Apr 11 2012
Justice Served In Trayvon Martin Case
Yes, this the Trayvon Martin killing is a complex and tragic case. As I predicted when first posting on this matter, it was clear charges were coming since George Zimmerman had plenty of off-ramps to avoid the confrontation and the end result. This is the right path to take. This will shut down the nonsense from far right and far right, and allow the rules of evidence and trial to work the proper conclusion.
I was very surprised the charge was 2nd degree murder (I was expecting a lesser charge) but that only confirms my original suspicion that the evidence was much clearer than many suspected it was.
Now we follow the process for justice, and as the prosecutor said – Trayvon Martin is the victim here, not Zimmerman.
Update: This is clearly the form of 2nd Degree Murder being used in the charge:
Murder with a Depraved Mind occurs when a person is killed, without any premeditated design, by an act imminently dangerous to another and evincing a depraved mind showing no regard for human life.
As I have said many times, Zimmerman had not authority or right to follow and confront Martin while armed. This was not a race crime, but a crime of someone playing vigilante and ignoring warnings by police to avoid a situation. And that is a ‘depraved mind’ in my book.
Update 2: Watching the National Action Network with Al Sharpton and Attorney Crump I have to applaud their statements. They were measured, humbled and focused on bringing American justice for an American child. As Crump noted, it really is for all the young people we needed to take the time to assess the evidence and do what is right. And as Sharpton said, this is not a celebration, simply one successful step in the right direction. Well done folks. And well done for all those calling for calm and allowing the process to run.
Update 3: I expected a little more discussion from Hot Air on this, but their one post on this is here.
Maybe there is hope for this nation and all its people. God’s Speed Trayvon
Jan,
You have pointed out the fault in your logic:
“I don’t think succumbing to the demands of a mob or a slanted media is the way to go about processing this killing.”
Neither is letting the mob’s demands stop justice, if they happen to align with the proper path.
You assume charging Zimmerman is wrong, but it is not wrong. It is what is called for and is similar to thousands of like cases.
You and others here, would let the mob push us into NOT following the law – and giving the mob fuel for their fire. It is a position of niavette in my view.
I never once let the mob cloud my assessment of the incident, and apparently many others were also capable of that. If the mob factored into any of this you made a serious first mistake.
And until you realize this, the mob rules you. You can neither not do the right thing nor do the wrong thing in the face of the mob. Either response is wrong.
The mob is wrong, the mob is irrelevant. Lesson 1
“The mob is wrong, the mob is irrelevant. Lesson 1”
Except we won’t be able to ignore them when they rise up when Zimmerman is released due to incompetence. They will still be wrong but will then become very relevant. Lesson 2.
The mob has never been my concern because I don’t live in Sanford, Fl but as a minimum Martin’s family was entitled to have someone with a modicum of competence to represent their side.
Now it’s to the ‘give it to the jury and let them decide’ stage.
AJ
I never thought that the mob played into your judgement call in this case. However, the mob, which got even more vocal and prevalent around the country, was inflamed and enlarged by the likes of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and many in the MSM, some whom either altered or interjected their own interpretation of events, as if they were there and saw the whole thing.
What has been undervalued, though, in that affidavit against Zimmerman, were some of the eye-witness accounts, overruled by auditory speculation by the victim’s Mom, who is not a person without prejudice, do you think? I look at this as lopsided ‘justice,’ if you will.
Also, like Redteam said above, the mob has now had it’s expectations, of what justice is, elevated to “he’s guilty” or else…..Many have already predetermined what will be an acceptable outcome in this trial, which I think is lopsided justice, as well.
The LA riots have been brought up before, as well they should be. Because, in that case, like in this one, the so-called ‘victim,’ the guy (Rodney King) beaten up by the cops, only had that portion of the confrontation shown, over and over again, until it was negatively stenciled into the minds of the public . The dangerous car chase preceding this physical altercation, getting him out of his car, the man’s threatening size and demeanor exerted under the drug he was using, all were soft-shoed, under-reported, and buffered within the bigger, sensationalized news story, of a black man being beaten up by white cops.
A similar story has unfolded in the Martin/Zimmerman case as well. In the beginning the victim was pictured as a innocent-looking boy, instead of a sullen, 6 foot tall, on-the-edge-of-trouble teen he had grown into being. The ‘murderer’ was depicted in an equally erroneous photo, an earlier mug shot, a dour-looking man on hard times, instead of a man who turned those times around and was mentoring at risk youth. That set a distorted visual stage right then an there. The time-line of what really happened, and who said what and when, has also been muffled, changed or distorted. Once the sizable dollop of race baiters and yellow journalism got a hold of the story, how could one automatically consider ‘justice’ was being done?
If Zimmerman is convicted, there will be many now who think it is not a justifiable conviction. However, they won’t take to the streets. It will just simmer within. If, though, he is not slammed against the wall, thrown into jail for 25 to life, there will those, like in the Rodney King case, who will think there was no justice, thereby giving them an excuse for no peace, like what happened in Los Angeles.
IMHO, had the appointed prosecutor stayed more detached and neutral, not meeting with any family members, and had gone for a man-slaughter charge, rather than an all out 2nd degree murder one, her assessment and affidavit might be viewed as more reasonably determined, especially considering the murkiness of everything that has transpired thus far.
Justoneminute blog has been following the trayvon Martin case, almost obsessively. Here. though, is an extensive look at the Zimmerman arrest affidavit, and it’s conclusion is to “hold the cheers.” Included in this post are links to other opinions regarding the affidavit, and more hypothesizes of what may have happened that night.