He may have been beating up Zimmerman at the time, but if Zimmerman attacked him first (ie: trying to physically detain him) and Martin was resisting... then 2nd degree murder is spot on as it was Martin defending himself. We don't know all the facts... but from what we do know, there was cause to believe that Zimmerman's story was not 100% factual and charges needed to be brought upon him. As Nook stated, the charges can always be downgraded. Let's take a look at Florida's manslaughter http://www.richardhornsby.com/crimes/homicide/manslaughter.html Definition of Manslaughter The crime of Manslaughter can be committed in one of three ways, either by: 1.Manslaughter by Act: Committing an act that was neither excusable, nor justified that resulted in the death of another person. 2.Manslaughter by Procurement: Persuading, inducing, or encouraging another person to commit an act that resulted in the death of another person. 3.Manslaughter by Culpable Negligence: Engaging in “Culpably Negligent” conduct that resulted in the death of another person. Penalties for Manslaughter The crime of Manslaughter is classified as a Second Degree Felony and is assigned a Level 7 offense severity ranking under Florida's Criminal Punishment Code. If convicted of Manslaughter, a judge is required to impose a minimum prison sentence of 9¼ years in prison and can impose any additional combination of the following penalties: •Up to 15 years in prison. •Up to 15 years of probation. •Up to $10,000 in fines. It has the same defenses as 2nd degree murder. The prosecution will most likely argue that Zimmerman unlawfully stalked/harrassed Martin (and had a 6 month history of singling out young, black males as being suspicious), provoked the confrontation (as stated by Martin's girlfriend) and unlawfully shot Martin (not in self defense). Ofcourse... he's innocent until proven guilty.
There are enough doubts about that and you do not know if there are other evidences unknown to the public. Let a jury of his peers decide if he is guilty of not.
And he's charged with 2nd degree murder based on all the evidence the prosecutor had. He's innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Your opinion on what happened has no weight in court, just as people who think GZ unlawfully shot/murdered Martin. What is publicly available is probably just the tip of the iceberg as to the total amount of evidence.
What do we do with all the white trash in America? There's a big gap between them and the educated ones. I have lots of white friends, but I prefer to keep white trash in Baytown. All the wife beaters, WHITE POWER tattoos and shaved heads. How do we help them catch up with the rest of us?
Just enough to raise doubts in Zimmerman's story. Just the fact that the girlfriend heard GZ say "what are you doing here?" (or something along those lines) is enough to punch a hole straight through his story of never following Martin and getting suck punched. Once there is doubt in the story and witnesses disagreeing on certain aspects, it's time to press charges and let this sucker be fought out in court. Some may get mad at the media, but the widespread backlash the Sanford PD and DA office got the Martin family what they deserved... answers.
If an armed man follows people in the dark and attempts to bring him into his vehicle, Martin had a reasonable fear for his life and to stand his ground and fight back. I always thought teens were supposed to fight for their life, if an armed man attempts to detain you or bring you into their vehicle. It is safer to fight than to get into their cars, where they can drive you to a remote location and murder or rape. I remember in the '80s, they would tell us to "NEVER GET IN THEIR CAR". If you can't get away, then fight.
I understand you about the white trash, but again in my personal experience, even the white trash who would enter whatever convenience store I happened to be working at they would usually pay and go on their way. I rarely if ever had any issues with any race but blacks, now this is coming from a non-bias 16-20 year old kid who had many black friends at the time. Their are many whites that you would deem white trash, but is society scared of them? ask yourself that question. My poor mother is 60 years old and from India and when she goes to the grocery store at night and sees a black amn in the parking lot she gets fearful, does she do that when she sees an Asian? A "white trash" figure? No, it's the perception in many american's heads that when you see a black guy with saggy pants and a hoodie he's probably a criminal hiding something or about to do something. Is it a correct perception to have? absolutely not, but it is what it is, I guarantee you a woman like my mother would have no fear of a 6'8 250 lb black man alone in a randall's parking lot if he wore a nice polo and slacks....pereception in life is everything and george zimmerman as neighborhood watch captain perceived a problem and simply questioned it, like I said, no way this happens with Carlton Banks, I guarantee zimmerman has had a million chances in life to kill a black man if that was his goal.
also the white trash you reference are such a small minority in society that it does not matter, blacks are a GIGANTIC part of our society and yes we need to get them up to speed on how to dress and act if they want people to take them seriously. I see plenty of blacks in my law school classes, do they have hoodies and saggy pants? do they speak in ebonics? Absolutely not
Your parents came here by choice to work hard and taste success. You can't compare yourself to blacks or understand the hardships that they have suffered for hundreds of years in America. Their ancestors were brought here on ships by those who enslaved them. They were sold, worked to death, beaten, lynched and weren't 100% citizens. They didn't have the same rights as everybody else until maybe 2 generations ago. Hell, a black guy couldn't even stroll into a random Texas town without getting accused of rape... followed by a nice lynching at the big tree in front of the courthouse. Sure, they're culture isn't all that great. Work ethic isn't pushed on kids when their dad's left before they were born. It's still going to take a few more generations before Americans are truly color-blind. When we don't create laws that discriminate by color, people tend to respect the law and society a bit more. Of course Indian Americans are tought the importance of family and work ethic... There's nothing wrong with that at all. We should all strive to teach all children, regardless of race/gender that hard work is respected in our society.
Again how the heck are you suppose to prove the girl friend heard that? I think what will hurt GZ the most is his past. He has had problems with his temper and run ins with the law. Plus if he really shot him from such close range there must have been a lot of blood spatter. If the PD didn't take pictures of that arrest them all for RICO or something.
This is her testimony. The phone records show that she was on the phone with him right around the time of the shooting. Now if you'd like to think that she's lying... that's another story.
Phone records will verify whether or not she was talking to Martin at the time of the event. It will not verify the veracity of her statements about what was said. Apparently the Crumpsters kept her away from the Sanford police and they had plenty of time to coach her testimony. At any rate, since her testimony came so late in the process, it's not at all clear that it was not subject to contamination be it intentional or unintentional.
LOL. White trash is not minority in many portions of America, mainly rural or smaller towns/cities. If you have never lived or worked outside of urban America, you just wouldn't know.
