carry/gun use in many jurisdictions. If I recall correctly the FL statute enhanced assault something like a 10 year minimum with no parole if firearm carried in an assault, and 20 year minimum no parole if gun fired.

These mandatory minimums were enacted to punish career criminals using firearms, but now have the perverse impact of placing a valid HCP defendant in a situation where any use of the gun risks something like 20 year mandatory minimum no parole enhancements.

Do you think these enhancements have changed the landscape and risk for HCP civilians to the point that either way your life is ruined? When the judge has no discretion in sentencing between a career criminal and an unfortunate civilian with no criminal history?

Either you die or are broken at the hands of your assailant, or you use your gun and the state prosecutes due to the wide range of political pressure and civil rights issues often involved.

I too look forward to reading what you have to say about this case. From what I’ve read in the press and on various forums, I felt like GZ was being railroaded from the beginning for political reasons.

DOJ urged to press civil rights charges against Zimmerman

The NAACP, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other civil rights activists are calling on the U.S. Department of Justice and Attorney Gen. Eric Holder to press federal civil rights charges against George Zimmerman, the former neighborhood watchman who was acquitted by a Sanford, Fla., jury Saturday in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

“The most fundamental of civil rights — the right to life — was violated the night George Zimmerman stalked and then took the life of Trayvon Martin,” NAACP President Ben Jealous wrote in a letter to Holder shortly after the verdict was announced. “We ask that the Department of Justice file civil rights charges against Mr. Zimmerman for this egregious violation. Please address the travesties of the tragic death of Trayvon Martin by acting today.”

“This verdict represents a tragic miscarriage of justice,” Barbara Arnwine, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said in a statement. “Yet, there is still the potential for justice to be served through a civil suit brought about by Trayvon Martin’s surviving family members, and also through civil rights charges being brought against Mr. Zimmerman by the Department of Justice.”

The Justice Dept. launched a probe of the Zimmerman case last year, but has yet to comment on Zimmerman’s acquittal.

“If we find evidence of a potential federal criminal civil rights crime, we will take appropriate action,” Holder said in 2012 during a keynote speech to Al Sharpton’s National Action Network convention. “And at every step, the facts and law will guide us forward.”

But Holder, the nation’s first African-American attorney general, cautioned in subsequent comments that there is a “very high barrier” when seeking to bring federal criminal charges in such cases, TheHill.com noted.

A Justice Department official told CNN late Saturday night that it “continues to evaluate the evidence generated during the federal investigation, as well as the evidence and testimony from the state trial.”

On Sunday, Jackson called on the Justice Department to “intervene” and “take this to another level.”

“I remain stunned at the decision,” Jackson said on CNN’s “New Day.” “That the grown man, armed, murdered the unarmed boy going home.”

“I think that we clearly must move on to the next step in terms of the federal government and in terms of the civil courts,” Sharpton said on MSNBC Saturday. “Clearly, we want people to be disciplined, strategic. This is a slap in the face to those that believe in justice in this country.”

The prosecution (and the media, to whatever extent people could tell them apart) did everything it could to claim that Zimmerman should not have gotten out of his car, etc. But whatever hyperventilations it had regarding that, it ignored the simple fact that Zimmerman ended up on the ground and was being pounded. 2nd degree murder was a joke.

Sorry folks, if a police man had a fleeing felon on the ground and then proceded to club the guy to death with a billy club, the guy on the ground could take measures to defend himself, up to deadly force if that was what it took. What happened right before that is really not the point.

And please spare the “he was a child” crap. At 17 years of age one can join the Marines. I graduated high school at 17, and went to work in a steel fabrication shop the next day. How many 17 years olds in this country are tried for murder as adults every week? Showing a picture of a 14 year old was missleading in the least. The news media tried to show Martin as a 14 year old character off the Cosby Show, then later on he turned out to be a violent pot head. Not saying that violent pot heads ought to be, or deserve to be, shot for no reason, and no doubt a lot of such troubled young men grow out of it, but this was media manipulation plain and simple.

The news media was looking to go after the stand your ground laws, and this case (just like the White Rhino hoax, the Duke rape case, etc.) was just too good not to be true–even though the stand your ground law had no application. Then it turned into a good old racism story, even though in required an entirely new race, the “white hispanic” to be invented. Then the selective editing of 911 tapes to try to prove racial profiling, etc. The only one proven to be doing any racial profiling that night was Martin. If the media had been concerned about wanton murder of minorities with lots of gory details then where were they in the Kermit Gosnell trial? Simple: they approved the politics of this case while the Gosnell trial was toxic to their politics. The media people in this country are parasites on society, they live off of it while mindlessly pursuing its destruction. In fact I can think of no bigger threat to liberty than the media as we know it.

Was Zimmerman as smart as he could be that night? Probably not. And he may well pay for it in a civil trial. But murder, give me a break. May as well charge him for sinking the Lusitania.

And already, our President has shamelessly exploited this incident to further his gun control agenda. I would have expected this if Zimmerman had been convicted but I am amazed that the response is the same even though six jurors returned the only possible verdict and exonerated the defendant. And now the DOJ is being asked to step in by the NAACP because Zimmerman deprived Martin of “the most fundamental of civil rights—the right to life”. How can we combat such insanity?

