Lawyers for George Zimmerman confirmed Thursday that he will assert a "stand your ground" defense, although a judge would determine in a hearing whether he ultimately can claim to have acted in self-defense under the “Stand Your Ground” law.
That means there could essentially be a "minitrial" ahead of any possible actual second-degree murder trial for Zimmerman's shooting earlier this year of Trayvon Martin, and it could lead to charges being dropped.
The Sanford shooting case, in which Zimmerman has claimed self-defense all along, has been watched nationally, in part because of the racial overtones involved, but also because it put the state's relatively new self-defense statute under a microscope, even though the defense has been used numerous times.
"Now that the State has released the majority of their discovery, the defense asserts that there is clear support for a strong claim of self-defense," Zimmerman's defense team said on a website set up for it to communicate with the public. "Consistent with this claim of self-defense, there will be a 'Stand Your Ground' hearing."
Many of the arguments and much of the evidence that would be presented at trial could first be aired at such a hearing, in which the judge would decide whether the case fits the "Stand Your Ground" statute, which says that people who feel legitimately threatened have the right to meet force with force.
The burden would be on the defense to prove that the case fits the circumstances laid out in that law. If they do prove that, charges against Zimmerman would be dropped.