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
Change the name of this thread from “Reasonable Doubt” to “Prima Facie Case”?
OH OH OH OH –and I wanted to see that website called “Zimmerman’s head injury and the photo that the prosecution hates: Is that enough blood for you? <<Two guys 2012" so I could figure out who slapped that photo together for the ABC News team, and guess what? It said the website was REMOVED.
So just like the website for purchasing the trayvon Martin Thug targets to shoot out (thanks to some Virginians), this website went up to support ole' George "I mentor black kids" Zimmerman and then…came down when the going got rough.
Ooooooooooooh!!
I printed up copies of the photo heading up this thread AND the photo that headed up the thread “New Evidence Undermines Prosecution’s Case” and I compared them and they were not compatible and they couldn’t make sense with what we know of the known world, physics, gravity, etc. and I couldn’t understand. I asked and no answers seemed forthcoming.
Then I noticed that O’Mara didn’t like the first picture — the one heading up this thread.
Then I noticed that O’Mara was not emphasizing either picture.
Then I noticed that nobody liked really talking about the photographs much.
Then I found this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pku_KQwJi7g&feature=related
YAY! NOW I UNDERSTAND!!
Somebody needs to be charged with obstruction, accessory after the fact, and just plain fraud.
O’Mara has appealed to people who:
1 – feel that Zimmerman was “justified in what he did” and therefore would have done what Zimmerman did;
2 – feel that Zimmerman was treated unfairly in the press;
3 – feel that it was unfair to think Zimmerman was racist; and
4 – believe that their constitutional rights are being challenged by trying Zimmerman for murder!
#4 is astonishing.
If you have a right to bear arms, you must also bear the responsibility that goes with bearing arms. If you kill somebody with your bare hands, that may be a crime and you may have to stand trial. If you are armed pursuant to the Second Amendment and you kill somebody with a gun, are you suddenly and magically absolved of responsibility?
Think about it.
Then anybody who had a gun could feel free to kill, and only those of us who are not armed and dangerous would have the responsibility to refrain from killing.
uh…
Although we’re going to arrive at that state sooner or later (if we do not change course), should we arrive there all at once because Zimmerman was such a sissy that he got scared on 2/26/2012 without reason? (Even, arguendo, presuming that part is really true.)
The interesting thing about the Serino interviews, the statements being made by the two defense lawyers who scooted off the case when it became clear that George would be charged, and the earlier careless statements being made by George, his father and even his brother, were that they were very transparently SAYING, without SHOWING, that George Zimmerman was not really FOLLOWING Trayvon Martin. I believe the entire case, in Corey’s mind and in any reaonable juror’s mind, will concentrate its focus right there:
WAS GEORGE ZIMMERMAN FOLLOWING TRAYVON MARTIN?
On the side that says: “YES, there is evidence he WAS,” we have:
1. George tells non-emergency YES he is following Trayvon Martin;
2. Police Chief Lee tells the press that George was “tailing” Martin;
3. Serino and the other interviewing cop both seem to believe that Zimmerman was FOLLOWING Martin;
4. Zimmerman admits to Serino that he was following Martin, and then denies it several times as well;
5. Common Sense.
On the side that says, “No, there is evidence that he was NOT following Trayvon Martin,” we have only statements of people (three, all of whom are not exactly “disinterested witnesses”) who say he was not:
1. George says he was not, explaining he was just out looking for a street sigh, duh…
2. George’s brother says he was not, while indulging in some questionable grammar:
“My brother drew back to grab his phone in retreat to call again 911 and say, ‘Well, this person who I lost sight of and was not pursuing has now confronted me.’ That’s what he did. He never got to make that call because he was attacked by Mr. Martin,” Robert Zimmerman Jr. told Morgan.
3. Zimmerman’s lawyer, who explains that you cannot follow someone unless you can SEE THEM. (Which would mean that very few people can ever follow ANYONE.)
So, at the bottom of this, we have Zimmerman saying he was innocent of all wrongdoing and was shockingly attacked and brutalized by someone he had “lost sight of and was not pursuing” and we have, on the other side of the story, logic, common sense, and credible evidence.
OK, Taaffe spell’s like this I think. Was too late to correct, since again I already had my finger on the post button.
Sling I just posted the link to the latest released documents. Interesting, I learned a little bit more about his 02/26/12 call, and I am not surprised that Frank Taafee’s house surfaced again.
For Malisha: Zimmerman’s call, an analysis by Sling Trebuchet.
