under stand your ground, you could be acquitted if you shot somebody who is lying on the ground and be acquitted for shooting somebody in the back of the head. the tampa bay newspaper said it was impossible to know how many stand your ground cases florida had but appears to be several hundred and of the ones they could track, nearly 70% of accusers went free. that's lived experience of stand your ground in florida after the nra got the first new stand your ground laws on the books. nationwide, it looked like this. this is the number of legally determined justifiable homicides in the country. at the start of the nra's campaign. and here's what happened after the other states piled on. more people can shoot more people in this country with impunity. from 2005 on, on, on, on up. never mind, you know? it was full steam ahead for the nra and stand your ground. this is what they wanted. full steam ahead. keep passing those laws. almost february 26th, 2012. when they lost their momentum because a neighborhood watch volunteer shot and killed trayvon martin who had been walking home in the rain

and there is no stand your ground involved in that, because stand your ground assumes that you can getway and you can retreat, but you don't have to. and that's where stand your ground really comes in. if george zimmerman had said you know what? he punched me in the nose and i was standing, i was about to run away and i thought screw that, i don't have to and he fought back, stand your ground then becomes an issue. but that wasn't the factual pattern asserted by the defense here. it's true that stand your ground legally speaking didn't apply. and even the way the jurors talk about their verdict, it doesn't seem it really applied to them. the funny thing about it is they keep saying the law required us, the law required us. but that's nonsense. the law itself does not require you to do anything. the fact you find require you to do something. and then the facts apply to the law dictate the verdict. but if you had not already found, jurors had not already found that trayvon martin was the aggressor basically that. >> couldn't have come up with this verdict. so to me, it's their way of dan

certainly georgia has stand your ground laws. overall in all of those two dozen plus states needs to be looked at, and that is the strategy. that is not -- i haven't said let's do this. i said these are things that have to be considered. these are things that my father considered in his era. >> when you look at the president's remarks yesterday, a lot of the focus is on his personal comments about race and his experience, and the other headline, frankly, is what he said about, you know -- in terms of what further charges there may or may not be. a lot of people read into that and thought that the headline there was that we likely won't perhaps see charges brought by the justice department. what did you take away from what you heard from the president when he talked about the verdict and talked about how people should consider that? >> i think in the realm of possibilities and realities, you have to consider everything. it is very possible that there may not be, but i do think at least the door is open. and the other thing is, not

is it being applied, the stand your ground laws? is it the prosecutor for a case involving a white defendant or not versus that of black defendants. you want to see a discriminatory application of that law. >> attorney crump? >> i agree. it is certainly not lost that even though his killer profiled him, the sanford police department seemed to have profiled trayvon as well, because they took his killer's version as the gospel when they got out there on that scene. so it is troubling to many around the country when they say why can't we get equal justice? why couldn't they have looked at it fresh and clean. and then as they considered whether to bring a prosecution, it seemed to always be the killer's perspective. and it was never a perspective of the victim. and that is really troubling. and that's why so many people are protesting. that's why so many people are disappointed with the verdict. and reverend sharpton, i want to say you have said all along, you wanted to have the trial brought. we respect the rule of law. and we want eve

the zimmerman defense didn't use stand your ground, why are you so upset about stand your ground? that's not to blame for the verdict? >> they should listen to the interview that the one juror has done who cited all the way through the interview stand your ground. said it was considered in the deliberations, in the jury room. as well as the fact stand your ground changed the self-defense instructions of the judge. stand your ground was the basis that george zimmerman was not arrested. zimmerman was not arrested the night he shot trayvon martin. you can't take stand your ground out. when it was the premise of his not being arrested. it was the basis that the instructions were changed on how you instruct a jury on self-defense in the state of florida, and to prove it, the juror said stand your ground we couldn't go against when we were deliberating, you can't have that evidence. >> today there was a group of people called the dream offenders who have been occupying the capital in florida. really impressive, they've been calling for a meeting with rick scott. he says that they put to

