Posted on 07/05/2013 5:11:32 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
Trials, unlike punditry, operate not in the world of evoked memory, allegory and free association, but in the world of facts. When it is a criminal trial the facts must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. There is a reason that exacting standard is used — someone’s freedom, or life in the instance of a capital case, is at risk.
A journalist can construct a scenario in the Trayvon Martin case in which he can nonchalantly assign criminal liability with phrases such as “shot an unarmed man,” but these banalities have no legal meaning.
Let’s take the charge at issue, second-degree murder. It is a nearly incomprehensible example of overcharging, if one understands the definition of second-degree murder. This is why so many experienced attorneys were shocked by the charge.
Journalists rooting for a conviction have repeatedly said that Zimmerman’s explanation doesn’t “hold together” or “make sense.” In a column that is interesting; in a court of law it is irrelevant. What matters is if the state has the case — one so certain that there are no reasonable facts that could provide an alternate explanation. It’s the opposite of the journalistic standard, in other words.
Second degree murder requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the killer had “depraved indifference to human life.” Former prosecutor Andy McCarthy explains: “In a depraved mind case, motive is superfluous because what establishes the mens rea is the objective barbarity of the act itself, not some fuzzy ‘generalized hatred’ that may have been crawling around the killer’s brain. It is virtually inconceivable that a situation involving self-defense on the killer’s part will fit a ‘depraved mind’ charge.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
And what is the bar for manslaughter in this case?
Vigilante Justice ?
How about anti-white , pro-black , racist prosecution ?
Affirmative action in prosecuting crackers for defending themselves .
If honest writers want to sneak in a story telling the truth, you wait until the weekend when the Marxist editors are stoned and drunk out of their gourds. It looks like Jennifer has done that.
You’d never know it by reading the comments. Washington Compost, it is.
It’s also great fun to read all the neo-Nazi, 70 IQ slugs at the WP exploding their single brain cells in the comment section.
Is it even possible (by Leftist standards) that a Hispanic could ever be a racist?
WP is clearly racist.
The media is rooting for a faith based conviction.
Is it even possible (by Leftist standards) that a Hispanic could ever be a racist?
It would depend on how hispanic he was...
Good on Jennifer Rubin.
Zim is Hispanic AND BLACK.
“The charges against Zimmerman were ordered from the Governor’s Mansion when high-profile celebrities joined the race baiters and the rabble calling for Zimmerman’s head on a pike. If Trayvon Martin was white his death would be a local story.”
Another Republican governor and attorney general who couldn’t stand up to the progressive race baiters. Under fire Republican politicians in this day and time can be counted on to cave.
“You’d never know it by reading the comments.”
It’s to be expected from neanderthal, neo-Nazi racists who read that trash at the WP. Most wear eyeliner, carry purses and wear dog chains so their 50 IQ liberal bitches can lead them around by the nose.
Everyone one of the idiots on that bandwagon should be ashamed of themselves. Little witch hunters or...Klan with a Tan.
It WAS a local story...for three weeks.
Were you aware that the event actually occurred three weeks before the national media started their reporting.
And that the local media had reported the incident completely...and the self-defense plea had been accepted by the local community. Because the complete reporting had featured the eyewitness testimony about "the black kid in the hoodie" on top of "the guy in the red shirt", beating the crap out of him.
Three weeks later, the national media started reporting the story -- omitting certain facts which had been reported locally. Like the eyewitness testimony. Like Zimmerman was a Hispanic. And, of course, tinkering with the 911 tapes -- to give the impression that Zimmmerman was a racist.
Somebody called the media's attention to this story. And instructed them to misreport the already known and reported facts.
I would like to know who that somebody was. And who they interfaced with in the national media.
And that will identify the biggest criminals in this whole affair!
Depends upon the audience. In this case, the target audience is black and Obama's race agitators since day one have portrayed Zimmerman to them as being white.
Revenge is what they want, not justice; that’s clear.
Two Manhattan’s and a Heineken —
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