former florida state senator dan gelber argues that the stand your ground law made it harder for the jury to convict george zimmerman. gelber writes, "when the legislature passed the stand your ground law, it changed the rules of engagement. it eliminated the duty to avoid the danger, and it eliminated any duty to retreat. here is the actual jury instruction read to florida juries prior to the legislature's enactment of stand your ground. the defendant cannot justify the use of force likely to cause death or great bodily harm unless he used every reasonable means within his power and consistent with his own safety to avoid the danger before resorting to that force. the fact that the defendant was wrongfully attacked cannot justify his use of force likely to cause death or great bodily harm if by retreating he could have avoided the need to use that force. and here are the instructions the george zimmerman jury received. >> if george zimmerman was not engaged in an unlawful activity and was attacked in any place where he had a right to be, he had no duty to retreat and had the right t

but stand your ground provision basically, in the words of dan gelber who voted against it, it's almostupid, reckless uncivil behavior. you can provoke, start a fight, shoot someone dead and claim self-defense. >> zachary carter, we talked about this law a lot when this case started and dealt with alec a lot. in 2005, the jury instruction was the saying, quote, the fact that the defendant was wrongfully attacked cannot justify his use of force likely to cause death or great bodily harm. and by retreating, he could have avoided the need to use that force. what joy was referring to. but after stand your ground, the law reads if george zimmerman was not engaged in an unlawful activity and was attacked in any place where he had the right to be, he had no duty to retreat and had to write to stand his ground. and this jury, the only one that has gone public so far, actually in the interview she did, talked about stand your ground and the law. so this had a direct impact on this trial, zachary carter, even though it wasn't argued. >> well, it had a direct impact on the trial, but it shouldn't

the six jurors judged both george zimmerman and trayvon martin as former florida state senator dan gelber as pointed out pre jeb bush pre-college brothers pretty alec florida law would have required the following instructions to be read to a jury in a self defense murder trial like the one we just saw the defendant if it had been george zimmerman cannot justify the use of force likely to cause death or great bodily harm on lasts he has used every reasonable means within his power and consistent with his own safety to of moori the danger before resorting to that force the fact that the defendant if it was george zimmerman who was wrongfully attacked cannot justify his use of force likely to cause death or great bodily harm if by retreating he could have avoided the need to use that force note that those instructions. note that according to these jury instructions that i just shared with you the defendant must do everything possible including retreating before attempting to use deadly force when confronted with a threat in two thousand and five and before two thousand and five where there w