Court of public opinion looms large in George Zimmerman murder trial

rockin'robin

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On paper, Seminole County, Fla., criminal case No. 2012-001083-CFA is a second-degree murder trial, one that could send George Zimmerman to prison for life.

But in the court of public opinion, the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin has roused a national conversation about racial profiling, self-defense, gun control, vigilantism, civil rights and more.

A trial that speaks to something more than just the individuals involved is good for civic discourse, says Jason Johnson, a political science and communications professor at Hiram College in Ohio.

“That is a very good result of this case,” Johnson told Yahoo News. “Depending on your demographics and your experience, there are different parts of this case that pop out to you.”

Opening arguments in the high-profile trial, which will be streamed live on Yahoo, begin at 9 a.m. ET Monday.

Zimmerman was a volunteer crime watchman in his gated Sanford, Fla., community when he shot and killed Martin during a scuffle on a dark neighborhood sidewalk in February 2012.

Minutes before the shooting, Zimmerman phoned police to report Martin, 17, as a suspicious person and, against the advice of a 911 dispatcher, continued to follow him through the neighborhood. Martin, a Miami high school student, had been at a nearby convenience store and was walking back to a family friend’s house where was he visiting.

[PHOTOS: See pictures of key players and evidence in the case]

Zimmerman, who is of mixed heritage and self-identifies as Hispanic, says he shot Martin in self-defense. He maintains that the teen attacked him, pounded his head into the pavement and tried to get his holstered handgun. Martin died at the scene from a single gunshot to the chest. Sanford police didn’t initially arrest Zimmerman, who suffered a bloody nose and head lacerations in the fight.

While no one witnessed the confrontation, Martin had been on his cellphone with his girlfriend shortly before the scuffle. The woman, identified in court records as Witness No. 8, could provide key testimony for the state's argument that Zimmerman pursued Martin. A neighbor heard the pair fighting and was on the phone with 911 when the fatal shot was fired. Faint screaming is heard in the background of the call. Prosecutors say it was Martin. Zimmerman says it was him. On Friday, Judge Debra Nelson is expected to rule if audio experts will be allowed to testify.

Many viewed the early lack of charges against Zimmerman as unequal justice for a black victim. More than 2 million people signed an online Change.org petition demanding “Justice for Trayvon Martin,” and demonstrators protested in Sanford and elsewhere across the country. President Barack Obama drew criticism from some when he addressed the tragedy during a public briefing in the White House Rose Garden.

“All of us have to do some soul-searching to figure out how does something like this happen,” Obama said 19 days before Zimmerman was eventually charged by a special prosecutor assigned to take over for local police.

“But my main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon. And I think they are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves and that we're going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened.”

Johnson, the professor, says the president’s remarks proved to be pivotal.

“That’s when we knew that this case was going to be about more than this particular kid getting killed,” Johnson says. “It was going to be about notions of violence, and respect, and profiling in America in general.”

These issues have nothing to do with Martin’s death, says Robert Zimmerman, George’s father. He recently released an e-book titled, “Florida v. Zimmerman: Uncovering the Malicious Prosecution of My Son.”

“Every attempt was made to portray the events as a white, racist, neighborhood watch volunteer stalking, pursuing, and then murdering a little black boy simply getting candy for his little brother,” Robert Zimmerman writes in the book. “Absolutely none of this portrayal was at all accurate, and clearly known not to be true by individuals involved.”

[RELATED: A look at the jurors for George Zimmerman's trial]

Zimmerman, himself a former judge, contends prosecutors are on a “politically motivated witch hunt” fueled by “race-baiters” seeking fortune and fame.

“A wholly justified and necessary action by George turned into a national issue,” he writes. “What Americans have been told by the media for well over a year will finally be exposed and the truth presented. The egregious and self serving conduct of the Scheme Team, prosecutors, and others will hopefully be fully exposed.”

According to public documents, an FBI investigation didn't uncover any evidence that Martin’s death was motivated by race. However, Johnson said the case still has racial components that can’t be overlooked.

“Race is a lot more nuanced than we often report and discuss in public discourse,” he said. “This is one of those cases that’s going to demonstrate how nuanced it really is.”

While the country debates the role race played, Sanford continues to heal from the community unrest. For several months, many of the town’s clergy have been gathering with federal and local mediators to share their congregation’s concerns.