>> under what circumstances does stand your ground come into play? >> well, the lawyers said they did not use stand your ground as a defense. but if you look at the judges and their instructions to the jury, it was word for word out of stand your ground laws. if you listen to juror number 37 who gave an interview to anderson cooper on cnn, she said they discussed on at least two occasions the stand on your ground law. in her mind they were basically voting to acquit along those lines. she also pointed along that out of the six, three wanted to acquit, two favored manslaughter, and one was on second-degree murder. but the judge's instructions were quite explicit. i don't think that you can fault the jury for the decision that they arrived at. >> what kind of stand your ground defense is needed to protect the witness? >> well, i think the issue in this particular case was that there was no evidence put in by the prosecution that in fact there was a kind of violence that was put here. no claim to his self-defense. the self-defense was the issue with not

is legislation about stand your ground, law enforcement officials testified against stand your ground. they are not in support and feel it takes the power away from the police and puts the power in the hands of the everyday citizen. >> law enforcement is always pro-gun control, too. >> yes, yes, there is that tension there. >> and eric holder relocking and the federal government relooking at stand your ground -- >> zero. the florida legislature which is very conservative, rick scott -- >> eric holder is not the poster child for the florida legislator. >> you're talking about eric holder, one of the most disliked members of the obama administration by republican legislato legislators. it's just not going to happen. it's not going to change because of the politics. >> him coming out and doing that and saying that to the naacp, that enas you weres, i mean, talk about red meat. that ensures that it will never happen in florida. >> one thing i want to mention is if you remember the prosecution's closing rebuttal argument, john guy said didn't trayvon martin have the right to stand his grou

, she brought up the stand your ground law and talked about he had rights based on stand your ground. so not only did she fill in testimony, she filled in the law. >> she absolutely did. and that's exactly what i took away from it when she made that statement. when she started alluding to stand your ground as one of the reference points that this jury used and that she used to come to her conclusion, that caused me concern, particularly since because stand your law, stand your ground law was not introduced. it was not argued. it was not presented as part of the evidence that they were supposed to use to consider how they evaluated the evidence in the trial. and she was very clear that because of stand your ground laws, that influenced not just her, but the rest of the jury as well. and then the fact that she was focused and said that the moment that she concentrated on was the moment when he pulled the trigger, that heat of the moment, and how he felt at that time, that he felt that his life was in danger? because that was the key that they used for the rest of their jury instructions

the battle over stand your ground.erry bacon is an msnbc contributor and political editor with the grio.com and radica jones is the assistant managing editor for "time" magazine. tell me about what you think is the reason why the attorney general, eric holder who is in a somewhat political position but also primarily in a public service position, why he would be speaking as he has come out of talking about the trial of george zimmerman, begin to talk about stand your ground, the law in florida? >> well, i think eric holder is in a unique position to talk about this. he comes from a personal perspective, he comes to it as the first african-american attorney general and he will also obviously brings a legal perspective to it. when we started reporting on the stand your ground laws in the background of this case last year when the case came to national prominence, we discovered even some state attorneys in florida who are employed to uphold this law have issues with it. and it seems to me that will from that point forward

and there is no stand your ground involved in that, because stand your ground assumes that you can getand you can retreat, but you don't have to. and that's where stand your ground really comes in. if george zimmerman had said you know what? he punched me in the nose and i was standing, i was about to run away and i thought screw that, i don't have to and he fought back, stand your ground then bangs issue. but that wasn't the factual pattern asserted by the defense here. it's true that stand your ground legally speaking didn't apply. and even the way the jurors talk about their verdict, it doesn't seem it really applied to them. the funny thing about it is they keep saying the law required us, the law required us. but that's nonsense. the law itself does not require you to do anything. the fact you find require you to do something. and then the facts apply to the law dictate the verdict. but if you had not already found, jurors had not already found that trayvon martin was the aggressor basically that. >> couldn't have come up with this verdict. so to me, it's their way of dancing arou

stand your ground. and i think there was one other one. >> you sent a question out to the judge about manslaughter. >> yes and what could be applied to the manslaughter. we were looking at the self-defense. one of the girls said -- asked if you can put all the leading things into that one moment where he feels it's a matter of life or death to shoot this boy or if it was just at the heat of passion at that moment. >> so that juror want told know whether the things that had brought george zimmerman to that place -- >> exactly. >> not just in the minute or two before the shot actually went off -- >> exactly. >> but earlier that day, even prior crime? >> not prior crimes, just the situation leading to it, all the steps. as the ball got going -- >> from him spotting trayvon martin, getting out of his vehicle, whether all of that could play a role in -- >> in determining the self-defense or not. and after hours and hours and hours of deliberating over the law and reading it over and over and over again, we d

