The evidence continues to roll in on the Zimmerman case. While the new evidence is not entirely bad for the prosecution, it does contain some evidence that will likely bolster the defense of George Zimmerman in the second degree murder trial over the killing of Trayvon Martin. Regardless of the ultimate impact, the evidence again shows (in my opinion) that prosecutor Angela Corey over-charged the case in Florida.
Some of the new evidence shows that Martin had traces of THC (the active ingredient of marijuana) in his blood stream and urine. Martin was suspended from school due to a marijuana offense (though it involved an empty marijuana baggie). Another benefit to the defense is that Martin father is shown denying that the voice calling out for help was his son — though he later changed that view when he says he was given a better recording. Other witnesses have indicated that it Zimmerman who was calling for help.
Generally, the existence of drugs in the system of a victim or defendant is admissible. The suspension would appear inadmissible under standard evidentiary rules.
There is also evidence that some neighbors described Zimmerman as a bully and a racist. That would help bolster the reported hate crimes prosecution being considered by the Obama Administration, though I still have reservations based on the evidence as it currently stands. Also the police viewed the shooting as “avoidable” — if Zimmerman had left the matter to the police.
I am not sure how much of the neighbor’s view of Zimmerman as a bully or racist could come into evidence. Such accounts, however, can have the benefit of further discouraging Zimmerman from taking the stand as a witness — always a benefit to the prosecution because (while they are told that a defendant has a right not to testify (jurors expect to hear from defendants).
On the whole, however, I would view the evidence as more positive to the defense. First, I have previously said that I was most interested in the distance of the shot and forensics. It now appears that Martin was shot from an intermediate range (no more than 18 inches and as little as an inch away). That would support the claim of Zimmerman that they were in a wrestling fight when the gun was fired. The greater the distance the stronger the case for the prosecution. The defense will likely present expert testimony to try to reduce the range further on the stand. Also, the report does have people at the scene saying that Zimmerman’s nose appeared broken — supporting the later medical report of the family doctor (though such injuries could occur from Martin defending himself).
Moreover, at least two witnesses appear to support Zimmerman in describing the man in the hoodie at straddling the other man and throwing punches. The report state that the man in the “‘hoodie’ [was] on top of a white or Hispanic male and throwing punches ‘MMA (mixed martial arts) style.’ He then heard a pop. He stated that after hearing the pop, he observed the person he had previously observed on top of the other person (the male wearing the hoodie) laid out on the grass.” One report also says that Zimmerman can be heard yelling for help 14 times on a 911 call recorded during the fight.
While the reports blame Zimmerman for getting out of his vehicle (he says that he was trying to get a house number for the police), that is not itself a crime. Of course, none of this means that Zimmerman was not the aggressor. Given the presumption of innocence and the need to prove the elements beyond a reasonable doubt, this evidence presents an added problem for the prosecution in my view. I have expressed skepticism over the way the case has developed and how it has been charged from the outset. As a criminal defense attorney, I would view this as a strong defense case even on the manslaughter charge, particularly given the poor police work at the scene.
What do you think?
Here is the police report.
Source: ABC and NY Daily News
I knew there was an element of the interview with Hannity that was making me feel weirded out and uncomfortable about Zimmerman, aside from his robotic rehearsed quality and the obvious leading-question presentation. This morning it finally hit me: George Zimmerman’s fantasy world.
He says he can’t even imagine what it’s like to bury a kid, and in this respect, he shows us his own wonderfulness, his own loving character: He has nephews! When they were born he LOVED THEM! And he realized how different this was from all other things — WOW — LOVE! And he rounds out the story of wonderful-George-doing-wonderful-loving with the earnest advice that: “I love my own children even though they haven’t been born yet.”
WOW.
Not only is he a good cop when he hasn’t been hired by the police force,
and a good criminal justice graduate when he hasn’t yet graduated and probably flunked out,
and a good innocent person although he’s charged with murder and admits he killed an unarmed kid,
but he’s also A GOOD FATHER — Hey, he’s FATHER OF THE YEAR!!!!!!