Next week they’ll play peacekeepers at the trial. Four seats in the courtroom are set aside for local ministers, while other pastors plan to mingle among spectators outside the courthouse.

Court of public opinion looms large in George Zimmerman murder trial
 
My concern is that what will happen if he's acquitted. Will we get along or not?
 
Prosecutor opens with Zimmerman's obscenity

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — A prosecutor told jurors in opening statements Monday that George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin "because he wanted to," not because he had to, while the neighborhood watch volunteer's attorney said the shooting of the teen was carried out in self-defense.

The opposing attorneys squared off on the first day of testimony in a trial that has attracted international attention and prompted nationwide debates about racial profiling, vigilantism and the laws governing the use of deadly force.

Defense attorney Don West used a joke in his opening statements to illustrate the difficulty of picking a jury amid such widespread publicity.

"Knock. Knock," West said.

"Who is there?"

"George Zimmerman."

"George Zimmerman who?"

"Ah, good. You're on the jury."

Included among the millions likely to be following the case are civil rights leaders the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who joined national protests in the weeks before prosecutors filed second-degree murder charges against Zimmerman. The charges came 44 days after the shooting.

Zimmerman, 29, who identifies himself as Hispanic, has denied that his confrontation with Martin before the shooting had anything to do with race. His mother was born in Peru. His father is a white American. Martin was black.

But just before opening statements began, Martin's parents sent out an urgent plea to their supporters to pray with them for justice, while their family attorney, Benjamin Crump, described the case as clear cut.

"There are two important facts in this case: No. 1: George Zimmerman was a grown man with a gun, and No. 2: Trayvon Martin was a minor who had no blood on his hands. Literally no blood on his hands. ... We believe that the evidence is overwhelming to hold George Zimmerman accountable for killing Trayvon Martin."

Prosecutor John Guy's first words to jurors recounted what Zimmerman told a police dispatcher in a call shortly before the fatal confrontation with Martin: "F------ punks. These a-------. They always get away."

Zimmerman was profiling Martin as he followed him through the gated community where Zimmerman lived and Martin was visiting, Guy said. He said Zimmerman viewed the teen "as someone about to a commit a crime in his neighborhood."

"And he acted on it. That's why we're here," the prosecutor said.

Zimmerman didn't have to shoot Martin, Guy said.

"He shot him for the worst of all reasons: because he wanted to," he said.

West told jurors a different story: Zimmerman was being viciously attacked when he shot Martin, he said. He was sucker-punched by Martin, who then pounded Zimmerman's head into the concrete sidewalk.

"He had just taken tremendous blows to his face, tremendous blows to his head," said West, after showing jurors photos taken by Zimmerman's neighbors of a bloodied and bruised neighborhood watch volunteer.

West also played for jurors the call to a police dispatcher in which Zimmerman used the obscenities.

Martin had opportunities to go home after Zimmerman followed him and then lost track of him, but instead the teen confronted the neighborhood watch volunteer, West said.

Guy argued, however, that there is no evidence to back up other claims by Zimmerman, including that Martin had his hands over Zimmerman's mouth. Guy said none of Zimmerman's DNA was found on Martin's body. The prosecutor also said Zimmerman's claim that he had to fire because Martin was reaching for his firearm is false since none of Martin's DNA was on the gun or holster.

Zimmerman is pleading not guilty to second-degree murder, claiming self-defense. If he is convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

On Feb. 26, 2012, Zimmerman spotted Martin, whom he did not recognize, walking in the gated townhome community where Zimmerman and the fiancee of Martin's father lived. There had been a rash of recent break-ins and Zimmerman was wary of strangers walking through the complex.

The two eventually got into a struggle and Zimmerman shot Martin in the chest with his 9mm handgun. He was charged 44 days after the shooting, only after a special prosecutor was appointed to review the case and after protests. The delay in the arrest prompted protests nationwide.

Two police dispatch phone calls will be important evidence for both sides' cases.

The first is a call Zimmerman made to a nonemergency police dispatcher, who told him he didn't need to be following Martin.

The second 911 call captures screams from the confrontation between Zimmerman and Martin. Martin's parents said the screams are from their son while Zimmerman's father contends they belong to his son.

Nelson ruled last weekend that audio experts for the prosecution won't be able to testify that the screams belong to Martin, saying the methods the experts used were unreliable.

Both calls were played for jurors by the defense in opening statements. Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, left the courtroom before the second call was played.

