I'm still
> groping for the connection between this topic and poor Trayvon,
> though.
>
I was speaking of spurious causation claims in general, and didn't realize you wanted something specifically related to the topic at hand.
But if that's the challenge, any number of commentators would have us believe that his death can fairly be attributed to Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law. Because, you know, nobody in the United States ever got away with killing Black people before states began passing those laws. Much less did the living guy avoid charges over the dead guy by claiming self-defense in the absence of other witness. And this inanity continues AFTER Zimmerman's attorney has said he has no plans to cite the law, whose applicability would be questionable at best, in his client's defense. (The whole dead guy, no other witnesses thing seems like a much safer bet to this decidedly non-legal mind.)
-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."