He LOVES those unborn kids (and hasn’t shot any of them…yet) —
GEORGE ZIMMERMAN LIVES IN A FANTASY WORLD WHERE HE IS ALL-WONDERFUL AND WHERE HE MAKES UP THE FACTS.
The problem is, in that fantasy world, he made Trayvon Martin into a vicious assaultive dangerous criminal and then he killed him before he could stand trial and get properly executed.
Dear God,
If it was part of Your Plan that George Zimmerman did exactly what he did do on 2/26/2012, then I have a few questions for you.
First of all, did you deliberately have a young Black kid be the one who was walking around that night for George Zimmerman to be forced to kill? Would it not have been a lot better to have someone who came from a non-Christian family be the one walking around that night so that when George Zimmerman had to kill him, there could be some enlightenment about what happens to people who refuse to accept Jesus as their personal saviors? You missed a big opportunity that night, letting him be forced to kill a Christian boy. Lots of people are really confused.
Secondly, did you have to test George Zimmerman on that issue of turning his other cheek? Because from the looks of his face, he didn’t TURN his cheek at all, and although he complained a lot about a broken nose, neither cheek seems to have been smitten. Where’s the lesson in that?
Thirdly, Lord, and I don’t mean to be picky or anything, but George Zimmerman had a few little scratches on the back of his head like Officer Serino said, what they call “capillary lacerations,” and that’s nowhere near as serious as you did to Job in the Bible — Lord, couldn’t you have at least given him some boils?
Fourth, Lord, and here we’re getting down to some serious problematic stuff, but if you look carefully at what George Zimmerman said and what Trayvon Martin (according to George Zimmerman) said, Zimmerman said “F0cking” FIRST! He said “F0cking punks” and not until well after that did Trayvon Martin say, “You’re gonna die tonight motherf#cker.” So, I mean, well…whoever is without sin is supposed to cast the first stone, so shouldn’t you have cast the first stone at George?
Oh…God, you work in mysterious ways, it just hit me (metaphorically). YOU DID THROW THE FIRST STONE. That’s how George got his little boo boo on the back of his head. Oh yeah, now I get it.
So thanks, God. That really cleared it up for me…a little bit.
Carry on. I really want to see the rest of your plan.
Your perplexed servant,
Malisha
RE: George Zimmerman’s statement to Sean Hannity that what occurred on the evening of 2/26/2012 was “God’s Plan” that he couldn’t “second-guess or judge”:
Please see a man of god respond to this total piece of offensive idiocy:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-adam-j-copeland/5-reasons-to-stop-calling-things-gods-plan_b_1689372.html
How could any person, religious or not religious, say anything more clearly about why George Zimmerman’s hubris-filled pompous statement was way way way WAAAAAAAAAY out of place?
It’s just like George to have a graduation ceremony when he didn’t even graduate.
It’s also like George to claim that officers never identified themselves to him when they did.
It’s also like George to fabricate that he was attacked when he tried to unlawfully restrain and then shot and killed an unarmed teen he had targeted.
And it’s like George to not feel stressed when he lies.
And it’s like George to lie.
A lot.
Malisha, I think you’re right about the school. He was probably scheduled to graduate and a big deal was made of it, so the party went on as scheduled. But he probably flunked one or two courses that he has to take over. This might have put him on academic probation or not. Whether they kicked him out or he dropped out really doesn’t matter. If you can’t attend class because you have to hide, you’re done for the term. The course that he took was to familiarize the general public about the criminal justice system.
I don’t know about the workings of handguns but if he was able to get that shot off under the circumstances, I wonder why he didn’t shoot something of himself during the scuffle.
————
He still has his permit and I haven’t seen anything that says he can’t get another gun. After all, he’s a target and there are lots of people out to get him, he just might have one. The danger is, he now knows all about SYG.