stand your ground. if it turns out he had in fact studied that, that will put his credibility into question. >> it certainly may. but they don't have evidence that he did study stand your ground. they don't have evident he was at a class where they were discussing stand your ground. they just have evidence he took a class and got a b in a class and an a in another class. they don't know when he was there, what he learned or when he learned it. i don't feel that this evidence is really relevant to the facts. martha: they are in a 10-minute recess, that's why you are seeing the seal on the left-hand side. the other big issue here as i see it is the question of whether or not he was a sport quote wanna be cop. whether he wanted to take the law into his own manned. we know from the recording he was told no, do not follow that young man through the neighborhood. the police will be there soon. thank you for registering your complaints. but do not follow he was told quite clearly. fit turns out he always wante

violent acts. 33% of the stand your ground cases, they're real stand your ground cases were african-americans. >> well then, dan -- >> a lot of those people would have been tried and put in jail for stopping a violent act. >> so then, dan, in your view, if that is the case what dennis is saying, then do you continue to be an opponent of stand your ground? >> stand your ground devalues life and gives defenses to people who ought not to get a defense. understand something. before the legislature passed stand your ground you could use lethal force if you reasonably thought you needed to. the only difference was that before you used lethal force, if you could receive from the scenario safely you were obliged to do that so you could always use force. you could always use deadly force if you needed to. but all the law said was that if you can retreat from a escalan e escalating situation, you are obliged to do that. in the zimmerman case, by the way, mr. zimmerman was a neighborhood watch person who if you look at the neighborhood watch protocols, you are only supposed to watch. not stalk. not supp

--mmerman stopped his ground?immerman stopped him. guest: trayvon martin was unarmed. he had a bag of skittles and ice-t. that is one of the problems when you relax stand your ground laws. you allow people like george zimmerman, who had a criminal history, you allow people like publiccarry handguns in places because he is more likely to get out of his car and follow someone in the dark, and even if trayvon martin tried to defend himself, he would have been shot dead in any event. lott.-- host: mr. guest: you keep ringing up zimmerman -- bringing up zimmerman's arrest record, and you know the facts, he was trying to help someone, and the case was dropped. trayvon martin was armed with his fist. case, in anyone's case, you cannot shoot someone because they are following you. a reasonable person has to believe you are in imminent danger. walk on theody sidewalk behind you, even if that is the case, and there is no evidence offered by the prosecution or rebutted, that indicated at the time the confrontation occurred t

steve and your ground is an extension of self-defense. it is not that anybody is attacking self-defense it in the simmering case there was logical steps he could have taken to avoid that confrontation ended becomes a matter did he feel threatened a and the jury said he did and the prosecution failed to make the case he was acting with any malice. that is the verdict. you excepted. but for the nra that is said to to pursues the guns in every corner agenda, that is laughable. lou: your reaction to the statement, steve? >> in the sense eric holder seems to pre-empted when he talks about senior ground that it is a law that did not need to be passed because you already have the right to self-defense so that is his response to the statement i am more sympathetic to the stand your ground law because they have proven effective over the years. lou: the idea that the attorney general would say he wants americans to retreat in the face a threat is bizarre. to me i cannot begin to understand why this attorney-general and president did not do the grac

stand your ground, president obama, eric holder, al sharpton are trying to inject stand your ground intoat had nothing to do withstand your ground because it is divisive. they're race merchants, they're doing the same thing. president obama friday talked about stand your ground. in no uncertain terms, had a lot of problems with that law. yet we talked about it yesterday briefly in 2004, he co-sponsored the illinois sb bill to bring stand your ground, to expand stand your ground in the state of illinois. how hypocritical can the man be to say on one hand, never mentioned he did this back in 2004 and thinks it is wrong, he said hey, stand your ground is wrong. >> what should we use scissors like janet napolitano said or let him finish? let him beat us? >> the interesting thing, we talked about this a couple weeks ago, the cdc government report, a comprehensive look at gun control after the sandy hook tragedy. they found that armed victims are less likely to be hurt in an attack. if they had shown the opposite, that story would have been everywhere. it would have been turned into law in a m

