A new report shows that the day after killing Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman passed a police lie detector test. He registered truthful in stating that he was afraid for his life before shooting the teen. The report does not materially affect the trial since such tests are not admissible but may explain the the resistance of local officials to bring the case. It also further supports the view, again, that Angela Corey overcharged the case. She was no doubt aware of the test which, while not admissible as evidence because their reliability is questioned, can be considered by the prosecutors in determining the appropriate charge. UPDATE: A police report shows a critical view of Zimmerman’s account and says that he missed two opportunities to defuse the situation.
Zimmerman willingly submitted to a computer voice stress analyzer (CVSA) “truth verification” on February 27 and the test “was classified as No Deception Indicated (NDI).” This included the question of “Did you confront the guy you shot?’ He answered, “No.” He was rated as telling the truth in both saying that he did not confront Martin and that he was in fear of his life.
Also released recently are further details from Zimmerman to the police. Zimmerman insisted that the teen knocked him down and began to pound his head in the sidewalk while telling him “You’re going to die.” Zimmerman claims Trayvon reached for the gun and that he grabbed it to protect himself.
Both the question of fear and the party responsible for the confrontation could be distorted by Zimmerman’s perspective and not accepted objectively by third parties. Of the two questions, however, the confrontation question is the most interesting. It is rare for targeted suspects to agree to lie detectors, though I have agreed to such tests in past cases.
Once again, this evidence does not rule out the basis for a criminal charge, but in my view strongly militates against a charge greater than manslaughter. In fairness to the local officials, the evidence also offers support for their view that no charge was appropriate. One can disagree with that conclusion, but they may have had solid reasons for opposing a charge. That does not excuse sloppy police work and there was still a basis to detain Zimmerman at the scene. However, the case has become more muddled with such new evidence. As a criminal defense attorney, I have always viewed this case as one with strong defense arguments for trial. While the odds always favor the prosecution, the factual record has a number of elements that could create reasonable doubt. Obviously, the trial itself can present facts in different light and the prosecution has yet to be fully heard in the case.
Source: NY Daily News
Zimmerman was handled by Smith who took him directly to the car. The EMTs might have arrived while Zimmerman was being moved to the car. The EMTs relieved the cops doing CPR, hooked up the monitor, found Martin to be flat lined, picked up their stuff and went to Zimmerman who was sitting in the police car. Why did Zimmerman not ask about Martin? Good question.
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The position of the body still bothers me. It was either Zimmerman or a witness who said that Martin was on his back with the back of his hands in the grass. But he was found laying face down. Zimmerman says that Zimmerman spread Martins hands out to hold him down. But Martin was found by the second cop on the scene face down with his hands under him. If Zimmerman is telling the truth, how did Martin’s hands end up under him? If he is lying, why? Is this supposed to be good police procedure to spread-eagle the suspect and Z wants to look good to the cops?
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Wish the cop in the room with him while he was waiting to take the voice stress test had continued the conversation:
Did you ever have to shoot someone/fire your weapon (can’t remember exactly what he asked her)
No.
Yea, I wouldn’t question your authority.
Unasked question: Did Martin question your authority?
She was probably “just” babysitting. Maybe wasn’t supposed to ask him questions. I don’t know the procedure.
Also, isn’t it strange that George Zimmerman is not asking the cops, “Is he dead? Is he going to be all right? Will he live?” while he’s being driven down to the station house?
What manner of person is this George Zimmerman?
BettyKath, I’ll allow that it was possible, but highly unlikely, because Martin was pronounced while the cops were still on the scene. By the time they were in the station house, it is clear that the cops, at least, knew that Martin was dead.
What he was saying in the Hannity interview, though, departed from his prior stories. He had said: (1) that he shot Martin who then said “you got me” and fell back and that he was STILL STRUGGLING while Zimmerman had to restrain him and spread out his hands; and (2) that he GOT ON TOP OF MARTIN because he was not sure he had been adequately restrained (why not stand up with the gun in his hand and back up while aiming?); and (3) that he wasn’t sure he hit him at all.
