ABC News has been given a photograph that might make the difference between life in prison and a walk. For weeks, we have been discussing the case and the application of the Stand Your Ground law. As discussed earlier, I think the case was over-charged and I remain doubtful of a conviction. This picture will likely be the single most important piece of evidence in the case. It shows Zimmerman with significant blood on the back of his head — an image that supports accounts from the scene and will be used to corroborate Zimmerman’s account of a struggle with Trayvon Martin where he feared serious bodily injury. [UPDATE: Zimmerman granted bond].
Unlike the photos of Zimmerman at the police station, this photo was taken a few minutes after the fight. Zimmerman’s shaved head could prove Godsend for Zimmerman. Had he had longer hair, the injury would have not appeared so stark.
The photo shows both cuts and a contusion — injuries that would normally be defined as serious bodily injury by many courts in torts cases where head injuries are treated as inherently potentially serious. The original police report said that he was bleeding from the nose and head and that his clothes looked like he had been in a fight. Zimmerman claims that it was Martin who jumped him, punched him, and pounded his head on to the concrete sidewalk.
The prosecutors can still argue that they do not contest the fight but that Zimmerman started it. However, with this photo, the charge of second-degree murder appears even more excessive and undermines Special Prosecutor Angela Corey’s claim that she was not affected by the political pressure to charge Zimmerman. I can understand a manslaughter charge, even with the photo, but no reasonable prosecutor would consider the second-degree murder charge as based on this evidence. Corey clearly must have seen this photo and the reports before her charging of Zimmerman.
The photo should also assist Zimmerman in his efforts to get bail.
Zimmerman, 28, is still being held on charges of second-degree murder of Martin, 17. In my view, a denial of bail would be an abuse and unwarranted given the fact that Zimmerman cooperated at the scene and voluntarily turned himself in.
Source: ABC
Matt,
“Well I think I’m done arguing and I’m gonna move on to some more important things of the day.”
*****
Don’t hit your head on the way out. You’ll sustain a serious injury!
😉
DonS,
According to Matt: ALL head injuries are serious. Evidently, there is no such thing as a minor head injury. Good thing I found out all these years later that the head injury I suffered when I was in college WAS serious. I can feel a concussion coming on. Excuse me while I call my doctor.
Society treats a 17 year old like a child when it suits them. A 17 year old male can be one bad dude. Back in my human incarnation before I got to be a dog in this one, I was drinking and fighting inside adult barrooms with great big males with guns. It was the mob or mafia that kept order. There are hundreds of thousands of muggers out there that are 16 years old, mean, tough, and fearless. I am not saying that Travon was, but a lot of you are saying he was a child and a helpless little baby. A jury of 12 with some sensible males on it, white or black, will know the truth of the abilities and inclinations of a 17 year old.
Well I think I’m done arguing and I’m gonna move on to some more important things of the day. I will however leave with my final words. Am I leaning more towards Zimmerman in this case? Yes I am, and I fully believe the story he is telling is the way things happened. Am I 100% sure that his story is true? No, I am not, but I will say that I am 98% sure. All in all I don’t believe that it is even possible for Zimmerman to recieve a fair trial due to what the media has done and how they have portrayed this case to the public. I will also go as far as to say that I honestly believe that Zimmerman will recieve a guilty verdict and go to jail the rest of his life just to appease the public. OJ had his trial (even though we all know for a FACT he was guilty) and he got away with murder. I believe, in all honesty, that was because of all the protesters outside of the courthouse that stated “We will riot if he is found guilty….look what happened.
It is my understanding an important factor in a self-defense shooting/killing is the concept of “looking for trouble.” In this case, the defendant had clear opportunity to de-escalate the situation. Regardless of the police said or did not say (and regardless of the Neighborhood Watch aspect), it appears that Zimmerman confronted the victim and was “looking for trouble).
TalkinDog, “child” is not the same for all legal purposes, even in the same state.
What’s a “puppy”. Depends, eh?
Matt,
I also wrote this–which you chose to ignore: “I’d say that head injuries should be considered to be serious until proved otherwise.”
Elaine and Matt,
I suppose that Matt might claim that a serious injury is any injury that EMT, in accordance with standards of care, treat as serious.
But most of us do not use ‘serious’ in that sense of the word.
Head injuries are particularly dangerous, in part, because there may be internal bleeding which cannot be felt. Head injuries that cause no pain and no immediate symptoms may lead to permanent damage or death. That is why head injuries are frequently treated as though they may be serious.
The fact that head injuries are frequently treated as though they are serious is not at all the same as the proposition that ‘all head injuries are serious’.
If all head injuries really were serious then half the elementary school kids would be in ICUs. OK, I exaggerate a bit. But maybe you take my point.
I’m definitely in a “wait and see” with respect to this photograph. Where is the statement filed by the officer who allegedly took this picture? Why was it not taken in the hospital or the ambulance and why was there at the same time no description of the injury? Another thing: If you look at the enhanced stills that came off the police video, the “injury” being advertised on those very popular flicks was NOT IN THE SAME LOCATION AS THE SOURCE OF BLOOD ON THIS PICTURE. Liquids follow gravity and find their own level — remember Professor Turley’s blog of the Englishmen shooting water balloons? — so this picture, I am expected to believe or assume, represents a head that was repeatedly smashed on concrete? Where are the pictures of the blood on the concrete? Where is the smudging? OK, forensics, get going. Oh, and another thing: who cares? Zimmerman has admitted on the stand, now, that he knew nothing about Trayvon Martin. He approached the kid (yes, under 18, a child!) in the dark and whatever happened after that ended with him taking out HIS OWN GUN that HE OWNED and that HE TOOK OUT OF HIS CAR WITH HIM and following (yes, he said he was FOLLOWING that kid) the kid with a gun. So we expect the law to give him a walk because the kid bashed his head before getting murdered?
