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The jury is not going to care about your hurt head.

5/18/2012

1 Comment

 
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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.










1 Comment
John Locklear
5/30/2012 02:29:20 pm

I hope that you are correct in your assertions about what the jury will be thinking. I have my fears that the defense will do a good job of trying the case publicly, well before the jury actually has a chance to hear the prosecution present arguments.
I think you and I completely agree on this one. For me, there is no excuse for Zimmerman to have gotten out of his vehicle, especially after being advised to not do so. Obviously, I was not there but in my mind I can see Zimmerman feeling pretty cocky and assured, after all he is carrying his weapon. Perhaps Martin looked like the right one to pick a fight with, young enough, target enough, dangerous enough but vulnerable enough, that Zimmerman could live out his Dirty Harry, vigilante fantasy.
The entire scene makes me sick. It makes me angry. It especially bothers me that, at least to me, there doesn't even seem to be a reason to ask if Zimmerman is guilty, it is just a matter of guilty of what exactly? I know my feelings and my last point are arguable, but the one thing that isn't is what you pointed out. Had Zimmerman done what he was instructed to do, he would not have been in a confrontation, he would not have pulled his gun, and he would not have shot dead a teenage boy. There has to be something he is guilty of beyond using very poor reasoning.

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