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
Ah Matt, you make it too easy:
Jim 1, April 20, 2012 at 3:28 pm
Dredd
Also, If I were Zimmerman I would sue the Prosecution for filing false charges. It should have been manslaughter.at best.
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And you would lose at the preliminary motions stage of the case.
Jim 1, April 20, 2012 at 3:26 pm
Dredd
What is wrong with you? The tapes indicate Zimmerman lost Martin and was on his way back to his car. That car was not on the way back to Martin’s House which means Martin should have gone on home. That did not happen and the detective from all accounts does not know who started the fight. His best guess was shadows running by but doesn’t know who was in front and behind. This case will be thrown out or pleaded way down.
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This is not a cafeteria where you select only what you want.
In a case all parts of the picture, all parts of the puzzle must be considered … I mean if you are a defense attorney, a prosecutor, or a jury member.
That is what I do, the media is irrelevant. I take the facts from the record and the court hearing, then apply them to the law.
You need to grasp what “your ground” means in the context of “stand your ground”. It isn’t the same as “stand any ground”. It must be “yours”, a notion of ownership.
In that context, when someone is not committing a crime, and someone becomes aggressive, the “your” part of “your ground”, which you are going to stand on, begins to materialize.
Trayvon was walking home to finish watching the big sports event, the big basketball game.
He had done no wrong. He was on his ground quite solidly.
Zimmerman thought otherwise, thought Martin was doing a crime, based upon Zimmerman family senses. Senses data which had first gone through his amygdala, the “propaganda central” of the brain.
As I said up-thread, everything we see, feel, taste, hear, or smell is sent FIRST to the amygdala for processing BEFORE it ever gets to our conscious cognition … our conscious thinking.
Zimmerman’s amygdala is the center of his fears, his suspicions, and the whole gambit of constructs that make people see things that are not a part of reality, but rather are a part of their own fabricated reality.
The amygdala is more powerful than consciousness … in you, me, and Zimmerman.
He was so self-deceived by his amygdala that he was running after an innocent teen who he thought was a monster dragon who needed to be slayed.
Let me guess Mespo, you’re a women’s rights activist?
Mespo – Really? You don’t understand “you” as in general assembly. No, I do not hit women and I am very pissed off that you want to portray me that way. How about you get some common sense you dumbass. Go try and play your little shit games elsewhere!
mespo727272
That photo by ABC news is irrelevant because on the video at the police station we see the officer looking at the back of Zimmerman so we know he did get hit and there is a medical report presented today. One thing that absolutely should happen immediately is the FEDS need to get out because this is not racial case. The 911 tape has been evaluated that Zimmerman said “cold” not coon. If Holder keeps involved then it has become purely political.
@Jim: Zimmerman lost Martin at some point so why didn’t Martin just go on home? This will show who the aggresor was.
If one guy starts chasing the other guy, the chaser is the aggressor. If he lost him and Martin circled around and came back, it makes no difference: Zimmerman began the threatening action by following and chasing Martin. Further, according to the girlfriend, she heard Trayvon ask Zimmerman “Why are you following me?”, and Zimmerman responded aggressively: “What are you doing here?”
Zimmerman clearly began the fight, there would BE no incident if it weren’t for Zimmerman pretending he was some sort of super cop and intimidating kids on the street. Your argument hasn’t a leg to stand on, the evidence speaks for itself; Zimmerman was picking a fight.
Matt:
Always threaten women or is that a little charm you picked up alongt he way?
Squiggly — When Martin knew Zimmerman had a gun? At some time before he died.
Squiggly: How scared was Martin? I don’t know. I DO KNOW how scared I WOULD BE. Very very VERY scared. Even if I didn’t know the guy had a gun, I would be scared because anybody who would follow someone who THE FOLLOWER felt confident enough to follow might be assumed to have a gun if it was not perfectly obvious that the FOLLOWEE was unarmed. See what I mean? If someone’s chasing after ME and he doesn’t know if I have a gun or not, he MUST HAVE A GUN.
Squiggly: with reference to your comment:
“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.”
OK, OK, here’s what I have to say to that:
If the extent of injury is not the measure of legitimacy to be applied in a case of whether lethal force is appropriate, if what is relevant is “the perceived threat,” then ZIMMERMAN’S injuries do not matter at all to the murder charge. Because Trayvon Martin WAS in a situation where a reasonable person in the same position would feel they risked death or serious bodily harm, because HE ACTUALLY SUSTAINED DEATH OR SERIOUS BODILY HARM. He could NOT have sustained death or serious bodily harm in the absence of RISK of it. IT HAPPENED! The risk of rain cannot be zero on a day when it rains!
