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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: Redmen4ever

The sad thing it there probably are witnesses who saw the entire incident and maybe even videos. But they’re afraid to come forward.


61 posted on 07/04/2013 8:01:24 AM PDT by VerySadAmerican (If you vote for evil because you can't see evil, you ARE evil!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Translation: “Our efforts to legally lynch Whitey into a long prison sentence seem to be failing, so we’re going to see if we can lynch Whitey financially.”


62 posted on 07/04/2013 8:20:48 AM PDT by Jeff Winston
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To: Secret Agent Man

This whole thing does seem to be rather a test of whether black people, simply for being black, can intimidate, shake down and dominate white people.


63 posted on 07/04/2013 8:26:14 AM PDT by Jeff Winston
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To: Secret Agent Man

Or, to put it another way: The whole thing has an air of “stickin’ it to da [white] man,” and of laying the groundwork for doing more of the same in the future.


64 posted on 07/04/2013 8:27:19 AM PDT by Jeff Winston
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To: Count of Monte Fisto
No, it was probably a prudent business decision. The insurance company reviews a claim like this, estimates its likelihood of losing in court, and then makes an offer to settle out of court. It happens all the time. The policy holder has no say in the matter, either.

The residents who pay the insurance premiums should counter sue the HOA, the insurance company, and the Scheme Team.

Now this is just silly. What is the basis of the "counter-suit" in the first place? The residents weren't the defendants in the case, so there's no "counter-suit" to be filed. If any resident decides on his own that he wants to sue any of the parties you've listed, the first problem he's going to have is convincing a court that he even has the proper legal standing to file such a lawsuit. He'd first have to demonstrate that he has suffered some kind of financial loss, which he can't possibly do when the insurance company is paying the settlement.

65 posted on 07/04/2013 8:27:24 AM PDT by Alberta's Child
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To: Qwackertoo

LOL. I thought you had your butt at home.


66 posted on 07/04/2013 8:31:26 AM PDT by Bronzy
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To: Jabba the Nutt

It was testified to that his credit problems kept him from joining the police force.


67 posted on 07/04/2013 8:35:38 AM PDT by Bronzy
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To: Alberta's Child

Yes, found they had settled for an undisclosed amount, likely the policy limit that was said to be $1M. Settled ahead of the criminal trial starting, showing in my opinion the parents recognized an acquittal / not guilty verdict weighs against their claim (though the burden of proof would be less in the civil trial).


68 posted on 07/04/2013 8:53:08 AM PDT by LibertyOh
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To: LibertyOh

it may be a contingent settlement dependent on a guilty plea.

confidential or not, the settlement is discoverable via subpoena regadless


69 posted on 07/04/2013 9:28:42 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: varmintman
Sounds like the state is acting illegally in bringing the case at all. What am I missing??

Just before this statute was signed into law the usual suspects (including some prosecutors from liberal counties) were campaigning hard and loud against it's passage. They've been pissed ever since and are trying everything in their power to get it changed.

Make no mistake this is not only about Zimmerman but a challenge to Florida Statute 776.032

I'm not a lawyer but I suspect they have to get some sort of conviction. If they don't, Zimmerman can and should sue the State under the above Statute.

They may have something else up their sleeve like a Federal Civil Rights suit. This crap isn't going away anytime soon.

70 posted on 07/04/2013 9:35:02 AM PDT by Jed Eckert (Wolverines!!)
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To: Jed Eckert

Is thre any sort of a federal civil-rights suit which could end up with GZ in prison, particularly AFTER he’d been acquitted in a flori-duh courtroom of the same charge?


71 posted on 07/04/2013 10:07:08 AM PDT by varmintman
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To: varmintman
Is thre any sort of a federal civil-rights suit which could end up with GZ in prison, particularly AFTER he’d been acquitted in a flori-duh courtroom of the same charge?

Short answer is yes. It won't be the same charge (2nd degree murder) however since that isn't a Federal crime. I suspect it'll be something like violating Trayvon Martin's civil rights under the Federal Civil Rights Act. I'll defer to the real lawyers here who are more familiar with the specifics of the Civil Rights Act.

72 posted on 07/04/2013 10:27:32 AM PDT by Jed Eckert (Wolverines!!)
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To: Jed Eckert

At that point I’d advise GZ to either go underground or find another country like Bobby Fijnje and his familyy did.


73 posted on 07/04/2013 10:29:20 AM PDT by varmintman
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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.”

only if the person is of color.

By the way, reading a few of your recent posts, you seem to be one of few that really understands what’s going on and why.


74 posted on 07/04/2013 10:36:31 AM PDT by roofgoat
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To: LibsRJerks

Unfortunately our “overseers” keep treating them like spoiled children, giving in when they throw a tantrum. More “walkin’ aroun’ money” for the “community organizers” for “conflict resolution” and foot washing stations for those that pray to Satan when what is needed harsh discipline.


75 posted on 07/05/2013 12:29:08 AM PDT by Eagles6 (Valley Forge Redux)
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