he could then invoke a stand your ground defense. that is why i believe the stand your ground what is so pernicious and turned america into a outlaw society. the greatest thing america can do right now is fight the lobbyists for these laws. >> thank you very much. >> thank you for having me on the program. >> in other news, 5700 people are still missing after the floods that ravaged northern india last month. the most severely affected areas have them presumed dead. some 600 people have already been confirmed dead. the spirit -- the spanish prime minister has new calls for his resignation. a newspaper has published text messages allegedly linking him to someone at the center of a secret pavement scandal, in custody awaiting trial for tax fraud, but both men say they have done nothing wrong. senior politicians are under pressure to resign after the first black cabinet minister was compared to an iranian tanker. he made the comments about the integration minister at a rally on saturday. the member of the anti-immigrant northern league

is it time to repeal stand your ground laws? plus, a letter to the woman who has inspired me all week. and the surprise comment from the president that has serious implications for voting. but first, the sentence that said it all. trayvon martin could have been me. >>> good morning. i'm melissa harris-perry. yesterday, president obama shocked everyone when he appeared unannounced in the white house briefing room to speak about trayvon martin and his own experiences as a black man in america. >> you know, when trayvon martin was first shot, i said that this could have been my son. another way of saying that is trayvon martin could have been me, 35 years ago. >> powerful words from the most powerful man in america. the president went on to say how, despite the office he holds today, he has been seen by strangers as a potential thief, a violence criminal. >> there are very few african-american men in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. that includes me. there

they weren't standing their ground. and they were defenseless against violence and evil and i hope that the attorney general at least and perhaps the president will acknowledge that reality for the sake of the people of chicago and those families who lost loved ones. stepn, you get the last word here. >> i wouldn't hold your breath for that. mean, it's an interesting discussion why i agree with juan much more than i disagree with juan. >> it's a nice moment here tonight to watch. >> it is a nice moment. this is what al sharpton does. he's done this in the past. he's doing it now. he'll do it in the future. he wants attention. he'll get some attention. but ultimately, i don't think what he's doing is -- not only is it not helpful, but it's harmful. >> thank you very much, stephen hayes. juan williams, we appreciate you being with us. much more on the aftermath of the zimmerman not guilty verdict coming up in dobbs law. leading attorneys ashley merchant and arthur adelle a join us. >> edward snowden is still stranded but

in your home and -- >> stand your ground laws somehow grounded in the constitution.t wrong as a constitutional matter. it is just wrong. >> and also -- >> go ahead and finish. >> the other point that is very important to understand on self-defense. it is the refrain of the nra any time somebody challenges stand your ground laws. if self-defense is so important. look at the date. a it just belies that. we have 11,000 homicides, gun-related homicides in this country every year. of those 11,000, only 250, less than 2%, are found to be justifiable uses of deadly force with homicide. self-defense cases. 2% of the cases of the homicides are self-defense. 98% of the times when we have gun-related homicides, they're criminal. so the data is just overwhelming. the gun laws, together i think with the stand your ground laws are creating a much, much more bad things in our society than good things. >> just before we go, speaking of the nra. despite the fact that there are groups that are fighting for gun safety measures. as you said, at the state level. reexamining some of these

but i kept my ground. i stand strong. i never cursed. >> that full interview will be on politics nation tonight. i know you talked to rachel as well. how do you feel? was she treated fairly? is there something in the way that she has been treated that you think is instructive? >> i think the vigorous cross-examination of her is what a defense has to do. it was the tone of don west's questions to her. do you speak english? i thought the tone was condescending. vigorously questioning her nothing wrong with that because that is what she is supposed to do. i asked her do you think he was disrespectful to you? yes, she answered. she was beat up on twitter and online who made fun of her. lolo jones the olympic athlete went on her on twitter and compared her to a tyler perry character. she said that spern a hater and i don't care what people said. she was self-confident and said i am proud of myself. she is a kid 19 and she stood up to two days of relentless questioning and stood her ground in terms of her story. by the way, the

