A brilliant series from the 80s was called, The Bill of Rights: A Delicate Balance. On one of the episodes, one of the panel members was a leading defense lawyer and he said, “Great lawyers are not masters of the law. They are masters of language.” He went on to explain how wordage, tone, & body language often had a bigger impact on verdicts than evidence. We saw this, ad nauseum, with the OJ trial and should not be surprised to see it again – especially on an over televised, over hyped, and over emotional case that was the Zimmerman trial.The dead youth’s parents said that they are unhappy with the verdict, but that at least Zimmerman was arrested and went to trial, an option they had feared they’d have to endure. And just like OJ, Mr. Zimmerman will face a civil suit (I don’t think the much bally-hooed civil rights class holds water) and he will HAVE to testify at that trial. But this even could have a positive outcome that does more justice to Trayvon Martin who died standing HIS ground outside his father’s house….^Zimmerman and Martin have revealed that the circumstantial crime of driving/walking/breathing while black is still prevalent in some minds in our nation. Some folks have personal or anecdotal reason to be nervous around another race/culture, but some of our neighbors’ paradigms have deep roots in a soil rich with bigotry and prejudice.^Women with children in the grocery stores get glares because of their burkahs, and mennonites/amish in their bonnets and ‘sensible’ shoes receive patronizing grins or snarky fashion advice. Brown, white, black, and asian people with heavy accents often hear an American say something like… “Learn english you jerk!” And even if they don’t speak the language, they understand the tone.^Mr. Zimmerman should have listened to the 911 operator’s advice to not follow his target. He DEFINITELY should have stayed in his car until police arrived. He is DEFINITELY not guilty of murder by verdict of a jury of his peers. If you don’t like that decision, wait for the civil case. But if you deny Mr. Zimmerman his day in court, you give others the right to deny you your own rights.^Mr. Zimmerman will be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life no matter what happens. But if we, the people of these United States, begin a civil and respectful conversation on these topics, we may open some hearts and minds. Sometimes it starts with just saying hello to someone in line with you.RespectfullyC.
F. Lee Bailey, in “THe Defense Never Rests” said “it doesn’tmatter if you are innocent or guilty. what matters is how muchyou can pay a lawyer”…GO JUSTICE!!!!!!
florida, failing since ponce de leon went to search for the fountain of youth. current governor likes budget cuts, but hurricane season is approaching, and national guard has been hit with budget cuts, complains in a letter to the president about budget cuts.
Actually the american people fail whenever they choose to listen to the likes of al sharpton instead of looking at all the facts themselves. Listen to the entire unedited 911 call. It made me realize how misleading a lot of the information on the case was.
Marley Lion was a seventeen year old white kid. He got lost driving home from a party. He pulled into a parking lot in a black neighborhood and was immediately attacked. Where was the national outrage???
Harley, please pardon my word usage.When I heard about this, I was angry there had been no arrest. The fact that this shooting wouldn’t have happened had Mr. Zimmerman stayed in his vehicle or simply obeyed the 911 operator. The cops wouldn’t have had to arrest anyone and Trayvon would have gone inside his home to watch the game with his dad and Mr. Zimmerman wouldn’t have been going through 17 months of legal hell.What would YOU do if you had a stranger following you to your home? Nothing else in this case matters to me. Mr. Zimmerman stalked and confronted a teen who stood his own ground, but didn’t have a gun.I HAVE been followed home by two men in a car. It was after midnite and they followed me from the all night drug store. I drove past my home and to the convenience store near my home that has security cameras. They followed me until I pulled into the parking lot.Maybe if Trayvon had been mature enough to make that same decision and return to the convenience store or to call 911 himself this wouldn’t have occurred,but people don’t always have presence of mind.How can you make Mr. Zimmerman out to be the victim in this? All he had to do was wait for the police like EVERY neighborhood watch tells their members. Observe and report, not confront and kill.You don’t need to defend Mr. Zimmerman, he’s been found innocent. Just like OJ. But I thought OJ was guilty too.Respectfully,C.
A guy with a history of being “creepy”, WITH POLICE, tracks down a kid and kills him, after police POLICY dictated the 911 operator told him: “You don’t need to do that.”.
Then in blogs and media, the kid, whose entire “criminal history” is getting suspended from school for smoking a doobie, becomes a “master criminal” based on total B.S. distributed by the extremist right-wingers.
It becomes suspect that in the great state of Florida (not!) the D.A. and prosecution may well have sought, as is often the case elsewhere as well, a criminal charge that seemed extreme to some jurors, simply to get a “not guilty” verdict. Even though the lesser charge of manslaughter was theoretically on the table (and totally appropriate and descriptive of Zimmerman’s actions- you start a fight, then someone dies, it’s manslaughter), jurors in the majority didn’t go there, though some initially did.
It’s SOOOOOOO good to see that with the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency, “racism” is totally dead, from ALL sides, in America. Yeah, right!
If Trayvon’s past has any relevance on the night of his death, then Zimmerman’s troubled past with the police, his ex-wife & disparaging remarks about Mexicans should be relevant, too.