Obviously, if he wasn’t sure he hit him at all, then he would have to still fear this kid who had once subdued him and nearly killed him after hiding in the bushes. This might be just another TRICK! He might be playing dead so that he could leap up and finish the murderous job he had started, right?
As Zimmerman gets farther and farther into his stories/excuses, more and more impossibilities emerge from his tangled web.
He might not have known that Martin was dead until later. After he was cuffed he was taken to the police car while the cops did CPR.
BettyKath: Thanks for letting us know that — I’ll double my own HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!
He claimed that he was not sorry he got out of the car, not sorry he carried the loaded gun, and didn’t really know Trayvon Martin was dead until about an hour after he got to the station house!
His credibility is GONE. Gone with the WIND. Gone with the wind that made all that huffing and puffing noise on his non-emergency call to the cops. Bye bye bye…..
Angela Corey announced that the prosecution will be using the Hannity video.
The objection to the recusal motion:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/100330177/State-s-Response-to-Defendant-s-Verified-Motion-to-Disqualify-Trial-Judge-7-17-12
Shano, good work, thank you for posting that study.
We have all known that — but we have not had the data on it. When the victim is a “throw-away” the whole system fails. Only Sharpton and Jackson made sure Trayvon Martin was not simply another “throw-away.”
The fact that Zimmerman continued to call Martin “the Suspect” even after killing him shows the mindset. Zimmerman still looked upon himself as the “good guy” and he “got” the “bad guy.”
Last week the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement released an exhaustively researched study, “The Report on the Extrajudicial Killing of Black People,” that proved that every 40 hours since the murder of Trayvon Martin, there has been an extrajudicial killing of a Black person.
This week the hashtag #Every40Hours had to be edited to #Every36Hours once the 10 people killed the past seven days were factored in.
The report frames the crisis as a “human rights” one, arguing that Black people are “without sanctuary in the United State.” The term extrajudicial is used to include security guards and neighborhood watch types, whether they are deputized by the police or only dangerous “self-appointed” law enforcers, like Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman.
Given New York’s well-reported Stop and Frisk policy, recently defended by Mayor Bloomberg, it’s no surprise that the city leads the country in the number of killings, with 9 in the past six months.
The report points out that the anticipated post-election spike in inter-racial violence, namely, non-Black on Black violence, was in fact, realized.
The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement is a national human rights organization who focuses on racial justice. Their call to action includes organizing the Black community for its own self-defense and building a “broad, mass movement capable of forcing the government to enact transformative legislation based on our demands. The fundamental transformative demand must be for a National Plan of Action for Racial Justice to eliminate institutional racism and advance the struggle for self-determination.” While the language seems from another era, so do the facts.
These killings, almost a quarter of them of mentally challenged and many more of unarmed individuals, often teens, are shocking. Not least of all because before this report, they’d never been connected nor covered by mainstream media.
http://www.ebony.com/news-views/report-reveals-spike-in-extrajudicial-killings
I have not yet seen any objection to the recusal motion — is it out yet?
Zimmerman’s public statements are not under oath but I assume they are fair game in a cross examine or in any submissions by the prosecution, as in the public statements made by the attorney that were referred to in the objection to the recusel request
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oh yea, Martin was skipping merrily on his way tra la la. Not running. And George was looking for an address, not following or stalking this teen. Not in his car, not on foot.
God has a plan for George and it may not be the plan George thinks it will be. If I heard the outline of this story, and some murderer stated it was “Gods plan” for him to shoot any person who was minding their own business in every legal sense of the word, that would be a huge black mark. it would make me think that person needs some psychiatric examination.
Maybe they will go with the “I was abused and not responsible because of mental incompetence’. After they lose the SYG claim and have to face a jury.