they have the right to stand their ground. what about

and i'm not a fan of the stand your ground laws.most an incentive to use force when you don't need to. eric holder said we have a doctrine of self-defense. we don't need a statute that says stand your ground even when you can retreat. there's been lot of study whether these laws reduce crime. the best studies indicate they do not. and in fact, they encourage violence when we want to discourage it. >> when you have prosecuted zimmerman under second-degree murder or manslaughter or not at all? >> look, i think -- i've heard your segments with allen dershowitz. an old friend and colleague. i was one of his students. i have great respect for him. but i begin with a premise here, justice was not served. an innocent young man was walking where he had every right to be and was shot and killed. and something is wrong when there's no judicial response to that. having said, that we need to come to grips with another reality. proof beyond a reasonable doubt make it very difficult in a context like this where there's not overwhelming evidence t

why did she use stand your ground? she used it because she was not retreating further at that point. either you bring this up as a case where you believe the facts or not, in my case -- question is if you believe the facts, do you believe that she should have defended herself, and if you believe the facts, without retreating further at that point, then you believe she should have been sentenced to 20 years. host: let me take a call. florida. republican line. john. caller: it is a shame that anybody loses their death, but i think the jury got it 100% right. the law in florida is not going to change. host: let's get another call from gilbert, arizona. independent line. caller: i think it is about time we got to the heart of the matter which is that legislation such as the stand your ground law is being written by businesses in bed with our legislators, and furthermore, i am surprised that you have john lott on the show, who is essentially a shill [indiscernible] host: since we left it off, mr. lowy, pick it up, and mr. l

>>> is stand your ground a call to arms? let's play "hardball." >>> good evening, i'm chris matthews out in san francisco. let me start tonight with this. stand your ground. what's this law all about? is it a statement that you don't have to avoid trouble? is it a call to arms? and what part did it play in george zimmerman's behavior that tragic night? did it encourage him to pursue trayvon martin? was it because he had a gun and thought he had the law on his side? isn't it a fair question that none of this would have happened if this person had been unarmed? was there something in his thinking, zimmerman's about the law, something about the way he behaved when he pursued martin that resulted from this law that says stand your ground? let's get to the next round in this debate. this public verdict on the trayvon martin tragedy. the battle over stand your ground. perry bacon is an msnbc contributor and political editor with the grio.com and radica jones is the assistant managing editor for "time" magazine. tell me about what

i like that piece of stand your ground. i do think this is -- >> but it's a piece. >> it is a piece. i think -- >> go ahead. >> yes. but, i was going to say, you know, this is a bit of an unanticipated negative consequence of stand your ground in the sense that just because you have a right to use lethal force doesn't make it a good idea. doesn't mean you should. to me, george zimmerman could have done something less than lethal force to defend himself. and that's really the sticky point, i think, when we talk about these laws in a social policy sense. >> i think what i'm hearing is there are good parts of the law. there are seemingly bad parts of the law. where do we go from here? as i mentioned, 22 states have stand your ground, eric. people, as i said, are boycotting the state of florida because of this stand your ground law. what to we do? what do we learn from this? >> we need further clarification as to when the stand your ground law should apply. everyone afwrees to stand your ground should apply to your home and dom

"stand your ground" instead he should be tending to his flock. i find it extraordinary that this is happening because the division that you talk about, why not focus on actually moving this country ahead instead of this nonsense? >> to me is the ideological war. ideology over everything else. education, even the legal system doesn't matter. it is about transforming everything and this is all part of it. one issue at a time with the federal government in charge of everything. so nothing matters individual liberties are curtailed because the president of the united states wants it. lou: we will come back with our panel so how can president obama, how can and al sharpton and eric colder in good conscience stand up and act as though trayvon martin is murder, murder, death, shooting, was more important than the deaths of the four children that died in chicago, the president's home town during the 20 days of that trial? hal has he not said one single word about those children who died without guns in their hand and without standing their ground? and th

