Trayvon Martin

[Stephen Eisel]

In my humble opinion, Zimmerman's life was not endanger and the court should find him guilty on at least one of the charges. He should have taken his ass beaten like a man. I am going to bet that both were equally aggressive but Trayvon did not deserve to die as a result of this conflict.

[Ryan Salo]

Stephen,

First, I think this is a tragedy and very sad this young man lost his life.

I watched way more of the trial than I should have. That being said I do not believe the state proved enough to warrant a guilty verdict on murder 2 or manslaughter. Both of which have 25+ years min jail time. The fact is that it really seems like Trayvon hid and waited for George to come then jumped him and was causing him bodily harm. I also believe someone who has experience in fighting may see things differently than someone who hasn't. Trayvon was an experienced fighter, George had never been in a real fight. When your head is being slammed into concrete, and you have never been hit before, you could think you could die within a few more contacts with the ground.

The other issue is that George's story and everyone that agrees with his story is credible. Everyone on Trayvon's side has a proven history of changing their story and being prepped prior to even going to the police. There were people wanting this to go to trial and were willing to do anything necessary to make that happen.

George obviously made mistakes but unfortunately so did Trayvon. I hope people learn from this and are more cautious when dealing with each other.

[ryan costa]

I suspect there might be riots regardless of the verdict.

A specific segment of the population may riot to celebrate a guilty verdict.
This same specific segment of the population may riot if an Innocent verdict is reached.

in either case, it is likely the rioters will record their activities on cell phones and post the results to facebook and youtube.

[Ryan Salo]

Jury of 6 women finds George Zimmerman Not Guilty on all counts.

I hope this teaches prosecutors across the nation to not give in to political pressure when you don't have a strong enough case.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Jury of 6 women finds George Zimmerman Not Guilty on all counts.

I hope this teaches prosecutors across the nation to not give in to political pressure when you don't have a strong enough case.

Actually 3 found him not guilty, 2 found him guilty of Manslaughter and 1 found him guilty of
2nd degree murder. The jury then decided on not guilty. Which is not declaring him innocent,
but more a slap to the Prosecution as they did not prove the case.

The real facts is the Law is ridiculous, and is basically a get out of jail FREE defense. No jury
can ever be sure beyond a reasonable doubt of what a accused person was thinking. So to
prove that he was not in fear of his life i nearly impossible.

While this will no doubt continue, the focus should be on getting rid of the law, and looking
at why out of the same prosecutors office, Zimmerman walks for the death of a young man,
and Marissa Alexander gets 20 years for firing a warning shot in the air. Marissa had no
prior police record, and hurt no one.

However the discussion that is following both will make the country better and stronger.

.

[Will Brown]

Like everyone who will post on this subject, I have not actually seen all the evidence, nor actually heard all the argument and evidence, but that won't stop us from saying what happened and why it was right or wrong. Who needs facts to come up with an opinion.

But I do know that no individual juror can find an accused guilty or not guilty. They hold preliminary votes, talk it over, and either reach a verdict or don't, but if they reach a verdict, it is the verdict of the panel, and each individual has to agree with it (it is not uncommon to poll the jurors to insure that each of them agrees with the verdict. So the assertion that this was in some way a split decision is an absolute falsehood.

Similarly, comparing this case to that of Marissa Alexander is a red herring. She was proven to have been in an argument with her husband, to have left the premises to get a gun, to have returned to the premises and fired a shot at him and their children. That she was apparently a bad shot is irrelevant. I don't see self defense anywhere in that scenario, and the stand your ground rule hardly applies when you have left your ground, are in no danger, then return and try to shoot someone. Her sentence was ten years for displaying a gun during a felony, and ten years for firing the gun. That is quite a long sentence by international standards, but our country's practice is to give long sentences. Its a red herring, but it does sell ink.

[Jim O'Bryan]

But I do know that no individual juror can find an accused guilty or not guilty. They hold preliminary votes, talk it over, and either reach a verdict or don't, but if they reach a verdict, it is the verdict of the panel, and each individual has to agree with it (it is not uncommon to poll the jurors to insure that each of them agrees with the verdict. So the assertion that this was in some way a split decision is an absolute falsehood.

Will

I was indicating it was a split decision. I was merely reporting the vote from the first go
around. At the same time a finding of not guilty is not a finding of innocent.

The law is the flawed part of the equation here.

FWIW

[kate e parker]

At the same time a finding of not guilty is not a finding of innocent.

a little reminder here...in this country a person is innocent until proven guilty. the verdict was "not guilty". so doing the math...

[Peter Grossetti]

At the same time a finding of not guilty is not a finding of innocent.

a little reminder here...in this country a person is innocent until proven guilty. the verdict was "not guilty". so doing the math...

actually ... a person is innoncent until the prosecution can convince the jury otherwise. Semantics? I don't think so.

[Ryan Salo]

Why doesn't the media even mention race when it is black on white crime? Is it because it is unfortunately much more common?

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/23/us/georgia-baby-killed

2 blacks shoot 13 month old white kid after failed robbery on the street.

Al Sharpton should really focus on the black communities real problems. When you constantly claim all of your problems are caused by racism and blame others you will never encourage positive change. The victim mentality is destroying america.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Why doesn't the media even mention race when it is black on white crime? Is it because it is unfortunately much more common?

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/23/us/georgia-baby-killed

2 blacks shoot 13 month old white kid after failed robbery on the street.

Al Sharpton should really focus on the black communities real problems. When you constantly claim all of your problems are caused by racism and blame others you will never encourage positive change. The victim mentality is destroying america.

Ryan

I am still trying to figure out why we need "descriptions" when the people have been caught
and or are going to trial. I understand describing people being looked for, but once they
are caught it seems a bit over the top.

And interesting side note I ran across today,
http://deslide.clusterfake.net/?o=html_table&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2F2013%2F07%2F16%2Fstand-your-ground-cases_n_3606405.html%3Fncid%3Dedlinkusaolp00000009

.

[Ryan Salo]

Very interesting read

Black Racism Killed Trayvon ...
Exclusive: Jesse Lee Peterson wants Americans to take stand against intimidation

http://www.bondaction.org/content/artic ... %20Trayvon

[Ryan Salo]

Do we have a thug in the white house?

President Obama quoted as saying "Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago,"

Has Obama lost his mind? This kid was kicked out of school for fighting and drug abuse, he was in possession of stolen goods and he attacked George Zimmerman instead of going home.

Obama really want's folks to think that he was like Tayvon? Is Trayvon someone to look up to and be idolized?

Does the black culture really want this issue to just be about race? Lets look at the real problems... one of them is in the white house...

[Sandra Donnelly]

Does the black culture really want this issue to just be about race? Lets look at the real problems... one of them is in the white house...

SERIOUSLY??!! "One of them"???? Good grief, your choice of words speaks volumes.

[Ryan Salo]

Sandra,

One of them, meaning one of the problems... Come on...

I see how it could be misread though, thanks for pointing that out.