Now that a charge of 2nd degree murder has been brought against George Zimmerman for the killing of Trayvon Martin, I still hold to the feeling that we must let our justice system work to decide if he is guilty for what happened.
Yesterday, I caught the last 20 minutes of Chris Matthews' "Hardball" show as he was announcing the upcoming press conference by Special Prosecutor Angela Corey. Matthews used the expression "heat brings light" to make his point that it was public pressure that resulted in the charges being brought. He specifically patted his own outlet, MSNBC, on the back, as well as his pal Al Sharpton. Of course, there was no mention of the bounty put on Zimmerman's head by the New Black Panther Party, the conviction of Zimmerman by the media-most notably MSNBC, the NBC editing of the 9-11 call or the false description of that police videotape showing "no injuries" to Zimmerman. I may very well have missed it, but to date, I have not heard one MSNBC commentator even make reference to the the NBPP, their bounty, and overall conduct.
Be that as it may, a couple of points are in order. Responsible "pressure" may be fine as far as leading police and prosecutors to re-visit a case and conduct additional investigation. It should not be a reason for a decision to file charges. Ms. Corey said that was not the case, so I will take her at her word. She handled her press conference very professionally, as did Zimmerman's new attorney.
As I said before, this case rises and falls on whether the prosecution can refute Zimmerman's version of events as to what happened when he and Martin came face to face. As I understand the Florida Stand Your Ground law, such a defense will succeed or fail based on who was the actual aggressor. I suspect that will have to go farther than merely showing that Zimmerman continued to follow Martin after being told not to by the 9-11 operator. As yet, we still don't know how they came face to face, what was said by whom, who initiated the struggle, and what were the actual circumstances under which Zimmerman drew his weapon and fired. If I am not mistaken, the only eyewitness says he saw Martin on top of Zimmerman, but did not see the actual shooting. We pretty much know what Zimmerman's story is, and it will be the task of the prosecutor to disprove that story. You may or may not believe the story, but it is plausible considering the eyewitness and the fact that Zimmerman did have some extent of injury. One would hope that the prosecution has additional evidence that we do not know about.
So let's sit back and let justice do its job.
I suppose it may just be my cynicism (possibly accompanied by paranoia??) showing, but in the immortal (and perhaps infamous??) words of the illustrious Dr. Henry Lee in the O.J. Simpson case, “something wrong” with the Zimmerman deal. What I fear may have happened is that charges were filed, and an arrest made, as pandering/appeasement to certain individuals/groups in order to prevent riots, further violence, or the like.
ReplyDeleteI have refrained from commenting on this matter to date since I do not know that I, or in fact any of us out here who are not involved, have enough credible information/evidence to speak knowledgeably. The original post is actually on the second page of “older posts” by now, but here goes anyway.
I have at least two main areas of concern. First, there is an exceedingly stark contrast between the failure of the (apparently incompetent, or racist, or even incompetent racist??) local cops/prosecutors/District Attorney to be able to charge Zimmerman with anything, even after what, something like six weeks or more of investigation, and the ability of the special prosecutor to (miraculously??) come up with a second degree murder charge in a matter of days (rush to judgement??).
It is certainly possible (but how likely/probable??) that the special prosecutor came up with additional evidence. Not very, in my view, but we shall see. Perhaps that evidence was there all along, and if I get to eat some crow, trust me that I know how to cook it.
The second, and possibly more significant, discrepancy is the failure of the special prosecutor to present this case to a grand jury, which would be typical, although apparently not legally required, in a case of this magnitude. In a heavy case like this one, even when charges are filed via complaint/information and an arrest effected, a subsequent visit to the grand jury is usually in order.
My gut reaction only is that the prosecutor may be well aware that, based on the state of the evidence, a grand jury might well have refused to indict/return a true bill on Zimmerman, which would almost certainly have been the end of the story as far as ANY prosecution, and which in turn would most likely have had undesirable consequences.
I will note that the charges/arrest certainly appear to have significantly quieted down the NBPP and most if not all of the race pimps, at least temporarily. Again, let us see where all this takes us.