Opening statements were made two weeks after jury selection began. Attorneys picked six jurors and four alternates after quizzing the jury pool questions about how much they knew about the case and their views on guns and self-defense.
Prosecutor opens with Zimmerman's obscenity
 
From RR's latest link:

The prosecution took a little more than a half-hour to make an opening statement. The defense took more than two-and-a-half hours.
 
This trial is moving fast. Both opening statements are done, and they've already gone thru a few witnesses. Nothing like the Jodi trial that dragged on and was constantly interrupted with side bars.
 
This trial is moving fast. Both opening statements are done, and they've already gone thru a few witnesses. Nothing like the Jodi trial that dragged on and was constantly interrupted with side bars.

Lets hope it stays like that. I doubt it but let's hope.
 
My concern is that what will happen if he's acquitted. Will we get along or not?

Hey, like Jiro said in other thread, everything will be okay and you will be fine.

Let not worry about unusual event, anyway.
 
Neighbor says she saw struggle in Zimmerman trial

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — A neighbor who partially witnessed the struggle between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin testified at Zimmerman's murder trial that she heard shouts of "no" during the fight.

Selene Bahadoor's testimony on Tuesday was the first by someone who saw some of the confrontation that resulted in Martin being fatally shot.

Bahadoor says she heard the sound of running outside the townhome she lived in, and when she looked out a window she saw arms flailing in the dark.

She left to turn off a stove and then heard a gunshot. She says she saw a body on the ground the next time she looked out the window.

Zimmerman is pleading not guilty to second-degree murder, claiming self-defense.

http://news.yahoo.com/neighbor-says-she-saw-struggle-zimmerman-trial-202918036.html
 
Things are not going Zimmerman's way so far. That Knock Knock joke probably hurt him with the jury. His lawyer is not very good from what I have seen.
 
Things are not going Zimmerman's way so far. That Knock Knock joke probably hurt him with the jury. His lawyer is not very good from what I have seen.
I sure hope jurors don't blame the accused for the dopiness of the lawyers. Jurors should stay focused on the facts, not the fluff.
 
I sure hope jurors don't blame the accused for the dopiness of the lawyers. Jurors should stay focused on the facts, not the fluff.

I agree. But...they are jurors.
 
My concern is that what will happen if he's acquitted. Will we get along or not?

Well, let's see...Spike Lee posted the name and address of people he thought was Zimmerman's parents and turns out they weren't; wasn't that nice of Spike too. I noticed he didn't get jail time for that. Did he assume people would just send emails or mail? Somehow I doubt it; if Joe Blow had done what he did, he'd be in jail...but not Spike. He did have to pay an "undisclosed sum" to the people he victimized.

I think the media has done a good job of making sure Zimmerman doesn't have a fair trial and they've been convicting him for months....so I don't see this ending quietly. Imagine if he was white and not Hispanic?

Laura
 
Well, let's see...Spike Lee posted the name and address of people he thought was Zimmerman's parents and turns out they weren't....
Yeah, that was pretty low-down.
 
Well, let's see...Spike Lee posted the name and address of people he thought was Zimmerman's parents and turns out they weren't; wasn't that nice of Spike too. I noticed he didn't get jail time for that. Did he assume people would just send emails or mail? Somehow I doubt it; if Joe Blow had done what he did, he'd be in jail...but not Spike. He did have to pay an "undisclosed sum" to the people he victimized.

I think the media has done a good job of making sure Zimmerman doesn't have a fair trial and they've been convicting him for months....so I don't see this ending quietly. Imagine if he was white and not Hispanic?

Laura

Zimmerman is biracial , he is White and Hispanic. I do not see your point so if he was all White how would that had change thing? If Zimmerman was all White , I would still feel that he should be found guilty .
 
Zimmerman is biracial , he is White and Hispanic. I do not see your point so if he was all White how would that had change thing? If Zimmerman was all White , I would still feel that he should be found guilty .
If GZ was black, do you still feel that he should be found guilty?
 
Zimmerman is biracial , he is White and Hispanic. I do not see your point so if he was all White how would that had change thing? If Zimmerman was all White , I would still feel that he should be found guilty .
Biracial means being of two races. Hispanic is not a race. Hispanic people come in many colors.
 
It is a reporter reporting live online, but the news is on a live feed ( its not supposed to go public ) yet it is on the live feed so its getting broadcast, the news doesn't know it yet. No there is no CC but the reporter is commenting along the way.
 
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