I just hope they lock this guy up before he kills anyone else. Does he still have his gun permit?
Just like George to have a ‘graduation’ ceremony when he did not even graduate. He lives in some fantasy land alright.
We now have it on good authority:
God gave Zimmerman the right to kill Martin.
It was Zimmerman’s god-given right to kill Martin.
Sling, you know, when somebody uses Sharia law to stone a woman for adultery, they say that it was Allah’s will and they cannot question or judge it. And so forth and so on throughout history — George Zimmerman’s use of “god’s plan” is really no different. Not only should Sharpton and Jackson apologize to Zimmerman (we know that because he said that on Hannity and we know that things he says are true because he is not a racist), but in fact EVERYONE who has thought he did wrong should now apologize to him, because by questioning Zimmerman’s motives and honesty, we are all trying to second-guess and judge God’s Plan! We damned infidels!
SOMETHING JUST OCCURRED TO ME: SLING, LEANDER, ET AL., HELP ME WITH THIS: GEORGE ZIMMERMAN HAD A GRADUATION CEREMONY (at which Mark Osterman’s wife presided) to congratulate him for getting his criminal justice degree. BUT he was still in school to get that degree when the Martin event occurred and shortly after that, he was kicked out of school.
NOBODY STARTED UP AN ACTION AGAINST THE SCHOOL FOR IMPROPERLY KICKING HIM OUT — although, if you think about it, if the school kicked him out when he was not even found guilty of a crime, that would have been discrimination. RIGHT?
Wait a minute, wait a minute: The school did not even come under SCRUTINY for kicking him out.
Wait a minute, wait a minute: here is a big piece of the puzzle that has not yet been scrutinized. George MIGHT have been on probation at the school already on 2/26/2012 or something. HE MIGHT have been in a position where he realized that his golden future of becoming a LEO or a judge would not materialize. He told Serino he already had an associate’s degree in criminal justice [NO HE DID NOT] and he already had his “graduation ceremony” with Mark Osterman’s wife presiding. He was frustrated; he was not getting his props.
I think there is a very good chance that what happened was that George Zimmerman was either flunking out or being kicked out of school and he was at the end of his financial rope and he was not getting any closer to his dream job of being a cop and having Chief Lee provide him with a legallized way of bullying “suspects” to feed his little hero complex. Things were falling apart for George.
I sure wish somebody would find out what actually DID HAPPEN at that school, because for them to kick him out without a legal basis would be something they could be sued for, and would try to avoid, and yet…
God works in mysterious ways.
God made Zimmerman get out of the truck and go-in-the-same-direction-and-not-follow into a dark area where he saw Martin not-running-but-sort-of-skipping-and-definitely-not-in-fear.
God made Zimmerman wander-or-maybe-just-stand-still for over two minutes so that MArtin could attack him near the T-junction.
Alternatively God didn’t make Zimmerman hang around. God just miraculously protected Zimmerman from the effects of a 2 minute plus beating by slowing Martin’s punches to about once per 10 seconds. Ditto for the head-slamming for 2 minutes.
Zimmerman wishes that God had not made him do stuff, but hey!
See?
Guns don’t kill people. God does.
On the Hannity interview, Zimmerman said he wished something (?) had put him in a position where he didn’t have to kill Martin BUT he did not regret either getting out of his car or taking a loaded gun with him — so it’s hard to figure out what MIGHT have put him into that enviable position (of not having had to kill someone he called “the suspect”). He seems kinda passive. He says it was all god’s plan.
Well it’s good he’s so philosophical about it. After all, he points out he can’t second-guess or judge god’s plan. So if it’s now god’s plan that he gets sent to prison for life, or if it’s now god’s plan that he gets off and some other person gets put into a position where that other person cannot avoid killing HIM, that’s all still a part of that same god’s plan that George can’t second-guess or judge.
