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
Elaine M.
“Zimmerman did not break any law.”
I agree
“Zimmerman did not break any law.”
He only killed another human being.
mespo727272 1, April 20, 2012 at 3:02 pm
Testifying today, Zimmerman’s father, Robert, a former magistrate, told the court that the day after Martin was killed he saw injuries his son suffered.
“His face was swollen quite a bit,” Robert Zimmerman said. “There was a protective cover over his nose, his lip was cut and there were two vertical gashes on the back of his head.”
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I see one vertical and one horizontal gash on the head in the photograph.
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In terms of quality of evidence, what happened at the scene is more important than what some, who are not paramedics, or doctors, say they saw, way after the fact.
If the vertical vs. horizontal changed, it likely didn’t change at the scene at the time of the event.
Tony C.
What a lie? Zimmerman lost Martin at some point so why didn’t Martin just go on home? This will show who the aggresor was. Also,,Zimmerman was a neighborhood watchman and he had every right to keep an eye on someone who he doesn’t recognize as a member of the community. Zimmerman did not break any law. Finally, the investigator testified under oath today he has no knowledge of any evidence to show Zimmerman started the fight.
@Tony C.
1:45 you can hear the door chime from Zimmerman’s truck.
1:54 dispatcher ask Zimmerman if he is following him. Zimmerman says yes. Dispatcher tell Zimmerman “we don’t need you to do that”. Zimmerman responds “OK”.
2:09 Zimmerman says “He ran”
Listen to the remainder of that call. Zimmerman isn’t winded. He’s not talking like he’s running after someone.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/videogallery/68871920/News/George-Zimmerman-911-call-reporting-Trayvon-Martin
Matt 1, April 20, 2012 at 2:43 pm
Dredd – Quite honestly your looking at this whole thing from an emotional standpoint. You are not realizing that all of the facts are not out, the media is going to portray this case in whatever way that is going to be beneficial to them, and there are two different things. I can have a verbal confrontation with anyone I feel all day long. Once they put their hands on me then it’s all over.
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You’re “looking at this whole thing” is wanting.
In terms of emotions, 98% of your cognition is emotional, as is everyone else’s.
So, it is not a matter of what kind of “looking at” is important (emotional / not emotional), it is whether or not that “looking at” is sensible or not sensible based upon the facts.
Your amygdala gets to look at everything you sense before your 2% conscious cognition does.
It is not about you, or me, it is about the case.
Testifying today, Zimmerman’s father, Robert, a former magistrate, told the court that the day after Martin was killed he saw injuries his son suffered.
“His face was swollen quite a bit,” Robert Zimmerman said. “There was a protective cover over his nose, his lip was cut and there were two vertical gashes on the back of his head.”
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I see one vertical and one horizontal gash on the head in the photograph.
@Squiggly: It was Zimmerman that told 911 Martin was running, it is on the tape.
So it makes no difference what Martin told his girlfriend earlier. If he ran, like Zimmerman says, then Zimmerman chased him, which was a threatening act toward Martin.
And if Martin told his girlfriend the truth, and he did not run, then Zimmerman lied to 911, presumably to justify his subsequent confrontation of Martin.
Either way, what Zimmerman said on the 911 tape implicates him as the aggressor.
@Malisha
When did Martin know that Zimmerman had a gun?
Matt, you’re just plain wrong about Martin not having a “right” to punch or “attack” Zimmerman. WRong under Florida law, wrong under the law in other states, wrong from a perspective of how a person should handle himself or herself in a situation of danger (stranger with gun = danger) and morally wrong.
Matt 1, April 20, 2012 at 2:38 pm
Dredd – And by your last statement you mean that the witness saw a man chasing a child right? lol
Is this witness, without a doubt, 100% sure that what she saw was Zimmerman and Trayvon and maybe she didn’t earlier in the day see two people who live in the neighborhood just running or fooling around. I’m pretty sure “I saw two shadowy figures running, one being chased by the other” is enough to stand up in court.
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If that is the cross exam the defense puts out at the stand-your-ground hearing, it will go to the jury.