Hi Mas,

Thanks for your observation and opinion on the Zimmerman-Martin case. I’m not a lifetime member of the Glock Talk site so don’t have posting privileges on the GATE forums, but your Self-Defense blog is always the first stop I make whenever I sign on.

Thank you so much for being a clarion voice for individual constitutional rights as well as for simple common sense on so many topics. We look forward to reading your take on the trial and the events leading up to it as well as the other myriad questions put to you on GATE.

Best Wishes,
unit

My biggest question for Mas is, should George have been arrested immediately? What is the normal procedure?

Would most people in that same situation be arrested?

It was the lack of the arrest that made me suspicious of the entire case, I felt I was being handed a lot of half thoughts and leading arguments. From the beginning it didn’t seem like a “shoot/no shoot case” it seemed as if something was rotten in Denmark.

But I regress, I have met Mas and have a world of respect for him and very little for the conservative AND liberal media that were both reporting on the case.

Well, Mas…You may want to wait before you comment. The Danzinger 7 in N.O. thought they were good to go also. Zimm may need you for the “civil rights” trial. I still hear the drums…..

The railroad went thru Sanford but failed to pick anyone up. It did make a mess of the place.
Indeed The jurors were brave and intelligent.
I read last night that an employee with the prosecutors office was fired for leaking that evidence was being withheld.
I also read several times this last week that the DA that decided to charge Zimmerman has been indicted by a grand jury for using falsehoods and lies to bring the case to trial.
Perhaps you can shed some light on the validity of those statements.
I watched the interviews of the prosecutors and the defense team after the verdict.It was disgusting how the press kept returning to the “stand your ground” law after being told repeatedly by both teams the law was not a factor and did not apply in the case.
I’m so very glad Zimmerman “won” but we know there are really no winners in this, only survivors.
As an aside, Doc’s class is really great. took it yesterday.

One thing that I am curious about. The state took great pains to produce evidence show that the gun was loaded to capacity and that Zimmerman intentionally pulled the trigger. In part, they had to show that Zimmerman intentionally shot Martin for the 2nd Degree Murder Charge. It is an element of the charge in Florida and most other places.

I am wondering if the this strategy undercut the lesser charge of manslaughter. If both sides agreed that Zimmerman pulled the trigger intentionally, then the jury had to believe that he state proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Zimmerman did not exercise his right to self defense. This took away a potential manslaughter jury verdict that the gun went off accidentally in the struggle which would have been easier for the state to reach. This would have negated Zimmerman’s self defense claims for the jury and left the jury more open to consider a compromise verdict of manslaughter where it was both of their faults. In essence, I wonder if the second degree murder charge was so unsupported that coupled with FL self defense statutory protections, left no room for the compromise feel good verdict.

Although the prosecutor in his good rebuttal close and the dopey, incompetent State Attorney in her atrocious post loss interview did not attribute it, it was Voltaire who said: “To the living we owe respect. To the dead we owe the truth.” Voltaire said something else which is quite fitting: “Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.” A jury of six knew better. And the truth is owed to all Ms Corey, without an unnecessary trial.

Georgie, you go hence without day. Not many people win the battle of mortal combat and courtroom too.

Sorta like Randy Weaver, when they tried him, after killing his wife, son, and pet dog, and wounding Weaver, and his maile companion.

They just had to find some way to lock him up, on any pretext, just to show the might and power of the Federal Gestapo.

Same thing for the suvivors of the mass murder in Waco too.

Hope some great anti-government law firm decides to reprsent Zimmerman, cus he’ll need it, for sure.

If the DOJ had anything they could really use. I think they would have tipped thier hand and played the card. Civil Rights action? Where’s the money?

This guy will not have anything close to a regular life even if he gets plastic surgery and changes his name. The best thing he can do is sue the pants off of everybody he can for defimation and hope that helps chase away the vultures.

The news media is just a player in the progressive movement that is tearing at the core of this country. It will not be long off that the conservatives will be outbreed and then out voted in the coming elections. It’s just a matter of time before the movement will have their agenda in place. Then their political power will change all the laws and our rights. It’s happening right before our eyes.

Mas, I was thinking of you all along when I saw some of the people testifying why they did not call you I even mentioned that to my wife. Your are a credit to the profession of law enforcement and an asset to all lawful gun owners and I thank you so much for assisting not only in this case but in all the cases you have testified on behalf of the people using their firearms in lawful manner in defense of themselves.

Yes! I feel so terrible that a human life was lost, it is sad to see a young man loose his life. I feel for the family as well.

Zimmerman biggest mistake was cooperating with the police he trusted so much and not having an attorney present from the start. That is a lesson all lawful gun holders should learn out of this, it was used against him over and over through out the trial. Even when you lawfully use your firearm this is an important matter and you should have counsel present before giving very detailed accounts for your best interest.

Only two people know the truth here and one is dead. I don’t believe that Zimmerman acted with good judgement in getting out of the car. FL neighborhood watch programs with which I am familiar do not let their volunteers either carry a weapon or confront intruders directly.

A Federal civil right case is not appropriate here but my guess is that, if they pursue it, the Martin family will win a civil suit, which has a much lower standard of evidence required.