Thread: George Zimmerman found not guilty

George Zimmerman found not guilty

By Yamiche Alcindor USA TODAY 10:01 p.m. EDT July 13, 2013


George Zimmerman stands with Robert Hemmert as he waits to leave the courtroom during a recess in his trial in Seminole circuit court in Sanford, Fla. on Saturday. Zimmerman has been charged with the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin.(Photo: Gary W. Green/AP)
Story Highlights

• A jury deliberated for more than 16 hours before finding George Zimmerman not guilt.
• The not guilty verdict means the jury of six women found Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin in self-defense.
• The case has gripped the nation since the shooting in February, 2012.

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SANFORD, Fla.--George Zimmerman, the man accused of murdering Trayvon Martin, has been found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter.
The verdict is the culmination of a case that captured the nation's attention and will undoubtedly be imprinted in America's history. The not guilty verdict means the jury of six women found that Zimmerman justifiably used deadly force and reasonably believed that such force was "necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm" to himself— Florida's definition of self-defense.
The women decided Zimmerman didn't "intentionally commit an act or acts that caused death" or demonstrate a "depraved mind without regard for human life" --Florida's definitions of manslaughter and second degree murder, respectively.
"Its means there was reasonable doubt," said Susan Constantine, a jury consultant and body language expert who attended Zimmerman's trial regularly. "They just could not put the pieces together."
The case has gripped the nation since the shooting happened on Feb. 26, 2012. Police initially did not charge Zimmerman with a crime, citing Florida's "stand-your-ground" law, which allows someone who believes they are in imminent danger to take whatever steps are necessary to protect themselves.
Protests ensued in several cities, including New York, by supporters of Trayvon's family. Many protesters voiced the opinion that Trayvon was targeted and killed for racial reasons. Trayvon was black and Zimmerman is Hispanic.
"You have a little black boy who was killed," said Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the parents of Trayvon. "It's going to be reported in history books and 50 years from now, our children will talk about Trayvon Martin's case like we talk about Emmett Till."
Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black young man, was tortured, murdered and grossly disfigured in Mississippi after being accused of flirting with a white woman.
In Zimmerman's case, State Attorney Angela Corey stepped in and charged Zimmerman with murder on April 11, 2012. Prosecutors however never argued that Zimmerman racially profiled the teen and instead said the teen was profiled as a criminal.
The five-week trial of Zimmerman, held in the same Florida city where Trayvon was killed, brought the facts of the case under a nationally-televised spotlight, with every moment captured on camera. More than 50 witnesses testified and on the first day of deliberation requested a list of the plethora of evidence that lawyers presented.
Some of the items include several statements Zimmerman gave to police, Trayvon's autopsy report and photos of both Zimmerman's injuries and Trayvon's body. Witnesses included forensic experts who testified about the angle in which Trayvon was shot, the position Zimmerman's gun may have been in, and where DNA and blood was found.
Other witnesses offered conflicting statements about how the fight happened, who had the upper hand when Zimmerman shot and who was screaming for help in a 911 call recording.
Eyewitness Jonathan Good said he saw Trayvon on top of and striking Zimmerman moments before the teen was shot. While Selma Mora, who lived a couple of houses down from Good, said Zimmerman was on top and told her to call the police.
A 911 call recorded screams and the fatal gunshot moments before the shooting. Who was screaming was a critical question before the jury.
The defense called nine people -- including both of Zimmerman's parents -- to testify that the screams belonged to Zimmerman. Both of Trayvon's parents and his brother all said Trayvon was screaming moments before he was shot.
In at times riveting detail, prosecutors tried their best to convince jurors that Zimmerman was a killer who "tracked" Trayvon, an innocent teenager, and murdered him before police arrived.
"That child had every right to be afraid of a strange man following him," prosecutor John Guy told jurors before they began deliberations. "This case isn't about standing your ground. It's about staying in your car."
Fellow prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda focused heavily on the state's theory that Zimmerman, frustrated by recent burglaries in his neighborhood, profiled Trayvon as a criminal and choose to take the law in his own hand.
"A teenager is dead, and he's dead through no fault of his own," de la Rionda said to jurors. "He's dead because another man made an assumption."
The majority of legal experts USA TODAY interviewed however said the prosecution had a weak case based largely on circumstantial evidence. Some said the state could possibly succeed if they appealed to the emotions of jurors. However, sympathy was not supposed to play a part in the verdict and defense attorneys reminded jurors of that fact repeatedly.
Mark O'Mara, an attorney for George Zimmerman cast Trayvon as the aggressor saying the teen may have been charged with aggravated battery had he survived the shooting. Trayvon, instead of going home, likely hid, waited for Zimmerman and confronted him, the lawyer said.
"Trayvon Martin came towards George Zimmerman," O'Mara said. '"That is not an unarmed teenager.'
O'Mara explained saying Trayvon used his fists and a concrete sidewalk to threaten great bodily harm.
He also focused on what he said was the state's failure to prove Zimmerman did anything legally wrong. "Where is one shred of evidence to support the absurdity that they are trying to have you buy?" O'Mara asked pointedly in his closing statement to the jury.
Elizabeth Parker, a former prosecutor who is now a criminal defense attorney in Palm Beach, Fla., said the defense did a good job of humanizing Zimmerman .
"The defense did a phenomenal job of presenting their case through the state's witnesses," Parker said. "They were able to get George Zimmerman's testimony in through several witnesses --sparing him from having to undergo vigorous cross-examination by these bulldog prosecutors."
One such is example was the testimony of Sanford police officer Christopher Serino, called by the state and later the defense, Parker said. Serino agreed with prosecutors that Zimmerman may have been profiling Trayvon but said no physical evidence or witness statements contradicted Zimmerman's claim of self-defense and that the medical examiner's report supported Zimmerman's version of events.
Still, Valerie Houston, pastor of Allen Chapel AME Church in Sanford, said she hoped Zimmerman was convicted because he followed Trayvon and initiated the events leading up to the shooting. Many meetings in support of Trayvon and his family were held in her church and Houston joined those who early on asked for Zimmerman to be arrested.
"I feel that he's guilty," Houston said. "If he's not found guilty people will be disappointed--the African American community for sure."
Now that the verdict is in, people who share Houston's views will have to accept that the justice system believes Zimmerman is innocent.
However, despite now being a free man, Jose Baez, a Florida criminal defense attorney, said Zimmerman will likely go into hiding and be unable to live a normal life for some time.
"The end is not near for George Zimmerman," he said.