I have no faith in the justice system. So maybe Zimmerman will get a walk. Hell, perhaps he’ll get a walk, a law degree, and become a judge. It’s all well within the possible.
Already it’s following a crazy path. $150,000 bail is nothing. It’s probably not even going to be posted — there will be an agreement in the back room so money doesn’t have to change hands COULD work. But even if it is posted, it is less than the amount of a trial. So this means things are coming up pretty weird even at this early stage.
THere was a case in Maryland in 2009 where a mother was accused of molesting her daughter by putting a rubber duckie into her vagina while bathing her, and the daughter, when interviewed about this, did not confirm, and in fact, denied ALL ABUSE and said to the social worker, while being recorded on a video: “I just want to see my mommy more.” Get it? Kid denied abuse on tape. The mom was charged with felony child abuse anyway and held at first on a no-bail and then on EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS’ BAIL — that’s $8,000,000.00. After much jail and another bail hearing it was reduced to a mere $375,000. BUT they had to drop the charges in the end — they had no case, and admitted they couldn’t get the child to testify to any abuse by her mother. Yet they forced the mother (to get out of jail after 13 months!) to plead to a misdemeanor for SENDING HER DAUGHTER A GREETING CARD so she pled nolo for time served to escape the continuous “pretrial” jail — when there obviously could be no charges proven. Compare this to a dead body, a call to police where the shooter states his intent to follow the victim, and a boo boo on his head.
The story seems to be: WHO can get defended?
Matt, I cant help but make this comparative in re to how people would and would not accept what they hear read and see.
There is a recent case in which tenants of a home they have been renting somewhere in N.J. is suing the owner because the house is “haunted”.
One piece of ‘evidence’ that they have is a video in which a ceiling light in the home had turned on ‘all by itself’ . Some would DECIDE that a ghost turned it on, others would accept that there may be more to that fact, like say,,faulty wiring. Some people will discount the later and just ACCEPT in their own minds that a ghost did it.Regardless of other possibilities.
There was a big CNN broadcast about some county in some state prosecuting at 12 year old as an adult. Is it Florida? If so, then the state can not argue that Travon was some child.
Matt, talk about semantics. Every head injury is a serious one” , objectively, is not the same as “Every injury to the head must be considered a serious on” per EMT training.
I’ve had the adolescent car accident too which, ‘n my case, almost took my life and, my head cuts and abrasions were accompanied by concussion. SOME head injuries are serious.
Matt: “Zimmerman was not actually part of a neighborhood watch program, he was a self appointed, so the rules you posted do not apply per-se.”
The Neighborhood Watch issue is not really central to the situation.
I only mentioned it as all the initial reports spoke of a “Watch Captain”. Where did that come from?
You say he was self appointed. Did Zimmerman claim that he was a Watch Captain? If so, then there’s a definite “Walter Mitty”.
Talk of things like carrying a gun or following someone being “Not Illegal” is largely irrelevant.
Doing things that are “illegal” is a negative.
Doing things that are “not illegal” is not a positive.
The core of the thing is the moment of the shooting. Where were they in relation to one another? Was the shooting necessary?
Colouring that is the fact that Zimmerman was following an innocent man – at night – along a path away from the roadway. Zimmerman was the one presenting the actual threat.
The rules that apply “per se” are common sense rules. Zimmerman broke them. He was playing cops and robbers, but with real people and while carrying a real gun. He got into trouble. He shot someone.
Hopefully, the court case will produce a scientific analysis of what exactly happened.
I don;t recall if Zimmerman complained of head trauma per se. (and if so why not immediately go to hospital – actions speak louder then photos) The head bleeds profusely so even a little cut will look as though it is an horredous wound. I heard the reporter on one of thre morning shows say this shows Zimmerman was hit repeatedly. No, not necessarily.
@Bosco: It makes no difference, legally he was not an adult, and a 6′ 3″ boy at 150lb is a skinny rail with very little overt musculature; it seems very unlikely to me that Trayvon would be mistaken for an adult.
Elaine M. – “Not all head injuries are serious.” So you’re telling me that I’m wrong in my profession and that everyone who has ever taught me anything about being an Emergency Medical Technician is wrong? As I have learned ALL head injuries are ALWAYS serious no matter how minor they can look. The fact that there is “only that much blood” doesn’t mean anything. Head injuries, even minor ones MAY bleed profusely. Keyword is MAY. It all depends on the person who is injured and the way their body reacts.
Bosco,
You obviously missed my point.
Matt,
“Any injury to the head is a serious one due to the fact of symptoms it can cause…”
*****
Not all head injuries are serious. I should know. When I was in college, I was involved in an auto accident when someone smashed into the side of my car at an intersection. (That was in the day before seatbelts.) I suffered a head inury. There was a lot of blood in my hair. Police took me to the hospital–where I received a few stitches on my scalp. That was it. I had no concussion…no vomiting…no blurry vision…no headache…no slurred speech. I just had to wait for the hair that they shaved on my head to grow back. That and my stitches were the worst part of that head injury.
I’d say that head injuries should be considered to be serious until proved otherwise.
Dredd – I disagree, read my last post
Oh brother, Elaine now you want to mix it up with semantics. He was a decent sized YOUNG MAN NOT physically a CHILD anymore. Your bias and play on words wont work with me.