I think O’Mara made a “net calculated mistake” when he took George Z on the air. NOT because he couldn’t benefit from the surge in donations from the Hannity-folks, and NOT because more Republicans won’t be supporting this very devout godly man who coudl not question god’s plan for him to shoot a “punk” that night, but because now, the prosecutors will study this tape more and more to see how it is possible to question George (on cross-examination) in such a way that his contemptuous, disdainful, stupid attitudes can be exploited to make him turn ANY JURY against him while he’s got his big, pompous, self-important, cowardly, lying, unintelligent, smirky, “please slap me until I shut up” mouth open.
Zimmerman’s face betrayed the contempt he had for others, anyone who doesn’t see things his way (the media, who think “following” means following, the people who think he shouldn’t have gotten out of his truck and shot an unarmed teen, etc.) — a little smile and a chuckling, dismissive, smirking comment, “Nosir, I wasn’t” is all he has for them — they just got it all wrong and should apologize.
My favorite George Zimmerman line from the Hannity interview:
“If I did something wrong I would apologize for it” (referring to the idea that Al Sharpton should apologize to HIM).
ZIMMERMAN knew that Trayvon Martin wasn’t scared of HIM. He has the nerve to say that.
Zimmerman also said something very peculiar: from what the investigators TOLD HIM, he realizes that Trayvon Martin knew that Zimmerman had been on the phone with the police already, and THAT was the motivation for Trayvon Martin to be trying to block Zimmerman’s mouth and prevent him from screaming “HELP” so that the police could find him and save him. Also, he didn’t realize Martin was dead until an hour after he arrived at the police station. Hmmmmmm.
On the Hannity thing:
If anyone was expecting a sympathetic approach from Fox / Hannity, they might be surprised.
O’Mara was walking a tightrope between getting some PR and exposing Zimmerman to unwelcome questions.
Hannity asks some searching questions, but either not enough or O’Mara had them pulled or had stopped Zimmerman.
The interview is interesting in that it indicates the line that O’Mara would take.
They have had time to work things out and try to fit a narrative into the recorded calls and interviews.
Zimmerman absolutely not following.
Zimmerman not being intimidated or worried by Martin – no danger in him “not following” into that dark area.
“Hand in his waistband” was just a bluff on the part of Martin. Somehow, Zimmerman knew this at the time.
Zimmerman can not be seen to be doing anything inadvisable.
Zimmerman absolutely not running. Walking only. Running might imply following or urgency in tracking Martin.
Walking puts Zimmerman firmly in Twin Trees at “We don’t need you to do that.” It also messes with the background noises heard.
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Another feature now is that Zimmerman says that Martin never ran.
It’s important that Martin was not running, as this might indicate that he had some reason to be fearful of Zimmerman.
See?
“He’s running” and “He ran” just mean that he just sort of moved a bit quicker than a normal walk. This is just the same as “Yes (I’m following)” does not mean following.
Let’s be clear about this. Zimmerman did nothing that might make Martin worried or fearful. Martin was not fearful. Zimmerman says so. He’s can’t imagine why Martin would have been alarmed or fearful.
…. eh.. no wait! Doesn’t that mean that all those people who banged on about “If Martin was worried he should have run home” – have been stabbed in the back by Zimmerman.
A biggie is
This is rather stunning.
O’Mara wants a story in which Zimmerman was not following and was not hanging around.
Zimmerman is saying 30 seconds (Maximum!) , which leaves 2 minutes (Minimum!) unaccounted for between the call ending and the first 911 connecting.
If we believe the 30 seconds, then the fight had been going on for nearly 2 minutes before anyone noticed the noises.
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It’s also odd that Zimmerman insists that he never went more than about 100 feet from his truck. That would mean going no further than the T-junction.
He’s trying give an impression of not wandering, but is overplaying that.
The distance from the end of the path on Retreat View Circle – where he says he went – to his truck is about 250 feet.