@Dredd
I’m sorry Zimmerman wasn’t injured enough to be deserving of your sympathy.
The extent of Zimmerman’s injury is not relevant to the justification to use lethal force as a means of self-defense. What is relevant is the perceived threat. You don’t have to wait until your seriously injured before you can defend yourself with lethal force. You just need to be in a situation where a reasonable person in the same position would feel they risked death or serious bodily harm.
Martin wanted to get to a safe place because someone was chasing him at a running speed.
Then there is no safer place than inside his home and locking the doors. Then, a person looking for safety, when given the chance, would be expected to call 911.
Martin, upon being overtaken
Martin was overtaken by Zimmerman? Zimmerman’s account to the dispatcher was that Martin was coming toward him. Martin’s girlfriend said that Martin said he was going to walk fast, but refused to run. How scared was Martin again?
Dredd – Quite honestly your looking at this whole thing from an emotional standpoint. You are not realizing that all of the facts are not out, the media is going to portray this case in whatever way that is going to be beneficial to them, and there are two different things. I can have a verbal confrontation with anyone I feel all day long. Once they put their hands on me then it’s all over.
SO MANY OPINIONS FROM PEOPLE WHO WERE NOT WITNESSES AND HAVE MADE THEIR MIND UP AS TO WHO WAS IN THE RIGHT BEFORE EVEN KNOWING THE FACTS.
THANK YOU JESSE AND AL AND THE NEW BLACK PANTHER PARTY, FOR STIRRING THE POT SO THAT YOU CAN CONTINUE TO MAKE YOUR LIVING BY DOING SO.
YOU DO YOUR RACE AND THE COUNTRY A DIS-SERVICE, BY YOUR
RABBLE ROUSING.
Dredd – And by your last statement you mean that the witness saw a man chasing a child right? lol
Is this witness, without a doubt, 100% sure that what she saw was Zimmerman and Trayvon and maybe she didn’t earlier in the day see two people who live in the neighborhood just running or fooling around. I’m pretty sure “I saw two shadowy figures running, one being chased by the other” is enough to stand up in court.
Matt 1, April 20, 2012 at 2:20 pm
“During further questioning by O’Mara, Gilbreath admitted that the state has no evidence who started the fight. There is also no evidence that Zimmerman didn’t walk back to his car after chasing Martin on foot, as the defendant has claimed.”
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It is not a matter of who started a “fight”, it is a matter of who started a flight.
Zimmerman followed then chased Martin in the direction of Martin’s home. Martin wanted to get to a safe place because someone was chasing him at a running speed.
Zimmerman caused the flight, the fear, the aggression.
Martin, upon being overtaken, had the right to stand his ground, not Zimmerman.
It wasn’t Zimmerman’s ground to stand on, it was Martin’s who was standing on his ground near his home.
Squiggly 1, April 20, 2012 at 2:12 pm
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.
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The issue is the degree of injury.
The more people who saw it and did not send him to the hospital, including the paramedics, and including Zimmerman himself, indicates the cuts were not serious, no matter what caused it.
Not going to the hospital for a checkup is not what would be expected when one’s head is bashed against concrete.
It is what would be expected after being slightly cut by rolling around on the ground or sidewalk.
The eyewitness who told police she saw a man chasing another man in the direction of Martin’s house, not in the direction of Zimmerman’s vehicle, immediately before gunshots were heard, says Martin is the one who had the right to stand his ground, not Zimmerman.
“During further questioning by O’Mara, Gilbreath admitted that the state has no evidence who started the fight. There is also no evidence that Zimmerman didn’t walk back to his car after chasing Martin on foot, as the defendant has claimed.”
“running toward Martin’s house”
Matt 1, April 20, 2012 at 2:11 pm
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.
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The detective was testifying about what eyewitnesses said, what is in the police reports.
The testimony by Detective Gilbreath was that an eyewitness saw the two men tunning toward Martin’s house, one chasing the other.
They were not running toward Zimmerman’s vehicle.
This was just before a shot or shots were fired.