Wow, see how life gets? You just gotta roll with it. Sometimes you get put in these positions.
Zimmerman was not only in danger of dying of boredom, but there was another problem with him wriggling and slithering under Trayvon Martin:
He did not use his hands for any self defense except the ultimate act of shooting Martin — and only THEN because he was told that he was going to die. In other words, he did not try to use his hands to punch back at Martin; he did not try to use them to poke Martin’s eyes out or punch HIS face from below; he did not try to use them to knock Martin sideways and then stand up and kick him; he did not raise up his midriff or his hips to throw Martin off him; he did not flail at Martin from underneath him; he did not bite; he ONLY wriggled and slithered so his head would hit grass instead of concrete.
Then he shot and THEN can’t remember much. For over two minutes he lay there being pummeled and head-slammed and he acted like a fish without arms, just slithering and wiggling.
Yeah, his story is so unbelievable that at this point probably he, Taaffe, Shelli, Sean and Mark Osterman are the only ones who believe it and even for them, believe has to go in quotation marks.
Especially interesting was Zimmerman’s commentary on Trayvon Martin’s mental state.
He was rehearsed.
Z: I was going to Target to do my weekly grocery shopping. Sunday nights was the only nights — well, Sunday after we mentored the kids, we would always go grocery shopping and do our cooking for the week.”
Opps, forgot about the mentoring, start over.
—————-
H: WHY did you feel the need to carry a gun? A lot of people maybe have a weapon inside their home, but you decided to carry yours. WHY did you think it was necessary to have a weapon with you? And did you carry it at all times?
ZIMMERMAN: I carried it at all times except for when I went to work.
2 whys and a carry at all time. No why’s. No follow up.
——————
“He was in-between houses, cutting in-between houses…”
right. he was using the path between the houses that lots of kids use.
——————
The whole tone changes: Z isn’t afraid of the suspicious stranger and the stranger isn’t afraid of him, M just wants to intimidate Z but he doesn’t succeed. There’s that hero complex.
———————–
“I was following him” becomes “I was going in the same direction to get a house number so I could meet the cop.”
——————
I can see a story changing to add more details, but these changes are something else.
Bigfatmike,
There is a link to the video and a transcript of the interview at
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/hannity/2012/07/18/exclusive-george-zimmerman-breaks-silence-hannity
Zimmerman did indeed say that he didn’t know about the SYG law.
This would be to distance him as far as possible from any accusation that he carried a gun at all times (including while on NW patrols) in the knowledge that he had protection if he chose to use it while defending the world from harm.
All of what he said in the interview designed to make him as squeaky clean as possible
– he did not follow
– he did not run, he walked. What we heard were wind noises. He was not out of breath. That was the wind.
– he did not feel threatened by Martin, so it was not unwise to venture “in the same direction”
– he did nothing to alarm Martin. Martin did not run in fear, or even at all
– he was attacked less than 30 seconds after the call ended. This would be an acceptable , albeit slow, time for a walk from RVC to the place where he says Martin confronted him.
Unfortunately, the 30 seconds mean that the fight started 2 minutes before the first 911 call connected.
The shot occurred about 40 seconds into that call.
Zimmerman’s very minor injuries arose from a beating that lasted at least 2 minutes and 40 seconds.
160 seconds of beating.
During all of that – or from the first punch in which MArtin broke Zimmerman’s nose – Zimmerman was calling for help.
During all of that, Martin was bashing Zimmerman’s head into the ground
How many times did Martin punch Zimmerman during those 160 seconds?
“Several. More than a dozen.”
Let’s say 20 punches. That’s definitely more than a dozen.
That would be on average one punch every 8 seconds.
Yes. In the vicious beating, Martin punched Zimmerman once every 8 seconds.
So you see, Zimmerman is confused.
He was not in danger of having his head explode.
He was only in danger of dying of boredom.