A reasonable person would ask why he did not go North between the houses to get a far more accurate house number on RTC. That walk would have been absolutely safe from bumping into or being ambushed by the (now unseen) suspect and would have been..100 feet. I wonder if this aspect is what has him claiming that an actual 250 feet is not greater than an asserted 100 feet?
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I really don’t see how Zimmerman’s account can stand up under proper questioning.
The times in the calls are indisputable.
If he had never made the non-Emergency call, he would be in a far better position.
I named my blog “Zimmerman’s Call” for a very good reason. It was clear to me that this is an unchallengeable measure of everything he said afterwards.
I don’t know if I can watch it.
Excerpt:
George Zimmerman and his wife Shellie were balling out! It was revealed in court documents that the couple spent almost $36,000 of donation money in only 18 days while he was in jail.
With the funds donated, Zimmerman and his wife spent $6,500 on Internet and phone bills, new cell phones for $300 each, paid off a year-long Verizon contract in full, installed a telephone landline for $2,500, spent $1,300 on a two-year AT&T Wi-Fi contract and paid off at least $7,000 in credit card bills.
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They used $4,378 on automotive expenses, making payments on two car loans while renting another for more than $1,500. Gas: $800.
Zimmerman paid off a $3,000 loan to his parents, paid $5,000 for bond, spent $800 at the jail commissary and $600 on jailhouse calling cards. The couple spent about $1,300 on food and $400 on utilities and $1,900 on rent.
Read more: http://globalgrind.com/news/george-zimmerman-wife-shellie-spent-36k-18-days-trayvon-martin-details#ixzz212ocKWQc
Zimmerman said he regretted nothing because he believed “it was all God’s plan.” He also said there isn’t anything he would do differently in retrospect.
Read more: http://globalgrind.com/news/sean-hannity-george-zimmerman-fox-news-trayvon-martin-mark-o-mara-gods-plan-video#ixzz212jB35bk
It was a hoot — Hannity remembered Z’s lines better than Z did himself!
Here’s more from GlobalGrind.com: SHOCKING REVELATION! Fox News Host Sean Hannity Offered To Pay George Zimmerman’s Legal Fees!:
Yesterday, the Special Prosecutor in the George Zimmerman case released 149 jail house phone calls that Mr. Zimmerman made while being held on bail in April of this year in Seminole County Jail. Last night, GlobalGrind scoured through all of them, trying to decipher the coded language that George uses in his conversations with his family and close friends.
In call #30, from April 14th (3 days after being arrested), George is speaking to one his closest friends and confidantes, “Scott.” As reported by many of our colleagues in the press, including the Miami Herald this morning, George mentions to Scott that his attorney Mark O’Mara is aware of an attempted transfer of $37,000 from his PayPal account to Zimmerman’s wife’s personal account. This would be big enough news in the case, as Mr. Zimmerman was sent back to jail after being released on his first bond for not disclosing the amount of money he had raised for his legal defense fund. Furthermore, Mr. O’Mara admitted in court that he did not know anything about the attempted transfers, but with this new evidence being made public, it seems that the attorney was in the know.
However, as we listened to the rest of the call, what struck us as odd was George’s comments about a gentleman, who he calls “SH,” who offered to pay for his entire legal defense, as long as he uses an attorney, who George calls “JB.” In a previous call (#24), George reveals to his wife, Shellie, that “JB” is Jose Baez, who represented Casey Anthony (this was also confirmed to GlobalGrind by Miami Herald reporter, Frances Robles). However, the person who offered to pay for his legal fees, “SH” is only identified in code.
More there with transcripts of the phone recordings and from the end of the article:
George Zimmerman decided not to use Jose Baez as his attorney and stuck with Mark O’Mara. We do not know if Sean Hannity is funding Mr. Zimmerman’s legal defense with Mr. O’Mara at the helm. We reached out to Mr. Hannity for comment and are awaiting a response.