Quote:
Originally Posted by NJblue
Even if your narrative had the possibility of being true, it is insufficient to send this person to jail for life. Unless you know it to be true beyond a reasonable doubt - which you admit that you don't, a not guilty verdict has to be the result. I hope no one condones sending someone to prison based on conjecture.
You say Zimmerman had an opportunity to stop this and didn't. We don't know that for a fact. However, we do know that Martin had an opportunity to stop it and chose not to. When Good came out and told him to stop he had the perfect opportunity to say something like, "he's got a gun and wants to shoot me!" or "he attacked me!" or just stopped the beating and kept Zimmerman pinned down in a helpless position - knowing that there was now a witness should Zimmerman try to do something. He chose none of these options and just continued the beating. This is the clearest testimony that Martin was no longer in self defense mode (if he ever was) and was now in attack mode.
Why does it matter which pocket he put his phone in? Why should he have to justify putting his phone in his pocket rather than holding on to it. Are you suggesting that that by putting his phone in his pocket it adds to the case that he is guilty? If so, how so?
As to my bar room scenario. Change Mike Tyson to any random person and play the scenario out. It still doesn't give the random person the right to continually beat someone to the point where their life may be threatened.
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I love good discussions and that is exactly what my intent is here.
I have not said anywhere that GZ deserves to spend the rest of his life in jail. I don't think this rises to the level of Murder 2, but I do think GZ should not be acquitted. I do think that he bears a great responsibility in what happened based on what he did. Reckless endangerment, if nothing else would even work for me. But, the trial isn't over yet.
As to your question as to what it matters which pocket his phone was in, that was my question when GZ said it. My question is not which pocket, but how was TM supposed to know that he was not reaching for a gun? He didn't know who or what GZ was. The law says that you only have to be in reasonable fear that your life or your person might be in grave danger. Given the company indicated that TM kept in Miami, why would he think this thuggy looking guy was not just that...a thug? Some had just suggested that he might have put it in his pocket because of the rain and didn't want it to get wet. Either way, he was expecting the police to call him when they got there so he could tell them where he was.
You're right, TM did have an opportunity to stop when challenged by the neighbor and he should have told that neighbor what was going on. No one at the trial testified that they ever saw GZ getting his head "bashed" into the concrete....just that the scuffle was close to the concrete at one point and that it looked like he was getting hit. Good testified that he couldn't even be sure of that; just that that was what it looked like.
One guy was out there within seconds after the shot and took a picture of TM, but yet did not testify that GZ had TM's arm spread out as he demonstrated. Even those that saw him on top of TM never said they saw that....but then, they were not asked, either. If that were true, then how did the arms get back under him? No one, even GZ standing there looking at him ever said anything about his arms moving back under him. If GZ had seem him put his arms back under him, wouldn't he have done something about that since he already said that he might have been armed? If GZ really thought he was armed, would he not have kept TM's arms spread out until someone else was there to help? Why didn't GZ ask someone to check to see if TM was even still alive? I don't understand why the first officer didn't do that after securing GZ and his firearm. The second officer did and started to do CPR.
If I were on this case in any capacity, those are some of the things I would want to know and am surprised that these same questions have not been asked. I'm not a player in the case, but I still want to know.