Malisha,
You should be able to see it at http://zimmermanscall.blogspot.com
On the Speculation page, my suggestion as to what sparked Zimmerman to follow Martin won’t please people on either extreme – or evvn please anybody.
Zimmerman had a preconception that Martin was a punk up to no good.
He had a fixed idea of what the relationship should be.
Then the punk walks straight at him. That was totally unexpected and briefly freaked him out.
That an the fact that he was looking incompetent to the dispatcher made him snap.
He’s a control freak. They hate having even a glimmer of weakness being exposed.
How do we get to your blog?
Malisha: “I think it is even quite possible that the real narrative will have more to do with the function of the police department than the racism, actions or criminal responsibility of George Zimmerman himself. I would be interested in seeing how the narrative changes in the next few months.”
As you’ve voiced above, a trial in this case would raise questions about the standards to which police forces and administrations work.
‘If there was that evidence available, why was he allowed to walk?’ will be the obvious question. ‘ Why did it have to take a nationwide protest?’ wil be another.
There may well be cases existing that are more egregious instances of incompetence/corruption, but this case is getting more publicity.
It may be that the population is becoming closer to a realisation that things are seriously off the rails.
The Wars on Terror and Drugs are very successfully managing to terrorise the innocent vastly more than they terrorise the terrorists and the drug lords.
Video records related to the Occupy movement have exposed brutal behaviour by increasingly militarised police forces.
One of these days, the dam will burst.
All pages of Zimmerman’s Call are up now btw 🙂
It’s interesting how the George Zimmerman case has come into the media as if it has already been tried and/or resolved. Here is a paragraph from an article written by William Anderson, who is speaking of a wrongly-convicted woman in Texas, in a case where there was shocking prosecutorial misconduct:
“In the area of “justice” and criminal accusations, narratives are a powerful force, and most journalists and government agents like to keep them simple: Michael Milken and Jack Abramoff were greedy Jews who lost their way and broke the law to get rich; the Duke lacrosse players were “privileged” white “jocks” in a violent sport who brutally beat and raped a poor black woman because they believed they were so “privileged” that they could get away with it; George Zimmerman was a white racist who hated blacks and gunned down Trayvon Martin in cold blood. The simple stories were so compelling; evidence that undermined the narratives was ignored or shouted down.”
The strange part about this paragraph is the way the Zimmerman case, which is nowhere near resolved, is used as one example among many, implying some kind of equivalence:
Milken and Abramoff “were greedy Jews who lost their way and broke the law to get rich” — well, Michael Milken pled guilty in 1990 and served two years in a federal penitentiary and paid millions of dollars in fines. Jack Abramoff was convicted. It hardly matters that the story involves the idea of a “greedy Jew.” The Duke Lacrosse players were exonerated and the prosecutor was disbarred.
But in the Zimmerman case, the conclusion that “George Zimmerman was a white racist who hated blacks and gunned down Trayvon Martin in cold blood” is still in play. It might not be the whole story; it might not be the RIGHT story, but it has not been either proven OR DISCREDITED. For instance, since we have not yet seen Zimmerman’s statements from the evening when he shot Trayvon Martin, we really do not know what he SAID in those statements and it is possible that what he DID say would reveal him to be racist and homicidal towards Blacks — this has not been disproven, and the prosecutor has not even insisted that it is essential to her case. There were just as many narratives in the press that indicated that Trayvon Martin was a thug and that George Zimmerman was a poor beaten-up hero trying to protect his community from criminals. At the point that real evidence is produced, it could really go either way or it could go some way that has not yet been presented in the press at all.
But really, the belief that the “narrative” of the Zimmerman case has already been written is an emotional leap of faith. I think it is even quite possible that the real narrative will have more to do with the function of the police department than the racism, actions or criminal responsibility of George Zimmerman himself. I would be interested in seeing how the narrative changes in the next few months.
I wonder if I should include a dedication in my new blog to Bosco and Manny O because …… THEY MADE ME DO IT !! and Anon and anyone I can insult by not remembering their names 🙂
Well, them and a lot of others who posted on blogs that I had read but not posted in. The Prof’s excellent blog is the sole repository of my wisdom up to now.
WOW, SLING, CONGRATULATIONS & THANK YOU!
SEE YOU THERE!!
I finally got enough time to get my own Zimmerman/Martin blog near-completed.
It’s focussed on the non-emergency call and events up to the time of the shot. It goes no further than that.
Four of the six planned sections are published – with drafts for the last two pages being picked to hell.
