George Zimmerman mug shot
Florida’s Governor Rick Scott responded to inflammatory media reports and public demonstrations demanding an arrest by appointing a Special Prosecutor to second guess the decision of the state attorney normally in charge of prosecutions in that county that insufficient evidence existed to justify bringing charges.
Special Prosecutor Angela Corey, who arrived with a reputation for being “too aggressive,” lived up to her reputation by announcing on Monday that she would not bring the matter of the shooting of Trayvon Martin before a Grand Jury at all, and would decide herself on whether to bring charges.
Corey surprised most observers yesterday by charging George Zimmerman with Second Degree Murder instead of Manslaughter.
The relevant Florida law definition reads:
The unlawful killing of a human being, when perpetrated by any act imminently dangerous to another and evincing a depraved mind regardless of human life, although without any premeditated design to effect the death of any particular individual, is murder in the second degree and constitutes a felony of the first degree, punishable by imprisonment for a term of years not exceeding life or as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.
—————————————-
A news agency report predicted that the prosecutor’s job would not be easy.
The prosecutors must prove Zimmerman’s shooting of Martin was rooted in hatred or ill will and counter his claims that he shot Martin to protect himself while patrolling his gated community in the Orlando suburb of Sanford. Zimmerman’s lawyers would only have to prove by a preponderance of evidence – a relatively low legal standard – that he acted in self-defense at a pretrial hearing to prevent the case from going to trial.
There’s a “high likelihood it could be dismissed by the judge even before the jury gets to hear the case,” Florida defense attorney Richard Hornsby said.
GoneWithTheWind
This is all going to come down to the jury composition. In Florida with a large black population it would be easy to justify 6 or 7 black jurors and there is little doubt they have already made up their mind. The remaining jurors should be white females to reflect diversity and because they can more easily be bullied into going along to get along. Perhaps one or two white liberal men who would have to move and give up all their friends if they were to vote for aquittal and you have the perfect lynch mob.
Zimmerman has few chances to win. One is to ask the judge to throw it out if the evidence is as we have heard it was a clear cut case of self defense. But if the judge doesn’t want to have to move and give up all his friends he would reject that. The second chance is that there are one or two honest unprejudiced people on the jury who won’t cave so that everyone can go home on Friday night. That is going to be tough. The prosecutor will be rejecting any juror who appears to have more then two brain cells. The last chance is that Zimmerman’s lawyer is not a fool. He needs to convince thew judge to throw the case out. Failing that he needs to prevent the prosecutor from stacking the jury. If he fails Zimmerman will die in jail from a shiv between his ribs.
martha
Hopefully, Zimmerman will be convicted and receive the maximum sentence. After that my hopes are that he’ll spend every day of it in prison. I don’t wish him to be murdered in prison but I do wish him to “grow a conscience” while he’s there. On the out chance that that would happen, he’ll spend the rest of his life in the prison of his own mind. But that’s not likely.
Please Leave a Comment!