Once a jury is convened in the Trayvon Martin case, its members are unlikely to be especially concerned with the injuries George Zimmerman suffered while he was killing Martin.  They aren't going to find him less culpable because his victim went down fighting.  If I were a juror, I think I would be surprised that Zimmerman was presenting his wounds as part of his defense.  Any cuts and bruises Zimmerman sustained are just evidence that Martin knew he was fighting for his life. 

The jury will also not be preoccupied with the substances found in the bloodstream of Martin's dead body.  They won't find Zimmerman not guilty based on something his victim had smoked.  I don't think they will care whether Martin was high as a kite or drunk on moonshine.  It won't matter if he had on a hoodie, a ski mask or war paint.  In fact, the more the defense tried to present Martin as though he looked like a thug, the more I would wonder as a juror why Zimmerman ever got out of his car.  How did he go from observing Martin through his rain-splattered windshield, to tussling with him on the ground and shooting him?  Zimmerman says he had to kill Martin to save his own life.  How was it that he came to be in such a deadly predicament? 

The jury will be presented with testimony about whose voice can be heard yelling for help, and which man was seen by witnesses on top of the other.  There will be copies given out of Trayvon Martin's autopsy report, with estimates of how far the gun was away from his chest when Zimmerman fired the fatal shot.  The jurors should certainly study all of this information carefully - I know I would want to know every possible detail.

But regardless of what happened at the moment when Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman came face-to-face, Zimmerman has to explain why they came face-to-face.  That is what jurors will care about.  And because he is claiming self-defense, the burden of proof is on Zimmerman.  His attorneys will have to convince those jurors that what he did was not 2nd-degree murder. 

They will have to explain this: Zimmerman spotted Martin walking, thought he looked suspicious, and called the police.  They told him to stay put, but he followed Martin anyway.  There was an altercation.  A couple of minutes later, Zimmerman was breathlessly talking to police, showing them his bloody scalp and battered nose.  Trayvon Martin was lying dead in the wet grass beside them.

41 days with no arrest in the Trayvon Martin case.  A grand jury was scheduled to convene this Tuesday, April 10th, but that has been cancelled.  One more setback?  Or are we about to turn a corner?

Aggressive Florida prosecutor Angela Corey has taken over the investigation and possible prosecution of George Zimmerman.  The first thing she did was kick the much-awaited grand jury to the curb. 



Angela Correy's office can make up its own mind about whether to bring charges, she announced.  But for some of us, the upcoming grand jury was a bit of reassurance - as the days have dragged on with no arrest, it seemed like at least by Tuesday we would have some movement in the case.  And Corey has been a controversial figure in Florida, particularly in racially-charged cases.  Her ability to be fair in cases involving young black men has occasionally been questioned.  Will she focus on the theory that Martin turned on Zimmerman and engaged him in a fight to the death rather than the critical fact that Zimmerman pursued Martin?

Unlikely.  While Corey's reputation is one of complexity, she seems to have a history of being absorbed, more than anything else, with victim's rights.  She seems to be somewhat unpopular but respected by defense attorneys who have opposed her.  She horrified many last year with a decision in the case of a 12 year-old boy who had pushed his 2 year-old brother against a bookcase and killed him; she charged the 12 year-old with first degree murder and ordered him tried as an adult.  Corey is a Republican and long-time supporter of Governor Rick Scott, who has been accused of dragging his feet in appointing a task force to review Florida's Stand Your Ground law.

But Corey is also known to be dogged in her pursuit of prosecutions in cases of gun violence.  Her advocacy for victims of all races is legion.  She has said, when asked about this case, that it will be important to get to the truth and let the chips fall where they may.  Her history does not describe a woman who would have any patience for a defense plea of "I didn't really mean for this to happen," from a man with a gun in his hand, standing over a dead boy.

There remains a greater balance in this case of what we don't know than what we do, and most everyone seems to know that .  To repeat what I have observed on other posts: I'm impressed to see that by and large the consensus in the public seems to still be that we just need to understand what happened.  Zimmerman's defense attorneys might do well to note that as public frustration grows, impartial jurors will be harder to find.  Cooperation with investigators would appear to be in their best interest regardless of what really happened that night.

Tracy Martin, Trayvon's father, has said that he draws comfort from the idea that his son's death has put a spotlight on the broader injustices at work in this case.  He even said he felt his son was sacrificed for this reason, as a "calling from God."  Trayvon's mother, Sybrina Fulton said in an interview two days ago, "I have no time for anger. I don't want to grant it a place in my heart.  But my son died and we deserve to know what happened."

Tomorrow morning each of them will wake up to what is forecasted to be a warm and partly-sunny Easter Sunday in Sanford.  I don't even want to imagine what those early quiet moments will be like, and have been like each morning of these 41 days.  All we can do as fellow citizens around the country is to keep pushing for justice, in hopes that it will offer some small comfort to these two when it finally comes.

sources: The Miami Herald, Reuters, The Tallahassee Democrat, The Palm Beach Post, The Chicago Tribune, Global Grind

Today marks 36 days since Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman.  It also marks 36 days without an arrest.  The grand jury won't convene until April 10th.  Surely an arrest will come out of that, but in the meantime, is the DA's staff just crossing their fingers?  They seem to be assuming that:

• Zimmerman is not a flight risk
• there will still be 14 impartial jurors to be found
• frustration in the community won't build to a boiling point
  

What more do they need?
The initial reason given to the press by the Sanford Police Department for releasing Zimmerman was that there was not enough probable cause for an arrest.  Probable cause is defined as reasonable grounds for holding a belief that justifies bringing a legal proceeding against a person.  The burden of proof is not the same for an arrest as for a conviction of a crime.  A police officer simply must have a strong suspicion, based on observable facts, that a crime has been committed.