has nothing to do -- "stand your ground" wasn't even a defense.lmost like he is using the "stand your ground" laws because people are outraged but it didn't apply here. >> i think there was a problem with the prosecution of the case so therefore it was easier for the defense to say, we don't have to use that defense. we can say, he was being beat up but i say had the law been different no one would have been killed. everybody would have been fine. >> unfortunately, i completely disagree with you. originally when this case first came out, everyone focused on "stand your ground," and when all of the facts and evidence was apparent to everyone, even the initial prosecution, they first came out and said, we don't have enough here to even prosecute this case. governor scott came in and said, i am going to appoint a special prosecutor to look into everything and bring forth the evidence and they did. so "stand your ground" onlily was brought to the forefront but when the looked at everything it was pure self-defense case. >> what happened is the defense

very hard for blacks in florida or any of the 24 stand your ground states to employ stand your ground when we kill or even shoot into the ceiling as marissa alexander, who is sort of the poster woman for the other side. she was trying to defend herself, to get out -- >> from an abusive -- >> from an abusive husband in her own home. there was no other way to go but to go through him. she shoots into the ceiling and she's doing 20 years. there's a call to pardon her. >> and the same prosecutor is involved in her case. >> so we need relief from these stand your ground laws just as we needed relief from lynching laws. >> can i say quickly, the problem with stand your ground is they depend on a judge or jury's ability to believe that a black person is afraid or to believe that a black person could be afraid of a white person or to believe, which is much more easy given the social science to believe that which ever race was afraid of a black person. and that is the problem. >> and we're talking about jury instructions, right. people are saying, well, there wasn't a stand your ground hearing

and still got off on stand your ground.our ground is a shoot to kill law some say it encourages a fatal shot and less -- it encourages you to be less measured if you have a gun. streets less safe than more safe. >>> coming up, we'll share some of your responses to today's big question -- can anthony weiner win the new york city mayoral race. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] away... [ children laughing ] ♪ ...is the smell of salt in the air. ♪ it's the sound a seashell makes. [ seagulls calling ] away...is a place that's beyond your imagination, yet well within your means. find your away. for a dealer and the rv that's right for you, visit gorving.com. for a dealer and the rv that's right for you, we replaced people with a machine.r, what? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it? hello? hello?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello? ally bank. your money needs an ally. >>> we asked, and you answered. question -- can anthony weiner win new york's mayoral race? chris we

shoot first laws in the wake of george zimmerman stand his ground shooting first and that the death of trayvon martin here's what he had to say we must confront the underlying attitudes. the mistaken beliefs and the unfortunate stereotypes that serve to often as the basis for police action and private judgments are separate and apart from the case that has drawn the nation's attention it's time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and so dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods senselessly expand self defense well according to the wall street journal quote justifiable homicides nearly doubled from two thousand to two thousand and ten according to the most recent data available when three hundred twenty six were reported the data provided by federal and state law enforcement agencies showed a sharp increase in justifiable homicides occurred after twenty two thousand and five when florida and sixteen other states passed the stand your ground shoot first laws a texas am an a and m. study quoted in that article found that quote the prospect of facing addit

states versus that has stand your ground and don't have stand your ground. we look at the national figures going to a texas a&m study. more likely to be justified when the killer is white and the victim is black. here it is. especially in states with stand your ground laws. site jumps up. the blue bar showing again the states that have stand your ground. does this incite more, if you inequality when you look at the deaths white on black black on white. >> particularly because you have a lot of social science studies that show there's a bias against african-americans. they have this implicit notion a black male a black man is a threat. you get on an elevator with a big black man they feel different l than a big white man. so there's an intrinsic fear of black people with a law that says you can shoot and kill that black person. if they die and there's no witnesses you can get away with it. because a jury that contains more white people than black because of various factors that's dangerous to black men in states with stand your ground. in some states these la