Moved to General Discussion.

Its not over until Eric Holder sings ..

Holder faces big decision on DOJ charges against Zimmerman

By Meghashyam Mali - 07/14/13 08:13 AM ET

Attorney General Eric Holder faces a crucial decision on whether to press federal civil rights charges against George Zimmerman, after the neighborhood watchman was acquitted Saturday in the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin.
The NAACP and other leading civil rights groups are pressing for Holder to open a federal case against Zimmerman, after he was found not guilty on second-degree murder and manslaughter charges by a Florida jury.

The public pressure leaves Holder, the nation’s first African-American attorney general, facing a difficult decision on a controversial case that has grabbed the nation’s attention and sparked renewed debate about racial profiling.

In a statement from NAACP President Ben Jealous, the civil rights group said they were “not done demanding justice for Trayvon Martin.”

“The most fundamental of civil rights—the right to life—was violated the night George Zimmerman stalked and then took the life of Trayvon Martin. We ask that the Department of Justice file civil rights charges against Mr. Zimmerman for this egregious violation,” said the group in a petition unveiled Saturday night. “Please address the travesties of the tragic death of Trayvon Martin by acting today.”

On CNN Sunday, civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson also demanded that the Justice Department “intervene” and “take this to another level.”

Many Democratic lawmakers are also joining those calls, with Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) tweeting a message from Jealous asking for the DOJ to act.


Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) tweeted he was “deeply saddened” by the verdict, but was “pleased that DOJ is continuing to evaluate evidence.”

The DOJ launched a review of the shooting earlier this year and Holder said that they would take proper action if they had evidence of a civil rights crime.

“If we find evidence of a potential federal criminal civil rights crime, we will take appropriate action, and at every step, the facts and law will guide us forward,” said Holder in a speech in April to Al Sharpton’s National Action Network.

But Holder had cautioned in subsequent remarks that the DOJ faces a “very high barrier” when seeking to bring federal criminal charges in such cases.

The decision to act against Zimmerman after a jury acquitted him could also put Holder again at odds with Republican lawmakers, with whom he has had a contentious relationship.

The House voted him in contempt last year after he failed to turn over documents subpoenaed in a probe of the ATF’s botched gun-tracking program, Operation Fast and Furious.

Holder has also faced congressional anger over the DOJ’s probe of journalists over national security leaks, including questions about whether he lied when testifying before Congress that he was unaware of efforts to prosecute reporters.

Holder spoke in April about the shooting death of Trayvon Martin personally, saying that “as a parent, I reacted to it.”

“This is a pain that no parent should have to endure. The notion of having to bury a child is something that is, I think in some ways for a parent, the ultimate pain,” Holder said.

“The primary responsibility we have in the Justice Department is to support the state in its ongoing investigation, to do our own thorough and parallel investigation which we are in the process of doing and try to resolve this matter in as fair and complete a way and as quickly as we can.”

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefi...#ixzz2Z1yg7K17
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http://www.westernfreepress.com/2013...-of-doj-power/

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/...ime_color.html

EXCLUSIVE -- ROBERT ZIMMERMAN: SHARPTON 'DAMAGED THE FABRIC OF OUR SOCIETY'



by BEN SHAPIRO
13 Jul 2013

On early Sunday morning, Breitbart News spoke with Robert Zimmerman, brother of George Zimmerman. In response to media coverage from media outlets like MSNBC and Huffington Post decrying the verdict, Robert Zimmerman stated, “The hallmark of our judicial system is a trial by jury of your peers. People called for George’s arrest and called for him to have his day in court, and both of those things have come to pass. The hallmark of our society is the rule of law. It should go without saying that respecting the rule of law and the outcome, this verdict, is our duty.”

Zimmerman also said that he agreed with defense attorney Mark O’Mara, who said that his brother, George, would not have been arrested were he black. “I would have to agree with Mr. O’Mara. It’s hard to tell in hindsight what would or would not have happened if any other race had been involved, but certainly at the beginning of the narrative coming to light from Mr. Benjamin Crump and Ms. Natalie Jackson, it was clear that they wanted race front and center in their narrative and did a disservice to our country as a result.”

Zimmerman also expressed disappointment with Al Sharpton, who led protests back in March 2012 calling for George Zimmerman’s arrest, and who called the verdict “an atrocity” on MSNBC Saturday night. “In my opinion, the support we have received from the black community has been particularly inspiring,” Robert said. “I think that it’s time to pass the baton, as it were, to the new face of equality -- equality that is colorblind and that is based on the rule of law rather than the weight of the race card. Mr. Sharpton has done enough damage to the fabric of our society by constantly injecting race into every dialogue and constantly taking the position that everyone who disagrees with him might be a racist or have racist inclinations, including the Sanford Police Department, the state attorney office in Sanford, and my brother and his family.”

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journal...erman-Sharpton

I wonder how many of them will be sued. One News outlet for altering tapes for sure.
Sharpton deserves his day in court for his reprehensible racist attacks also. JMO