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George Zimmerman Case: Should Charges Be Dropped?
ABC News ^ | May 21, 2012 | Matt Gutman

Posted on 05/21/2012 5:39:01 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Two prominent U.S. lawyers are among the skeptics questioning whether evidence in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin supports the second-degree murder charge against George Zimmerman, given the confessed shooter's apparent injuries and freshly released eyewitness accounts.

"There is no second-degree murder evidence in this case," Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said. "It's a very close case."

Details released in the past week add to the picture of what might have transpired on that rainy Feb. 26 before Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain in the Sanford, Fla., community where Martin, 17, was staying with his father's fiancée, shot the teen dead.

Previously unknown particulars, including the scrape on Martin's knuckle and photos of Zimmerman's battered and swollen face -- which were taken moments after he shot and killed Martin in what he says was self defense -- coupled with eyewitness accounts that back up Zimmerman's story, suggest for some that the prosecutor overreached.

"I'd rather play the defense than the prosecutor, because there's no way you get a murder-two conviction," journalist-attorney Geraldo Rivera said on Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" last week....

(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: blackkk; dershowitz; florida; georgezimmerman; trayvon; trayvonmartin; zimmerman
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To: Gargantua
"and out-of-court cash settlements from the Florida State, County, Police and prosecutors"

I think you could include the POTUS, too. Although, I guess POTUS was right, Martin would be a lot like his son - a dope smoking sloth.

41 posted on 05/21/2012 6:17:07 AM PDT by norwaypinesavage (Galileo: In science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of one individual)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

... and as your Attorney General, I say this case won't be over until that racist Honkey Hispanic Zimmerman is prosecuted for a hate crime!

42 posted on 05/21/2012 6:18:55 AM PDT by Zakeet (Obama loves to wok dogs)
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To: yldstrk

“They got manslaughter at the most and they might get it on the grounds that the popo told Z. not to pursue and he got himself “a problem” when he did pursue. And that he escalated the level of violence, i.e. brought a gun to a fistfight.”

I can’t believe you’re still saying this at this late date. NO ONE TOLD Zimmerman not to pursue Martin, in fact he was following Martin NOT pursuing him. What the non-sworn civilian police dispatcher actually said when Zimmerman told him he was following Martin was, “We don’t need you to do that”. That’s not an order or even advice. The civilian police dispatcher has no authority to tell anyone to do anything so even if he had phrased it differently it wouldn’t matter.

As for escalating the fight, Martin jumped Zimmerman. That was the first, and only, crime committed that night. Following someone, especially when you’re Neighborhood Watch on private property, is not illegal. Neither is asking what they’re doing there but Zimmerman didn’t even do that.

Corey’s claim of “profiling” is ludicrous and immaterial. The call to police makes it clear there was no profiling. The dispatcher ASKED Zimmerman if Martin was white, black, or hispanic. Despite all the PC BS those are still relelvant questions when trying to get a description of a suspect. Even if he WAS profiling it’s not illegal for a private citizen to profile. In fact it’s probably a good idea.

The one thing that’s clear in all of this is that Angela Corey needs to be disbarred and in jail. I suspect Zimmerman is going to win huge settlements once all the liable and slander cases are settled. And if I were him I’d take the money and move to Peru.


43 posted on 05/21/2012 6:19:01 AM PDT by MtBaldy (If Obama is the answer, it must have been a really stupid question)
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To: yldstrk

Medium distance is actuall defined as less than 18 inches.

Red herring.

Media driven red herring.


44 posted on 05/21/2012 6:19:19 AM PDT by txrangerette ("HOLD TO THE TRUTH...SPEAK WITHOUT FEAR" - Glenn Beck)
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To: txrangerette
Very well-stated, "Budette"...

;>D

45 posted on 05/21/2012 6:20:14 AM PDT by Prov1322 (Enjoy my wife's incredible artwork at www.watercolorARTwork.com! (This space no longer for rent))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Ted Baxter has an MPA from Harvard and I’m not sure of Sean’s education.

I think Hannity went to Beauty College, as much as he admires himself.
46 posted on 05/21/2012 6:21:28 AM PDT by crosshairs
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To: andyk

...they were riding the PC wagon of gun control


47 posted on 05/21/2012 6:22:22 AM PDT by Doogle (((USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated)))
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To: C210N

The state appointed prosecutor made the decision, not the police. Police don’t decide prosecutions.

She was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott, and the local prosecutor was pushed aside

Holder doesn’t need a few thousand dollars.

He’s the kind who would be crooked with or without payment. Because he is agenda driven, not law driven.


48 posted on 05/21/2012 6:22:59 AM PDT by txrangerette ("HOLD TO THE TRUTH...SPEAK WITHOUT FEAR" - Glenn Beck)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Should charges be dropped? Should have never been filed in the first place!

The ONLY reason there are any charges is because of the fear of rioting by a segment of the “underclass” in our once-great nation. ENOUGH, ALREADY!

Shoot the rioters as necessary, rather than railroading an innocent man!


