Supporters of George Zimmerman, the volunteer watchman charged withmurder for shooting Trayvon Martin, say new evidence that shows Mr.Zimmerman was beaten and bloodied about the head and that Mr.Martin s knuckles were mangled should bolster Zimmerman s claimthat he shot the unarmed black teen in self-defense. As pieces of evidence in the case begin to trickle out, thesecond-guessing of the prosecutor s decision to levelsecond-degree murder charges in the case has begun in earnest, withmany seeing Zimmerman s injuries as a reason to throw the case outaltogether. The evidence, they say, raises questions about whether the decisionto charge him at all had more to do with politics rather thanfacts. A medical report obtained by ABC News states that Zimmermanhad a fractured nose, two black eyes, two lacerations on the backof his head, and needed psychological counseling after the fight.
Zimmerman escaped prosecution for six weeks until Gov. Rick Scott amid a national uproar and the arrival of civil rights leaders appointed a special prosecutor, Angela Corey, who chargedZimmerman on April 20. Zimmerman has maintained from the beginning that he feared for hislife before shooting Martin. Ms. Corey has said public pressure,including that from civil rights organizations, did not play a rolein her decision to charge Zimmerman on April 20, more than sixweeks after the shooting.
Evidence that Martin hit Zimmerman hard enough to draw blood fromdifferent places on his face and head and skin his own knuckles,according to some legal experts, has made second-degree murderconviction a long shot. If accurate, the medical report obtained by ABC is agame-changer, says Harvard University law professor AlanDershowitz, who suggests prosecutors acted inappropriately by notreferencing the extent of Zimmerman s injuries in their swornaffidavit to the court. A jury that s not afraid of causing a riot, an objective jury,is not going to convict somebody of second degree murder after hisnose was broken, eyes blackened, and his head banged against theground, he says. The prosecution s best case is that Zimmerman provoked Martin,absolutely improperly followed him, and confronted him, ProfessorDershowitz adds. But as a result of that, a battle ensues andMartin s on top, banging his head against the ground, and[Zimmerman] reasonably believes that his life is at stake and pullsout the gun.
It s classic self-defense, and if it s not selfdefense, it s at worst involuntary manslaughter. The new details of the aftermath of the fight, however, are part ofshifting perceptions around the case, which led to a nationaldebate on how race plays into increasingly liberalized US gun andself-defense laws. Initial reports of the fight, accompanied by pictures of Martin asa baby-faced 14-year-old, created the perception of an unbalancedfight between a gun-carrier adult and a young teen. But at the timeof the fight, Martin stood at 6 feet 3 inches and 150 pounds,towering over, but not outweighing, Zimmerman, who is 5-foot-8, and185 pounds. Zimmerman told the court on April 27 that he thoughtMartin was an adult and said he didn t know if he was armed ornot.
The medical report doesn t prove that George Zimmerman actedlawfully, but it breaks the narrative that Zimmerman was notinjured, writes William Jacobson, a Cornell University lawprofessor, on his Legal Insurrection blog. But while the extent of Zimmerman s injuries could certainlyinfluence a jury, the injuries are only part of a broader calculusthat led Corey and her team to charge Zimmerman with murder including Zimmerman s mindset as he pursued Martin on foot, whicha police dispatcher specifically asked him not to do. Zimmermanspotted Martin as he was returning to where he was staying with aniced tea and a bag of Skittles. The Justice Department is also pondering a federal hate crimecharge, if they determine that Zimmerman profiled and shot Martinbecause he was black.
A hate crime charge could put the deathpenalty into play if Zimmerman is convicted on all counts. I am a professional writer from Apparel, which contains a great deal of information about electroluminescent t shirt , members only jackets, welcome to visit!
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