The Murder of Trayvon Martin
 

The 911 call (gets an interesting comment around the 2:21 mark)

So by now most of you have heard about how George Zimmerman, a Neighborhood watch volunteer, shot an unarmed black teen to death last month. He outweighed the boy by nearly 100 lbs, has a history of frequent calls to 911, and was told by the officers to let them handle it.

This reminds me of the case of Joe Horn in Texas back in 2007, in which another citizen took matters into his own hands after being told by 911 to let the cops handle it and 2 people were killed, in which Mr Horn subsequently walked.

Dr. Phil in a post, brought up both last night.

When I heard about this, the Horn case is the first reference point I thought of.

What do the rest of you think?

I think personally, this guy should be tried and jailed. He clearly went after this kid to do harm after being explicilty told not to and shot him for what reason???

Ugh, people like this makes me sick.


"Facts" about the case so far.

Such a sad case compounded by the dumbest laws in our union. What a cowardly man hiding behind those laws claiming self defense. SMH

I think that all the time spent demanding Zimmerman's arrest would be better spent demanding changes to the Florida law. There's really no good reason to arrest and try someone who has the law on his side.

Sickening. :(

This happened in February, so when I saw the story resurface, I thought the same thing had happened again.

I wonder what happened to make this a hot news story one month later.

ETA: Looks like the 911 tapes were released on March 17.

It is hard to say from just this whether the incident was racially motivated, but he does have some kind of paranoia or anxiety that caused him to come out of his house with a weapon - but still make the argument that it was self defense? The frightening part is that without help, another incident like this could happen.

In a lot of places, it's fine to go virtually anywhere with your sidearm. In fact, in Oklahoma, we have open carry as of just recently.

There are a lot of folks invested in this case now on both sides with agendas which have nothing to do with Zimmerman or Martin. It doesn't look very good for Zimmerman now, but apparently the FBI is now investigating. It's probably best to wait until those findings are released before anyone makes this their cause du jour on either side.

What happened was that Trayvon's family refuse to let this be buried. The problem was that when police took him into custody, they pretty much took him at his word that this was a self defense issue and was content to more or less let it go since the Sanford police claimed that they had no grounds to arrest him.

I would certainly hope that the family would not let this be buried.

I was asking why Zimmerman wasn't arrested around the time that it happened. The reason that the masses are talking about it now, though, is because of the release of the tapes.

Cynically, I'd say that the cops believed the white man's claims of self-defense against a young black man, and without further evidence, there wasn't much of a case.

I'd say that after reviewing the evidence I've seen put forward by folks who are obviously pretty biased against Zimmerman, assuming those facts to be true and that there is nothing out there to mitigate them, it doesn't look great for him, although, he could still put on a reasonable enough criminal defense to get acquitted.

In the initial accounts - Zimmerman claimed he was at his truck in the street, and the young man attacked him. Later reports -witnesses said Zimmerman was inside the house and saw the young man outside and came out with his weapon. The 911 call confirms the second report.

To make the claim of self-defense (even in Texas), Zimmerman would have to have reasonable fear for his safety - which would mean the young man had to be coming into his house or have a weapon on Zimmerman's property (not on the street.) Clearly, that is not the case here, and he should be charged.

I read something about a "stand your ground" law in Florida, that made it sound like it would be VERY difficult to get a conviction.

From my limited knowledge of the Florida self-defense law, your interpretation isn't accurate. There is no duty to retreat and force can be met with force anywhere. Whether Zimmerman was on the street or in his house is irrelevant under the Florida law. It's just whether he had a reasonable fear of death or serious bodily harm caused by Martin.

Bad laws produce bad results.

While police say that Zimmerman is white, his family says that he identifies as Hispanic. This doesn't necessarily matter, just a tidbit.



No matter what ethnicity he is, the entire incident is heartbreaking. The news played the tapes last night while I was cooking dinner. I usually try to avoid hearing these, but couldn't. After hearing that tape it is hard to believe the self defense argument. "Are you following him?" "yes" "we don't need you to do that." (my paraphrasing) Reading this article
really helped me understand the law. I feel like the law could easily be taken advantage of.

This is an example of another case like this. (I couldn't find the news article.) Yoshihiro Hattori was a Japanese exchange student that went to the wrong house for a party. The home owner became upset because the young man rang his doorbell several times and was speaking (to him) unintelligibly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshihiro_Hattori
In that case, unfortunately, the jury ruled that it was self-defense that the homeowner had a reasonable fear of this student that he believed to be drunk or high.

This is the statute in the Florida law that they are talking about http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/.../0776.013.html

It is clear from this that (in Florida) if someone is entering your property or dwelling you have the right to use deadly force if you feel threatened (unless they are your child, dependent, or leasee). This law goes on to include being at your vehicle - that you have the right to defend yourself and your vehicle. In the initial statement - Zimmerman said he was at his vehicle, but the other report said he was inside the house. If the later reports were that he came out of his house and into the street to confront Martin, then I think they may be able to make a case against Zimmerman.