>> i sponsor full-on appeals of stand your ground and amendment to stand your ground as well as my colleague senator chris smith, representative alan williams. any number of members of the state legislature have offered up suggestions. but to ignore your own task force suggestions and then go around and saying that there were no suggestions offered is a flat-out lie and it's unfortunate that the governor's chosen to take that strong position considering that his very own task force did, in fact, make suggestions. >> on the case of stand your ground, obviously, that's legislation. it would have to work through a house and state senate that are both, i believe, controlled by republicans at the moment. in terms of marissa alexander, the governor has power to grant her mercy or commute her sentence or to pardon her? >> he very well does, and that's exactly why i've asked for the pardon. the reality is the injustice shown in marissa alexander in light of the recent luck that we'll call it that george zimmerman received via the verdict this past weekend shows that the stand your ground law is too

he's protesting florida's stand your ground laws. >> until the stand your ground law is abolished inill never perform there again. [ audience clapping ] >> wherever that law exists, i will not perform in that state. >> which would you rather boycott, the state of florida or stevie wonder concerts. go to gretawire.com. "i'm only human" ] [ ship horn blows ] no, no, no! stop! humans. one day we're coming up with the theory of relativity, the next... not so much. but that's okay -- you're covered with great ideas like optional better car replacement from liberty mutual insurance. total your car and we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. learn about it at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? she was a picky eater. we now i'm her dietitian... ...anlast year, she wasn'tating so well. so i recommended boost complete nutritional drink to help her get the nutrition she was missing. and now she drinks it every day. well, it tastes great! [ male announcer ] boost drink has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin

>> i kept my ground. i stayed strong. >> it's time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense. >> we will pass powerful anti-racial profiling ordinances. >> we must stand our ground. ♪ >> we begin with the widening impact of the george zimmerman acquittal with al escalating push for federal civil rights charges, even as top political figures weigh in and efforts at changing the law gain momentum. in his second remarks on the case in as many days, attorney general eric holder suggested at the naacp convention tuesday that the verdict should be followed by new legislation whether it be gun laws or an effort to roll back stand your ground provisions. >> it's time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and so dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods. >> these laws try to fix something that was never broken. we must stand our ground to ensure to ensure that our laws reduce violence and take a hard look at laws that contribute to more violence than they wil

all the green there is where stand your ground applies. that is a huge percentage of the american population who -- >> and -- >> what is happening is these gangsters in particular, these gang members are using stand your ground to justify just killing each other. they are saying i was in imminent fear of my life. i killed him. and they are walking free. this is a wild west non-sense. >> i agree with you. it encourages gang killing. given a choice between macho, protecting your territory or ground and retreating and there by saving a human life, you don't have to retreat. you can preserve your macho. to give you the most extreme case and i argued this in florida against the law. if you're driving your ferrara that gets from 0 to 60 in a second and somebody comes up to you with a knife and waves it at you and you can easily put your foot on the gas and escape. you don't have to do that. you can take out your uzi and shoot him dead. that evers no sense at all. at the very least, stand your ground laws have to be modified to limit them selfs t

this is not a stand your ground case. this is a very simple case. >> true stand your ground wasn't used at trial, but certainly in the minds of jurors in the zimmerman case. in fact, anderson cooper talked about that with juror b37. let's listen to what she had to say. >> because of the heat of the moment and the stand your ground and he had a right to defend himself. if he felt threatened that his life was going to be taken away from him or he was going to have bodily harm, he had a right. >> so, definitely was in the mind of jurors and you could argue that it very much came into play in the zimmerman case. >> well, i think we do want to empower law-abiding citizens to defend themselves from violent attack. we actually have a shared goal with our critics. we would like to see reduced number of victims of violent crime. and, unfortunately, i think this is a distraction and really attacking the statute is just some way of trying to bring some relief to the situation or we have an underlying problem. >> that juror said she

leave stand your ground in place. you were issued a fancier version of the same report with the same conclusion, the honorable jennifer carroll saying hands off the florida stand your ground law. that was three weeks before she would resign in disgrace talking about what a fantastic job she had done. and has the leg they are standing on in florida right now. that conclusion by that panel under her leadership is why rick scott says he will not give in to protesters demands to reconsider, to redebate the state's law about who can shoot who and when. governor scott's office e-mailing the today show yesterday saying, immediately following trayvon martin's death, governor scott called for a task force, the law should not be overturned and governor scott agrees. no mention of who led the task force there. today he told lawmakers in pensacola it was great the way protesters were using their first amendment right to free speech. the governor has not been back to the capitol, to his office since this group of young protesters