Posted on 07/04/2013 12:58:32 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The attorneys monitoring the George Zimmerman trial differ on the final outcome. One believes there could be a powder keg going off if the jury delivers a not guilty verdict.
One of the attorneys for the parents of Trayvon Martin told the Florida Courier this week that he believes George Zimmerman will be found guilty.
Daryl Parks, who shares a law firm in Tallahassee with Benjamin Crump, also has been at the Zimmerman trial in Sanford since jury selection began two weeks ago.
He (Zimmerman) was following Trayvon. Was the amount of force justified? Prosecutors are proving it wasnt justified, Parks noted.
On Feb. 26, 2012, Zimmerman fatally shot 17-year-old Martin in a gated community in Sanford. Zimmerman is claiming self-defense in the shooting.
Parks said he was not upset that the judge ruled out letting experts testify during the trial over whether or not the voice on a 911 call was Martin yelling for help.
The layperson can identify the voice better, he remarked.
Response to lack of protests
Martins mother Sybrina Fulton was scheduled to take the stand as the Florida Courier was going to press to validate that it was her sons voice asking for help on the 911 call.
The world is watching this case. They are listening, Parks said when he was asked by the Courier if he was upset that Sanford residents and others have not been protesting outside the courthouse since the beginning of the trial.
We live in a different age, Parks added, noting that the TV ratings for the trial have been phenomenal with millions of people watching it every day.
Seminole County NAACP President Turner Clayton Jr. was quoted last week, saying that the so-called demonstration area that has been designated you will not see us protesting in that particular area cause no one tells us where to go, how long to stay, what to do, and what to say.
We are crusaders
Regardless of what happens during the criminal trial, Parks said they will be going after Zimmerman in civil court for monetary damages.
They are waiting for the results of the Department of Justice investigation into whether Martins rights were violated.
Daryl Parks
Parks said the Martin case is just one of many incidents where Blacks have been killed unjustly and he said their work for the voiceless will continue.
We are crusaders. There are all kinds of battles going on, he concluded.
Parks also told the Courier: Zimmerman said this guy threw the first punch.
Zimmerman has admitted he was on top. Was Zimmerman in fear of Trayvon? He was following him in the dark. Parks added that he believes Zimmerman may have been overzealous and attempted to hold Martin until the police arrived.
Another point of view
Attorney Ted Williams, who is based out of Washington, D.C and is a legal analyst for the Fox News show On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, was in Sanford this week to monitor the trial. Unlike Parks, he is apprehensive Zimmerman will be found guilty.
Considering what the prosecutors have presented and the witnesses they have called, Williams said, every witness the prosecutor has put and evidence presented helps the defense.
Im very concerned the defense is not going to put on a case, he declared, speaking to the Florida Courier on Monday.
Williams said what must be proven is that Zimmerman was the aggressor.
Williams added that if the prosecutors can prove Zimmerman approached Martin and touched him in any way, if there was any physical contact by Zimmerman, he could be seen as the aggressor and self-defense cannot be used.
Williams noted, I do believe there could be a powder keg going off (if there is a not guilty verdict.
Zimmermans profane words
Inside the courtroom this week, jurors got to hear Zimmerman tell his side through phone calls and video.
In a phone call with a police dispatcher minutes before he shot Martin, Zimmerman said offhandedly those (expletive) punks.
On Tuesday, that phrase became one of the most important of the trial so far.
Chris Serino, the Sanford police detective who led the homicide investigation, told jurors that when Zimmerman said it, that showed the Neighborhood Watch volunteer had ill will toward Trayvon.
Up to that point although they had put on more than six days of testimony prosecutors had failed to show one of the key elements they must prove to convict Zimmerman of second-degree murder: that the defendant acted with a depraved mind, hatred, malice, evil intent or ill will toward the high school junior from Miami Gardens.
Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda suggested that when Zimmerman called Trayvon a punk, he was profiling the teen as a criminal.
Zimmerman didnt say a word in court Monday but jurors spent much of the day hearing from him as prosecutors set about trying to catch him in a what Assistant State Attorney John Guy called a tangled web of lies.