We aren't asking for a conviction.
Since the time this case has been covered nationally, the public has been inundated with bits and pieces of information that appear to be ample probable cause for arrest.  From the things we have heard, we could be forgiven for developing a focus on a particular charge, even a particular verdict.  But most people haven't gone that far.  I have been impressed with the fact that the vast majority of people continue to press instead for two things:

• an arrest and trial, so that a jury can sort out what happened
  
• an investigation of the Sanford PD and the DA's office
  

Most of us aren't being irrational.
Certainly there have been irresponsible voices on the fringe.  But the consensus has been more thoughtful.  The majority of journalists, pundits, elected officials, community leaders, and writers in the blogosphere are simply calling for appropriate legal action.  And I have observed that in my own circle of family and friends, everyone seems to simply want answers.

Just tell us what gives!
Americans are savvy enough to be skeptical of the fragments that have leaked out so far.  We can't help but to form opinions, but mostly we are just waiting for those who are privy to the all the verifiable facts to either make an arrest or tell us what it is we are missing. 

Apparently the Florida State Attorney for Seminole County is leaving it up to several million of us to try this case.  Don't worry about trying to get out of jury duty on this one though, it's going to be a piece of cake.

We'll have Lawrence O'Donnell as prosecutor, and Michelle Malkin for the defense.  Instead of forensics experts, we get to go with our gut.  Instead of interview transcripts, we get to hear speeches and arguments, which are much less tedious.  Instead of a learned judge deciding what evidence to let in, we can consider Trayvon Martin's school discipline records, and the moving, earnest protestations of one Joe Oliver, a sort-of close friend of the family of the defendant.  Think of it as a riveting episode of Law & Order.  Or CSI.  We're all experts these days anyway, right?  And while the courtroom setting is traditional, it's really bland, and there's no popcorn.

I have a picture of Nathan just like this one.  He is 22 now, and my other son Martin is 25.  They got through their teen years with only a handful of situations made more tense because they are young black men.  But the anguish on the faces of Trayvon Martin's parents chills me.  What happened to their son was one of my worst fears.

Any parent cringes when they hear about the death of a teenager.  We never forget that our kids are all so, so vulnerable.  They are newbies to freedom - they relish it and want to get out and around every minute they can.  But if you have a new driver in the family, you dread news of a crash.  If you have a special needs child, you worry about them being less able to navigate through what might be ordinary events for other kids.  If you have a gay child, you worry about assault.  And believe me, if you have a black child, especially a boy, you know that for some people, even those tasked with protecting your child's safety, they raise suspicion just for walking down the street.

There is much left to unfold in this case.  So many angles, so much we don't know.  If you pick each piece apart, they are all important: police procedures, gun laws, municipal integrity, powerlessness, racism, the question of neighborhood watch, and more.  But one piece that cannot be overlooked is the awareness that young black men in America must constantly have about how they are perceived, and the burden of fear forever carried by their parents.

The Innocence Project reviews criminal cases in which DNA evidence may be used to overturn convictions.  When a case is accepted, staff lawyers assist in the case or actually represent clients in court.  Even if you don't recognize the name The Innocence Project, you have probably heard of the shocking cases they have assisted in during the last several years; well-known stories of death-row occupants who were nearing execution dates when they were exonerated, or those who had sat behind bars for decades before being proved innocent.  While the use of DNA is the best-known focus of the Project, they are also exploring other failures of the justice system that have led to wrongful convictions.  One focus now is a critical examination of eyewitness testimony. The fallibility of this type of evidence has long been known, but The Innocence Project has been at the forefront of quantifying exactly what aspects of the procedure can be tweaked to make it more effective and reliable. 

One procedure the Project promotes as a best practice is the double-blind method of conducting photo-lineups, in which law enforcement officials presenting the pictures to potential witnesses do not know which of the pictures is of the suspect, so as not to purposely or inadvertently provide hints about which photo is of the suspect. 

This work is exciting to me because it is solution-oriented.  It is such a concrete, practical thing police departments can do to improve the objectivity and fairness of their investigations.

The Innocence Project:

• founded in 1992
• over 200 exonerations
• read about individual cases on their website: www.innocenceproject.org
• see their FAQ's for fascinating stats, and info on how to submit a case for review

Who is the pillow on this gurney for? The convict about to be executed? Is it to allow the chamber attendants a feeling that they are comforting the convict before inserting the needle?  It's bizarre, and simply plays up how bizarre this practice is.  It shows we are in conflict as a country about capitol punishment. 

Did you know that some states allow a condemned person to take an anxiety pill about an hour before their execution?  Who is that anxiety pill for?