>>>It wasn't a mistake. Trayvon attacked Zimmerman and brutally beat him. Trayvon said he was going to kill him.
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>>And you were there to hear this? Or are we going on what Zimmerman told EMS/police after the fact?
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>And what is the opposite side going on?
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>>Look, this was a 'comedy of errors' from the get-go and never should have come to the ending of someone ending up dead. We can 'woulda, shoulda, coulda' the thing to death but it basically boils down to a "he said/he said" case and one of the 'he saids' isn't here to say. I may not agree with the outcome of the trial, but I can understand how the verdict came to be.
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>>Would I be happier if they'd handed down manslaughter? Yes because, to me, it all boils down to "if Zimmerman stays in his car, as was implicitly suggested by the 911 operator with the 'we don't need you to do that', would Martin still be alive? Probably."
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>So what? It would be different if Zimmerman shot him on sight. He was attacked, beaten, and had his life threatened. He did not escalate the situation - Trayvon Martin did. He was heading back to his car and was attacked.

I believe that he was attacked and that he feared for his life. There is a summary which gives some interesting info about the persons involved and what lead to the situation. http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/07/stefan-molyneux/finally-the-truth-about-george-zimmerman-and-trayvon-martin/
Only thing I like to point out, if Zimmerman could have used a taser it would have been very easy to knock him out without killing him. His only weapon was probably the gun and that made the situation so much worse.