Marcia Clark of O.J. trial infamy was on Judge Jeanine last night and was claiming that GZ’s “self defense” claim would only be valid if a reasonable person thought he was in imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm, that he may subjectively have thought he was in danger but that a reasonable person might not given that his injuries were not severe enough...sounded like she was hoping for a “manslaughter” verdict.
That’s just it, GZ WAS in danger of death of major injury. his “ground and pound” thing which you see in MMA fights is significantly more dangerous than anything you ever used to see in fights 40 years ago. You might could feel good about being involved in something like that if there’s a referee there to stop the proceedings before anybody gets seriously hurt, but there was no referee there for Zimmerman...
Perhaps if that "reasonable person" had their nose broken and their head repeatedly bounced off the concrete they might have a little more...um...perspective.
I saw another female former prosecutor on FOX make a similar statement. I had no idea a person had to suffer a certain amount of physical damage before he could defend himself.
Zimmerman has two points in his favor here:
First, a reasonable person could think he was in danger of being beaten to death at the point when the back of that person's head was bleeding from being pounded against concrete. We know from physical evidence that George Zimmerman was in that condition when he fired the shot, unless he injured himself and Trayvon Martin's knuckles after shooting. It's implausible that he could have faked that well enough to fool professionals.
Second, Zimmerman specifically reported that Trayvon Martin said, “You’re gonna die tonight” as he reached for George Zimmerman’s gun. At the point when you are beaten to death and your attacker says he's going to kill you and reaches for a gun, it's completely and totally reasonable to think that you are in imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm. George Zimmerman had just lost a physical struggle against Trayvon Martin and could not reasonably have been expected to bet his life on winning a struggle for the gun without firing a shot.
Reasonable doubt is a slam dunk. Even if the prosecution could prove that Zimmerman provoked the attack (impossible to prove without a witness), at the time when the shot was fired it would have been lawful even for the aggressor to shoot.
Marcia Clark is an either an idiot who should know better or she’s pimping an agenda. At least in Florida, you don’t have to wait to suffer injuries to justify deploying deadly force in self defense.
If anything, Zimmerman showed amazing restraint and reluctance to deploy his weapon, and waited until the last possible moment to do so despite the danger he was so obviously in.
Martin had proximity, ability and intent to kill or seriously harm Zimmerman, and was trying to do so for quite some time. Zimmerman narrowly missed becoming one of the 800 or so poor souls who are murdered every year in this country with what the FBI calls “personal weapons”, mostly hands, feet and fists.
That’s discounting the very real possibility that Martin could have gained control of the firearm involved either before or after he beat Zimmerman senseless.
The more I think about it, I’d file Marcia in the large category of talking heads willing to lie and omit facts in order to prolong the controversy. If they had an honest panel on a news show, they’d only be talking about why on earth would a prosecutor might file charges with such an anemic case.
If and when somebody has the guts to go there and tell the truth, watch the ratings of this pioneer of honesty skyrocket.