BFM, in case you need ANYTHING to make you doubt Zimmerman’s credibility, YES, with a smirk, he said that before this whole thing blew up, before he was forced to “end a life,” he
HAD NEVER HEARD OF THE SYG LAW.
Hannity forgot to ask George if, before this part of “God’s Plan” happened, he had ever heard of the 14th Amendment. Who knew?
Probably he should have also been asked if Trayvon Martin knew about the SYG law — since he knew whatever was in Trayvon Martin’s mind that night too, don’tchaknow.
Exactly. THE INVESTIGATORS did not tell him anything. He still has delusions that he and the police were, together, working this case, of “the suspect.” He could have played out that fantasy but for the press catching hold of this story and making an issue of his decision to hunt down and kill someone for being in his neighborhood without his permission.
His reason for saying this was HE was providing a MOTIVATION for Martin to be holding his hand over Zimmerman’s mouth as he killed him, see? He first ruled out the motivation that Martin “ran” because he was “scared” — and then he ascribed the motivation for Martin to stuff his hand over his mouth (how, while he was punching and slamming?) so that he could stop him from screaming for help because Martin knew (according to Z’s version) that Zimmerman had been on the phone with the police already so Martin was trying to shut him up so the police would not be able to find them and save the poor guy from the vicious marauder-turned-assailant.
See?
Here were his (Trayvon’s) motives, according to Zimmerman —
1 – he was up to no good —
2 – he saw & tried to intimidate Zimmerman —
3 – he “skipped away” presumably to hide & ambush Z, somehow knowing that Z would get out of the car — but not feeling any fear —
4 – he decided to attack & beat up Z to give him “a problem”
5 – he tried to shut him up because he knew if Z kept screaming, the police would find them —
6 – then, seeing the gun, he decided to kill Z “tonight” —
———————————–
“I found out from what the investigators told me that he must have known that I had been on the phone with the police”
wtf. What in the world did the investigators tell him that would give him that idea? Why would the investigators think anything of what Martin knew except that the weirdo was following him? Maybe coordinating with another weirdo to do bad stuff to him? No way that Martin thought the weirdo was talking to the police. And no way did the investigators tell him that.
O’Mara likes money.
The Hannity thing was such a hoot! I didn’t know which one to laugh at harder: George or Sean! It wasn’t that they had their heads up their a55es; they had their heads up EACH OTHER’S a55es!
The part about “I found out from what the investigators told me that he must have known that I had been on the phone with the police” was precious. Zimmerman’s as dumb as a big white rock. How do you say that in Spanish?
I did not watch Hannity. But someone told me that Zimmerman stated that he was unaware of SYG at the time of the shooting.
Can someone tell me did Zimmerman make that claim.
Of course I do not know what was in Zimmerman’s mind. But it seems unlikely to me that Zimmerman would be unaware of SYG. Zimmerman was taking criminal justice courses and was interested in police work. Both of those facts would seem to suggest that Zimmerman would have at least a rudimentary understanding of the conditions and limits of self defense in Florida.
In addition Zimmerman had a concealed carry permit that made it legal for him to carry a gun. I know there is a course required for the permit. Does any one know what is covered in the course. I am pretty sure the course covers safe gun practices. In addition I would have thought it would have covered a bit regarding responsible use of a concealed weapon, specifically some remarks regarding self defense. Perhaps someone here can shed some light the subject matter of the concealed carry course.
In any case it is hard for me to imagine that someone legally carrying a gun, with hopes of being a police officer would be completely unaware of SYG.
Whether Zimmerman knew of did not know may not change anything about his actions that night. But if we have good reason to suppose he was aware of SYG and he claims he did not know, that alone might color our view of his credibility.
The appearance was for $$$$$$$. The result was damning. Zimmerman’s imagination has been working overtime and he no longer knows the truth, not that he’s ever told it. As I read elsewhere, it was a coup for the prosecution that now has a better idea of how to cross-examine him if he decides to testify. I think a plea is the best way to go, after the money stops coming in.