The truth about George Zimmerman is going to come directly from his mouth and from the lies that he told, Guy had told jurors in his opening statement.
The struggle
On Monday, prosecutors played four statements Zimmerman gave to police one a video-recorded walk-through the day after the shooting.
In each, Zimmerman gave the same general story but some details changed, especially about what Martin said and what happened as they struggled on the ground.
In each, Zimmerman consistently maintained that he found Trayvon suspicious because although it was raining that night, Feb. 26, 2012, the Miami Gardens teen was standing in the yard of a Zimmerman friend whose home had been burglarized.
Zimmerman called police then followed Trayvon on foot, he said. He lost him so Zimmerman turned back toward his truck and was leaving, then the two came face to face.
There was a short exchange of words, Zimmerman said, then Trayvon punched him in the nose, knocking him to the ground. The teen then got on top of Zimmerman and began hitting him and slamming his head against the sidewalk, he said.
Accounts varied
In a statement he wrote for police that night, Zimmerman added, My head felt like it was going to explode.
But his accounts varied. He originally told police he was not following Zimmerman that he got out of his truck because he was trying to find a street sign to pass along better location information.
But in an interview three days later, Zimmerman said something different and was challenged: I wasnt following. I was just going in the same direction.
You are correct. See post #33
Zimmerman isn’t rich....so they’ll lose. Plus Trayvon started it.
I'll listen to them if they also decide it should be a capital offense for a black mob to beat up on a lone Whitey just for the giggles. There's some places with enough armed folks that it might be considered a capital offense - they just don't do the same deeds in those areas. If that's not a reason for Constitutional ownership/carry, I don't know what is.
Another threat that if they dont get the right verdict violence will occur.
**
More evidence that these people do not have the skills nor the intellectual capacity to live in a free and democratic society. If they don’t get their way, they tantrum ...like wild and spoiled three year olds. All they are itching to do is ruin people and run this society into the ground.
They need to go back to third world zones where rioting mobs rule and no one has any hope for a better existence. They can run their kangaroo courts there and just let that hate spill out of them all day long.
Going after GZ for money at this point is ludicrous. He has none.
A knife is more realistic. Easy to carry and effective.
Parks will have to get in line behind the other race pimps Sharpton and Jackson.
Well, that would be ok. They can afford it, they’ve made plenty off the death of their son.
Don’t get so upset. This guy is a defense lawyer, i.e. a BIG liar.
:)
Sounds like the state is acting illegally in bringing the case at all. What am I missing??
The civil case has already been settled out of court. The parents received a large settlement from the HOA’s insurance company in April.
And if there is no prospect for big money all these carpetbagging race hustlers will disappear faster than they arrived.
Their bullshyte civil case will be lots tougher once Gorge Zimmerman is found not guilty.....So lets hope for that. At most Zim will be guilty on much lesser charges than murder. These money grubbing Treyvon lawyers will be jury shopping. They will want a civil trial done in Miami or other mostly minority location
I believe the insurance company for the homeowners association has already paid a settlement to the family. That was a very fast and quiet civil case, and the amount involved was about $1.5M if I remember correctly.
self defense provides for absolue civil immunity. The ONLY way to pursue him is with a conviction and only a conviction that stands after appeal.
This is just trial lawyers try to reboot an area of tort law that was shut down and eliminated after the stand your ground law passed.
Florida’s stand your ground law eliminates the duty to retreat and civil liability suits.
the OJ civil suit would never have happened under FL law or any state with similar law.
This lawyer should have frivolous suit sanctions if he files after a not guilty. (lawyers AND clients are PERSONALL liable for frivolous suits)
Spineless liberals no doubt. They wanted to pay off dear little Trayvon's family before Zimmerman was found not guilty. The residents who pay the insurance premiums should counter sue the HOA, the insurance company, and the Scheme Team.
I guess we all need to carry “throw down” weapons.
It’s a sissy-ass state that is afraid of a few animals in the streets and will periodically sacrifice people to keep them in line. Apparently money isn’t enough.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.