Criminal law, Lawyering, Politics

Reasonable Doubt? Crime Scene Photos Shows Serious Injury On Zimmerman’s Head

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

1,309 thoughts on “Reasonable Doubt? Crime Scene Photos Shows Serious Injury On Zimmerman’s Head”

  2. And “no one saw anything” includes the paramedics who cleaned up the blood from the cuts, before he was taken to the police station.

    And the police officer who noted the injuries to Zimmerman’s face and back of head in his report.

    -At the bond hearing:

    investigator Dale Gilbreath said wounds on the back of Zimmerman’s head were consistent with his skull being struck with something harder than his skull, and said under questioning from O’Mara that the object could have been a concrete sidewalk.

  3. Dredd – I’m sorry, was the detective there the whole time the altercation was happening between Zimmerman and Martin?! Then I fully apologize, I didn’t realize that a detective watched the whole thing and then decided to ONLY disclose this information in the courtroom. I don’t believe that at all due to the fact that the trial hasn’t even started yet. All they did was the bail hearing today.

  5. Matt 1, April 20, 2012 at 2:01 pm

    I’m back! lol

    Malisha – I completely understand he was following him, however, that does not give Martin the right to haul up and punch Zimmerman and “defend himself” if that’s what really happened.
    ======================================
    Zimmerman was not just following Martin, in the sense of a nonthreatening type of “following.”

    Zimmerman was running after Martin in the direction of Martin’s home, according to the detective who testified under oath at the hearing this morning.

    No doubt that gives Martin the protection of the stand your ground law.

  6. leejcaroll 1, April 20, 2012 at 1:48 pm

    …

    The fact that he was not taken to the hospital immediately indicates no one saw anything to indicate he needed treatment for head injury.
    ====================================================
    Exactly.

    And “no one saw anything” includes the paramedics who cleaned up the blood from the cuts, before he was taken to the police station.

  7. I’m back! lol

    Malisha – I completely understand he was following him, however, that does not give Martin the right to haul up and punch Zimmerman and “defend himself” if that’s what really happened. Again, we don’t know who attacked who, but if it was Martin, being followed does not mean he can attack Zimmerman in “self defense.”

    Betsy – If you had fully read my post I said that just because he was training to be a police officer doesn’t mean he was right.

  8. Bigfatmike, 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 he was not taken to the hospital immediately indicates no one saw anything to indicate he needed treatment for head injury.

  9. Here is a comment on some of the testimony by an eye witness:

    Prosecutors have also located a witness near the site of the shooting who described seeing the shadows of two men pass by her home, one chasing the other, immediately before Martin was killed. The pursuit, in the direction of Martin’s home, indicates that Zimmerman initiated the confrontation, Gilbreath said, under questioning from Rionda.

    (HuffPo).

  10. ” . . . been given a photograph . . ” Yeah, let’s just sling all that ‘evidence’ right out in public.

    We know the slingee (ABC suppposedly). Who is the slingor???

  11. Funny how some here would prefer to debate and deduce the extent of the injury to the back of Zimmerman’s head rather than admit that it is POSSIBLE that Zimmerman sustained the injury(s) by the hands of Martin(the child).

  12. Otteray Scribe -This photograph, to my trained photographer eye, does not look strange. It’s simply not a good photo. The white part is washed out and the blood looks funny because of the whiteness of the flash. It was likely taken at close range with a point and shoot camera.

  13. “Serious” injury? Really? My son looks a whole lot worse than that every time he scrapes his knee. He also usually ends up with blood on his shorts and his socks within that same amount of time. But the only treatment required is a quick cleaning and a band-aid. The “injuries” in the photo, especially considering it’s the head, are not indicative of the severe repeated blows to the concrete as is being claimed. Head injuries tend to bleed a lot, and having one’s head repeatedly bashed into concrete is likely to result in a concussion, at the very least.

  15. Malisha,

    Here is a link to Jonathan’s first post about the killing of Trayvon Martin:

    Who Watches The Watchman? Florida Family Calls For The Arrest Of “Watch Captain” Who Sought Teen (March 15,2012)
    http://jonathanturley.org/2012/03/15/who-watches-the-watchman-florida-family-calls-for-the-arrest-of-watch-captain-who-sought-teen/

    *****

    I think you’re referring to his second post:
    The Zimmerman Tapes: 911 Recordings Released From Shooting Of Teen In Florida By “Watchman”
    http://jonathanturley.org/2012/03/19/the-zimmerman-tapes-911-recordings-released-from-shooting-of-teen-in-florida-by-watchman/

  16. Just got through reading all the comments. I do agree with Elaine. I find it interesting that no one (or at least I missed it) mentions that he never went to the hospital. If the head injury is serious I believe you would be in the ER and possibly admitted. If your head is being banged on the concrete then it would certainly have been a very serious head injury. You look at the above picture and then the video of when he was taken to the PD and I find it hard to believe that the picture above is realistic. If it is, then I agree that it wasn’t serious enough to go to the hospital.
    It will be interesting to find out the trajectory of the bullet.
    So what if Zimmerman was training to be a police officer. Does that mean he’s immuned to being a vigilante. I don’t think so. We just had a case here where a police officer was convicted of 23 counts of sexual assault of a child. My point is, just because he’s training to be a policeman doesn’t mean that he’s innocent.

  18. Uh, guys: “ABC News has been given a photograph.”

    Uh, well: BY WHOM?

  19. Matt, nobody tried to prove that Zimmerman was committing a crime by ILLEGALLY following Martin, or that he was only entitled to follow Martin if the police had not indicated otherwise to him. None of this matters.

    What matters is that: HE * WAS * FOLLOWING * MARTIN

    OK, since he was following Martin, and Martin KNEW that he was being followed, and did not know by whom, and did not know why, that absolves Martin of anything HE might have done to protect himself from someone who was following him. So HE had the right under Florida law to stand his ground.

    THerefore, if Zimmerman got hurt (a little, a lot, does not matter and cannot be proven now either way because the police told the second ambulance NOT TO COME so we have no detailed medical reports) that is almost irrelevant.

    Zimmerman was armed.
    He decided to follow Martin, although under no legal compulsion to do so.
    He confronted Martin. although without legal authority to compel any answer.
    He shot Martin. Martin was unarmed.

    PollyAnna, I agree with your assessment. I saw Professor Turley’s inclination with the very first article he put up on this case, and see the first comment he got from a “mom.” He is a constitutional lawyer and has defended some people (at least one I know of whose child, the alleged victim, was and remains very much opposed to her father’s defense) who seem to have violated the bounds of decency in our society. I don’t think Zimmerman gets off easily here unless Florida realizes that it had better sell him a walk because now that there are motions that have been gone through, Defenders of guys like Zimmerman who kill guys like Martin are more powerful in our society than supporters of the mothers of guys like Martin.

    That is the mathematics of our culture.

  20. Reasonable doubt is not an issue of any import, because Zimmerman confessed to shooting Martin who was unarmed.

    That leaves only the matter of degree for consideration in the case in chief, and in Florida lesser included offenses, like manslaughter, are included automatically. Degree is a jury matter.

    Zimmerman must prove the case of self defense, the prosecution does not have to negate that defense in the case in chief.

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