49 posted on 05/21/2012 6:25:20 AM PDT by JimRed (Excising a cancer before it kills us waters the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS, NOW AND FOREVER!)
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To: heshtesh

I dunno. Bernard Goetz still lives in NYC, right?

In fact, I just read Goetz’s Wiki page. If you see what became of his “victim” James Ramseur, one kind of wishes he had finished the job (in that case). The guys he shot had it coming.


50 posted on 05/21/2012 6:26:08 AM PDT by rbg81
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To: yldstrk
the popo told Z. not to pursue and he got himself “a problem” when he did pursue.

There's nothing to suggest that Zimmerman kept pursuing St. Trayvon after the operator said that. The Narrative Media took that quote by itself to imply that Zimmerman ignored it and kept going, since a fight occurred thereafter. But on the tape, Zimmerman tells the operator, "Okay," and starts breathing normally. Sounds as if he broke off the chase and walked back to his truck. Because somehow, Trayvon got shot a short distance from Zimmerman's truck. How did he get there? He must have followed Zimmerman and jumped him—as Zimmerman said in his account. Unless Sharpton is going to claim he shot Tray and carried him back to his truck for field-dressing.

51 posted on 05/21/2012 6:26:17 AM PDT by SamuraiScot
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To: norwaypinesavage

You mean why wasn’t the one who charged Zimmerman paid the bounty?

Why would the man they had put the bounty on, be paid the bounty?

In all seriousness, the bounty was to be paid to any black man who would find and detain Zimmerman so the Black Panthers could have at him.

Since that didn’t happen, no bounty was paid.


52 posted on 05/21/2012 6:26:30 AM PDT by txrangerette ("HOLD TO THE TRUTH...SPEAK WITHOUT FEAR" - Glenn Beck)
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To: JimRed

OOPS< I forgot the < /rant > tag!


53 posted on 05/21/2012 6:26:44 AM PDT by JimRed (Excising a cancer before it kills us waters the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS, NOW AND FOREVER!)
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To: Doogle

I think the motives included turning out the black vote for Obama. Remember Jesse J telling blacks to wear hoodies to the polls? The shooter isn’t even white, this was seized on just as you knew they would seize on something.


54 posted on 05/21/2012 6:27:42 AM PDT by Williams (Nobama)
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To: All

This is THE case for jury nullification. If found guilty, those who persecuted GZ will be emboldened to invoke the “Trayvon Martin” defense every time one of these self defense shootings come up.


55 posted on 05/21/2012 6:28:34 AM PDT by Molon Labbie (Prep. Now. Live Healthy, take your Shooting Iron daily.)
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To: Kriggerel
If Zimmerman were smart, when the charges are dropped and/or he’s found not guilty, he needs to move to some South Pacific island, or some place like Liechtenstein or Monaco.

But before he moves, he needs to sue the s#*t out of the race pimps and the MSM for a few million.

56 posted on 05/21/2012 6:30:34 AM PDT by Sirius Lee (When we cease to be good we'll cease to be great. Be for Goode.)
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To: Kriggerel
If Zimmerman were smart, when the charges are dropped and/or he’s found not guilty, he needs to move to some South Pacific island, or some place like Liechtenstein or Monaco.

But before he moves, he needs to sue the s#*t out of the race pimps and the MSM for a few million.

57 posted on 05/21/2012 6:30:34 AM PDT by Sirius Lee (When we cease to be good we'll cease to be great. Be for Goode.)
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To: norwaypinesavage

The bounty was to be paid to any black man or black men who could find and hold Zimmerman so he could undergo “justice” at the hands of the Black Panthers.

It can’t be relevant to wonder why Zimmerman wasn’t paid the bounty in return for surrendering to authorities.

As for turning himself in, he did so pursuant to being charged with second degree murder. Had he not complied with being taken into custody, he would have been a wanted fugiitive.

He had no choice, unless he wanted to try escaping to a country beyond the authorities’ jurisdiction.


58 posted on 05/21/2012 6:31:18 AM PDT by txrangerette ("HOLD TO THE TRUTH...SPEAK WITHOUT FEAR" - Glenn Beck)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The dispatcher most certainly does not have the authority to order anyone around. Not only that, even if a police officer, who was not on the scene and did not have all the facts told Zimmerman to not follow, that police officer would have a hard time making a case of “failure to obey the legal and lawful commands of a police officer.”

Zimmerman was doing ABSOLUTELY nothing legally wrong in following Martin.


59 posted on 05/21/2012 6:33:36 AM PDT by Molon Labbie (Prep. Now. Live Healthy, take your Shooting Iron daily.)
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To: yldstrk; txrangerette
-- I mean, the facts as they are currently "known" show TM was shot in the chest from a medium distance. --

The forensic report on Martin's clothing says "contact" shot. Contact with the clothing, that is. The clothing will obtain some of the burn energy, etc. and make the wound on the body appear as one that (had it been to bare skin) came from farther away.

I'd say the evidence has the muzzle of the gun no more than 3 inches from Martin's skin.

60 posted on 05/21/2012 6:35:18 AM PDT by Cboldt
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