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‘THE WORLD IS WATCHING’
The Florida Courier - Sharing Black Life, Statewide ^ | July 3, 2013 | James Harper

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 wasn’t 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

Martin’s mother Sybrina Fulton was scheduled to take the stand as the Florida Courier was going to press to validate that it was her son’s 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 Martin’s 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.”

“I’m 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.’’

Zimmerman’s 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 didn’t 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 wasn’t following. I was just going in the same direction.”


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption
KEYWORDS: crump; ericholder; florida; traydmark; trayvon; zimmerman
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To: Hot Tabasco

You are correct. See post #33


41 posted on 07/04/2013 5:44:13 AM PDT by Jed Eckert (Wolverines!!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Zimmerman isn’t rich....so they’ll lose. Plus Trayvon started it.


42 posted on 07/04/2013 5:49:57 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
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To: Secret Agent Man
they also want to make it a crime to follow what one may consider a suspicious person.

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.

43 posted on 07/04/2013 6:02:02 AM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: Eagles6

Another threat that if “they” don’t 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.


44 posted on 07/04/2013 6:20:33 AM PDT by LibsRJerks
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Going after GZ for money at this point is ludicrous. He has none.


45 posted on 07/04/2013 6:29:55 AM PDT by Jabba the Nutt (The Stupid Party, they've earned it.)
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To: Qwackertoo

A knife is more realistic. Easy to carry and effective.


46 posted on 07/04/2013 6:30:43 AM PDT by AppyPappy (Obama: What did I not know and when did I not know it?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Parks will have to get in line behind the other race pimps Sharpton and Jackson.


47 posted on 07/04/2013 6:33:28 AM PDT by headstamp 2 (What would Scooby do?)
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To: Bullish

Well, that would be ok. They can afford it, they’ve made plenty off the death of their son.


48 posted on 07/04/2013 6:33:40 AM PDT by Shimmer1 (No matter how cynical I get, I just can't keep up.)
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To: A Navy Vet

Don’t get so upset. This guy is a defense lawyer, i.e. a BIG liar.


49 posted on 07/04/2013 6:34:43 AM PDT by Shimmer1 (No matter how cynical I get, I just can't keep up.)
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To: Lazamataz

:)


50 posted on 07/04/2013 6:36:36 AM PDT by fatima (Free Hugs Today :))
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To: Jed Eckert
Florida Statutes: 776.032 Immunity from criminal prosecution and civil action for justifiable use of force.— (1) A person who uses force as permitted in s. 776.012, s. 776.013, or s. 776.031 is justified in using such force and is immune from criminal prosecution and civil action for the use of such force, unless the person against whom force was used is a law enforcement officer, as defined in s. 943.10(14), who was acting in the performance of his or her official duties and the officer identified himself or herself in accordance with any applicable law or the person using force knew or reasonably should have known that the person was a law enforcement officer.

Sounds like the state is acting illegally in bringing the case at all. What am I missing??

51 posted on 07/04/2013 6:37:30 AM PDT by varmintman
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The civil case has already been settled out of court. The parents received a large settlement from the HOA’s insurance company in April.


52 posted on 07/04/2013 7:24:55 AM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

And if there is no prospect for big money all these carpetbagging race hustlers will disappear faster than they arrived.


53 posted on 07/04/2013 7:27:19 AM PDT by Hotlanta Mike ("Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish - too much handling will spoil it." Lao Tzu)
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To: varmintman
Sounds like the state is acting illegally in bringing the case at all. What am I missing??

Florida prosecutor Angela Corey brought a 2nd-degree murder charge against George Zimmerman and should be disbarred (in a sane world - which we do not live in).
54 posted on 07/04/2013 7:29:52 AM PDT by Cheerio (Barry Hussein Soetoro-0bama=The Complete Destruction of American Capitalism)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

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


55 posted on 07/04/2013 7:31:50 AM PDT by dennisw (too much of a good thing is a bad thing - Joe Pine)
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To: LibertyOh

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.


56 posted on 07/04/2013 7:35:40 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("I am the master of my fate ... I am the captain of my soul.")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

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.


57 posted on 07/04/2013 7:47:43 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: Redmen4ever

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)


58 posted on 07/04/2013 7:50:43 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: Alberta's Child
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.

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.

59 posted on 07/04/2013 7:56:10 AM PDT by Count of Monte Fisto
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To: Secret Agent Man

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.


60 posted on 07/04/2013 7:58:48 AM PDT by VerySadAmerican (If you vote for evil because you can't see evil, you ARE evil!)
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