So Trayvon Martin absolutely had the proven right to defend himself by any means necessary that night. Any reasonable person would have perceived threat from a killer, whether he was to become a murderer or a manslaughterer or an accidental “self-defending” (and simultaneously self-absolving) killer.
I think before Zimmerman got bail he should have been subjected to a serious evaluation of his mental health. I think it would have been much wiser for the defense to have him in the psych.ward in case his defense strategy doesn’t play out as planned and I think it would have been much wiser for the prosecution to demand evaluation before setting him loose in the community, especially since so many in the community would love for him to never have to face the music.
Malisha – No, I’m right. I can argue with anyone, does that mean I go to jail because I’m “the aggressor?” No, it means I had an arguement with someone. Once it starts being a physical confrontation then it becomes a crime, and whoever throws the first punch is the aggressor, and I’ll tell you what, you put your hands on me when I don’t want you to and it’s over for you.
Jim:
Where is the Rev. Al Sharpton who said that Treyvon was murdered and that Zimmerman did not have any appearance of being beat up? The new photo shows otherwise.
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Mr. Zimmerman, who knows a thng or two about the need for accuracy as a magistrate, testifed as to what he actually observed on the day following the homicide. Under no tortured definition of the word “vertical” is the top gash running from top to bottom. It is clearly horizontal based on both the blood flow and the gash itself. Based on Mr. Zimmerman’s testimony, that photograph does not depict the injuries he observed on his son’s head.
I am interested in the blood spatter or trace evidence of tissue from the sidewalk. Surely that would tell whether this photograph is evidence of a fight or “made for tv” evidence. No blood/tissue there; no fight.
It’s looks like a voluntary manslaughter case at this juncture. We’ll know more when we get the voice comparison and the sound enhanced 911 tape.
Dredd
Also, If I were Zimmerman I would sue the Prosecution for filing false charges. It should have been manslaughter.at best.
Dredd
What is wrong with you? The tapes indicate Zimmerman lost Martin and was on his way back to his car. That car was not on the way back to Martin’s House which means Martin should have gone on home. That did not happen and the detective from all accounts does not know who started the fight. His best guess was shadows running by but doesn’t know who was in front and behind. This case will be thrown out or pleaded way down.
Jim 1, April 20, 2012 at 3:21 pm
Squiggly
Too many people on this blog are blinded by truth and bathe in their own ignorance.
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Actually, it is the few, the loud, the latrine heads who do that.
Squiggly
Too many people on this blog are blinded by truth and bathe in their own ignorance.
Squiggly 1, April 20, 2012 at 2:49 pm
@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?
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Zimmerman, like all sociopaths or psychopaths have my sympathy, but only to the extent they seek therapy. To the extent they want to act out, there is no sympathy to apply.
The pieces of the puzzle, the testimony and other factual sources, must fit together.
The testimony by Detective Gilbreath was that the eyewitness who was the last in the sequence of pieces of the puzzle, stated that just before the shots a man was chasing another towards Martin’s home, not Zimmermans’s vehicle.
In terms of quality of evidence, a person facing life in prison because he shot someone dead, is not expected to give quality evidence. They are expected to give self-saving, self-serving evidence.
The better evidence indicates that Zimmerman ran down Martin before Martin could reach his home, even though at the last he changed his mind and decided to make a run for his home.
He wasn’t fast enough, so Zimmerman gunned him down after he stood his ground.
Not everyone who stands their ground prevails.
Did anyone else find it strange that the Investigator did not try to obtain the doctors report? Zimmerman’s attorney had the report with him and turned it over to the prosecutor after asking the investigator if he had seen the report. I don’t think Zimmerman’s attorney would have turned the doctor’s report over to the prosecution if that report wasn’t consistent with the report of Zimmerman, the police officer’s report, and the image released today.
I can’t tell from that image (even if I blow up a better quality image) whether there would be horizontal or vertical injuries. The right side looks to be vertical, but the left side is too washed out by the flash to provide enough detail.
Gene H.
We saw today how weak the prosecution case is and the leap they took in filing 2nd degree murder charges.
mespo727272
Where is the Rev. Al Sharpton who said that Treyvon was murdered and that Zimmerman did not have any appearance of being beat up? The new photo shows otherwise. This case is heading strait being thrown out especially after the terrible testimony of the detective this morning.
“Zimmerman did not break any law.”
That remains to be seen.