ConserveGov almost 11 years ago
This must e referring to the Fl. Prosecution team.
chazandru almost 11 years ago
A brilliant series from the 80s was called, The Bill of Rights: A Delicate Balance. On one of the episodes, one of the panel members was a leading defense lawyer and he said, “Great lawyers are not masters of the law. They are masters of language.” He went on to explain how wordage, tone, & body language often had a bigger impact on verdicts than evidence. We saw this, ad nauseum, with the OJ trial and should not be surprised to see it again – especially on an over televised, over hyped, and over emotional case that was the Zimmerman trial.The dead youth’s parents said that they are unhappy with the verdict, but that at least Zimmerman was arrested and went to trial, an option they had feared they’d have to endure. And just like OJ, Mr. Zimmerman will face a civil suit (I don’t think the much bally-hooed civil rights class holds water) and he will HAVE to testify at that trial. But this even could have a positive outcome that does more justice to Trayvon Martin who died standing HIS ground outside his father’s house….^Zimmerman and Martin have revealed that the circumstantial crime of driving/walking/breathing while black is still prevalent in some minds in our nation. Some folks have personal or anecdotal reason to be nervous around another race/culture, but some of our neighbors’ paradigms have deep roots in a soil rich with bigotry and prejudice.^Women with children in the grocery stores get glares because of their burkahs, and mennonites/amish in their bonnets and ‘sensible’ shoes receive patronizing grins or snarky fashion advice. Brown, white, black, and asian people with heavy accents often hear an American say something like… “Learn english you jerk!” And even if they don’t speak the language, they understand the tone.^Mr. Zimmerman should have listened to the 911 operator’s advice to not follow his target. He DEFINITELY should have stayed in his car until police arrived. He is DEFINITELY not guilty of murder by verdict of a jury of his peers. If you don’t like that decision, wait for the civil case. But if you deny Mr. Zimmerman his day in court, you give others the right to deny you your own rights.^Mr. Zimmerman will be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life no matter what happens. But if we, the people of these United States, begin a civil and respectful conversation on these topics, we may open some hearts and minds. Sometimes it starts with just saying hello to someone in line with you.RespectfullyC.
woodwork almost 11 years ago
F. Lee Bailey, in “THe Defense Never Rests” said “it doesn’tmatter if you are innocent or guilty. what matters is how muchyou can pay a lawyer”…GO JUSTICE!!!!!!
Christopher Shea almost 11 years ago
vwdualnomand almost 11 years ago
florida, failing since ponce de leon went to search for the fountain of youth. current governor likes budget cuts, but hurricane season is approaching, and national guard has been hit with budget cuts, complains in a letter to the president about budget cuts.
lizardgrad89 almost 11 years ago
As Homer Simpson said, “Florida is America’s wang”.
Brutatowski almost 11 years ago
Actually the american people fail whenever they choose to listen to the likes of al sharpton instead of looking at all the facts themselves. Listen to the entire unedited 911 call. It made me realize how misleading a lot of the information on the case was.
tryoung71 almost 11 years ago
Where is the outrage? 3 black men murdered a white woman walking home from work. No national outrage about this.
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/schererville/men-charged-in-schererville-killing/article_0b73017e-7f96-5e49-bc75-d8158c122eb9.html
Marley Lion was a seventeen year old white kid. He got lost driving home from a party. He pulled into a parking lot in a black neighborhood and was immediately attacked. Where was the national outrage???
http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2012/08/03/the-thrill-kill-thugs-who-shot-marley-lion-arrested/
chazandru almost 11 years ago
Harley, please pardon my word usage.When I heard about this, I was angry there had been no arrest. The fact that this shooting wouldn’t have happened had Mr. Zimmerman stayed in his vehicle or simply obeyed the 911 operator. The cops wouldn’t have had to arrest anyone and Trayvon would have gone inside his home to watch the game with his dad and Mr. Zimmerman wouldn’t have been going through 17 months of legal hell.What would YOU do if you had a stranger following you to your home? Nothing else in this case matters to me. Mr. Zimmerman stalked and confronted a teen who stood his own ground, but didn’t have a gun.I HAVE been followed home by two men in a car. It was after midnite and they followed me from the all night drug store. I drove past my home and to the convenience store near my home that has security cameras. They followed me until I pulled into the parking lot.Maybe if Trayvon had been mature enough to make that same decision and return to the convenience store or to call 911 himself this wouldn’t have occurred,but people don’t always have presence of mind.How can you make Mr. Zimmerman out to be the victim in this? All he had to do was wait for the police like EVERY neighborhood watch tells their members. Observe and report, not confront and kill.You don’t need to defend Mr. Zimmerman, he’s been found innocent. Just like OJ. But I thought OJ was guilty too.Respectfully,C.
Dtroutma almost 11 years ago
A guy with a history of being “creepy”, WITH POLICE, tracks down a kid and kills him, after police POLICY dictated the 911 operator told him: “You don’t need to do that.”.
Then in blogs and media, the kid, whose entire “criminal history” is getting suspended from school for smoking a doobie, becomes a “master criminal” based on total B.S. distributed by the extremist right-wingers.
It becomes suspect that in the great state of Florida (not!) the D.A. and prosecution may well have sought, as is often the case elsewhere as well, a criminal charge that seemed extreme to some jurors, simply to get a “not guilty” verdict. Even though the lesser charge of manslaughter was theoretically on the table (and totally appropriate and descriptive of Zimmerman’s actions- you start a fight, then someone dies, it’s manslaughter), jurors in the majority didn’t go there, though some initially did.
It’s SOOOOOOO good to see that with the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency, “racism” is totally dead, from ALL sides, in America. Yeah, right!
OmqR-IV.0 almost 11 years ago
This fascist would like to know:
If Trayvon’s past has any relevance on the night of his death, then Zimmerman’s troubled past with the police, his ex-wife & disparaging remarks about Mexicans should be relevant, too.