It’s going to take you ages to read the thing anyway 🙂
It’s at http://zimmermanscall.blogspot.com
This is the first time I’ve tried a blog, so there might be some glitches – or not.
I think I’ve proof-read it, but there still might be typos etc.
Tony C, if you have not been declared a national treasure yet, why not?
@Malisha: During normal metabolism, old bone cells die and new ones form, this is called “bone remodeling.” A normal adult will replace about 10% of their skeleton per year; the skeleton will also respond to loading and stress with greater bone density. For example, martial artists can increase their bone density significantly by repeated and gradually increasing impacts on the bones that take stress in strikes; like muscles the bones can become stronger through stressing exercises (but not as fast, and not bulked up).
When bones are broken, they heal by the normal, ongoing bone growth and remodeling process; the two sides will knit together. The result always leaves a seam, forever; and the fully healed break (if the two sides were not askew but realigned well) can even be stronger and more dense than the original bone.
Bone grows at different rates in people, depending upon their diet and metabolism, I suspect there is too much variance to be able to tell precisely when Zimmerman’s nose was broken. But whether it was recently broken, of course, we could tell, and pin down the incidence of the break to plus or minus a week, perhaps.
It occurs to me that now that Zimmerman is in custody again, there should be a complete physical of him, including x-rays and probably a PET scan, to make sure of his physical condition right now, at “base-line” because there is sure to be some question. Furthermore, a bone broken on 2/26/2012 will still show something on an x-ray on 6/6/2012. At least I think that’s a distinct possibility. Prosecution and defense should BOTH want a complete physical to be performed on Zimmerman ASAP. To avoid any false allegations down the line, you know?
Now that the bond hearing (“no money (except a couple hundred K)” and “here’s my passport (I”ll just hang onto the other one)”) is over, SOME people think there may be a question about George Zimmerman’s credibility.
Not all people, but some people. (You can’t fool all the people all the time.)
I liked the Darren Lenard Hutchinson’s article about the results of today’s hearing: http://dissentingjustice.blogspot.com/
When the “not-a-confession” statements made by George Zimmerman are released to the press, there will be another few people who can’t be fooled.
Something just occurred to me this morning, while I was thinking about the principle of “unintended consequences.” The Zimmerman family. Here George Zimmerman thinks he can sell some fairy-tale to the cops and get off scott free (and maybe get a medal later on) for his little oops when he killed Trayvon Martin. Then they think, oh damn, here’s the press really being unfair and trashing George for no good reason when this thug broke his nose and bonked his head over and over and over and over and was about to kill him (as we all know thugs like to do), and then they think, oh boy, we better get some lawyers saying stuff the press will listen to so we can back up George’s claims, and then they think, oh damn, these lawyers aren’t doing it, and then and then and then and then and then and then…
And then they end up with a real lawyer who has to do real work and will obviously be charging real fees and they end up with a situation where uh oh there might really be some scrutiny into what money came to them over the Internet and then they end up — where — here?
HERE: They have to pay the lawyer to do real work on a real charge in a real case; they will have to support George and his wife very well for quite a while; they have to still practice all the damage control they can under tough circumstances; they have to keep paying all the people who need to resist turning over this piece of evidence or that one; they can’t buy too much good news coverage because some bad news coverage always surfaces right behind it and, perhaps worst of ALL, they have to keep supporting Joe OLIVER, probably for the rest of his foolish life.
Oh top shot, here’s the comment I remembered but couldn’t locate, wherein you say this “isn’t a domestic abuse site and shouldn’t be used for one.” Wow, what a terrible infraction. When I have seen sites on lawsuits veer off and talk about religion, searches for kittens in pictures go swirling around healthcare, new evidence in the Zimmerman case jump with both feet into capital punishment, etc. etc. etc. all of a sudden you’re a topic purist? Get over it.
Furthermore, domestic abuse is an issue that involves preconceived notions of who is and is not entitled to the protection of law when a presumed authority figure chooses to conduct unauthorized investigation and possible punishment of wrongdoing — exactly on topic this thread, and in fact, in view of the Stand Your Ground law, particularly so.
Things getting uncomfortably close to real issues?
There are feminist theories that posit that the social permission to commit domestic violence is part of the society’s understanding that some violent men really need an outlet for their control-freak behavior, and it is much better that they be able to exercise that at home (as Zimmerman probably did in 2005) than out in the street (as he probably did in 2012).
It’s actually a very significant issue to be examined by real intellectuals interested in finding out what’s going on in our world.
Stay tuned.