Posted on 05/18/2012 4:46:08 AM PDT by safetysign
A medical report by George Zimmerman’s doctor has disclosed that Zimmerman had a fractured nose, two black eyes, two lacerations on the back of his head and a back injury on the day after the fatal shooting. If this evidence turns out to be valid, the prosecutor will have no choice but to drop the second-degree murder charge against Zimmerman — if she wants to act ethically, lawfully and professionally.
There is, of course, no assurance that the special prosecutor handling the case, State Attorney Angela Corey, will do the right thing. Because until now, her actions have been anything but ethical, lawful and professional.
She was aware when she submitted an affidavit that it did not contain the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. She deliberately withheld evidence that supported Zimmerman’s claim of self-defense. The New York Times has reported that the police had “a full face picture” of Zimmerman, before paramedics treated him, that showed “a bloodied nose.” The prosecutor also had photographic evidence of bruises to the back of his head.
But none of this was included in any affidavit.
Now there is much more extensive medical evidence that would tend to support Zimmerman’s version of events. This version, if true, would establish self-defense even if Zimmerman had improperly followed, harassed and provoked Martin.
A defendant, under Florida law, loses his “stand your ground” defense if he provoked the encounter — but he retains traditional self-defense if he reasonably believed his life was in danger and his only recourse was to employ deadly force.
Thus, if Zimmerman verbally provoked Martin, but Martin then got on top of Zimmerman and banged his head into the ground, broke his nose, bloodied his eyes and persisted in attacking Zimmerman — and if Zimmerman couldn’t protect himself from further attack except by shooting Martin — he would have the right to do that. (The prosecution has already admitted that it has no evidence that Zimmerman started the actual fight.)
This is a fact-specific case, in which much turns on what the jury believes beyond a reasonable doubt. It must resolve all such doubts in favor of the defendant, because our system of justice insists that it is better for 10 guilty defendants to go free than for even one innocent to be wrongfully convicted.
You wouldn’t know that from listening to Corey, who announced that her jobs was “to do justice for Trayvon Martin” — not for George Zimmerman.
As many see it, her additional job is to prevent riots of the sort that followed the acquittal of the policemen who beat Rodney King.
Indeed, Mansfield Frazier, a columnist for the Daily Beast, has suggested that it is the responsibility of the legal system to “avert a large scale racial calamity.” He has urged Zimmerman’s defense lawyer to become a “savior” by brokering a deal to plead his client guilty to a crime that “has him back on the streets within this decade.”
But it is not the role of a defense lawyer to save the world or the country. His job — his only job — is to get the best result for his client, by all legal and ethical means.
Listen to the way a famous British barrister put it in 1820:
“An advocate, by the sacred duty which he owes his client, knows, in the discharge of that office, but one person in the world, that client and none other . . . Nay, separating even the duties of a patriot from those of an advocate, and casting them, if need be, to the wind, he must go on reckless of the consequences, if his fate it should unhappily be, to involve his country in confusion for his client’s protection.”
The prosecutor’s job is far broader: to do justice to the defendant as well as the alleged victim. As the Supreme Court has said: “The government wins . . . when justice is done.”
Zimmerman’s lawyer is doing his job. It’s about time for the prosecutor to start doing hers.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/drop-george-zimmerman-murder-charge-article-1.1080161#ixzz1vDzi1wUo
Progressivism on Parade.
Sacrifice an innocent individual for the collective good, perverting Justice in the process.
Disgusting.
Perhaps, but the prosecution has nothing to prove that with except the lame attempt to say “ in wouldn't have happened if he stayed in his car”, which wont fly with any sane Judge.
If that lame spew would convict anyone, it could convict everyone, because any conflict between two persons would never happen...”if they would have just been living 1,000 miles away at the time”.
And it make just as much sense.
Zimmerman had every right to be where he was, and dumb@ss Corey knows it!
The fact that he DID have an illegal drug in his system as Z suspected, should negate all profiling accusations.
Drop the charge and applaud him for defending his life. He very easily could have been dead that night. His attacker clearly wasn’t being gentle...
Was Bad-ni manipulating to get rid of a rival?
It’s too bad we can’t “banish/exile” those race-baiting clowns like they did in ancient times. Deport them all to third world countries or wherever and let them see how things are elsewhere, how good things are in the USA as compared to other parts of the world - even when times are bad here. I’m sure that wherever they would wind up eventually they would wear out their welcome and be kicked out again.
The old but very true phrase: “America - Love her or Leave her” still applies.
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No shit, the turkey was trying to kill Zimmerman by bashing his head against the pavement, but that's all the wapo can think of to say about it:
What wretched, evil, stupid people...
Don’t you understand???
The burgular/mugger’s putative “parents” CANNOT SUE unless Z is charged with a CRIME??
Why else copywright the crook’s NAME???
Whe else go to EUROPE (of all places) to fundraise unless it’s really ALL ABOUT THE MUNNNNIEEEEE???
Check the timeline on this mess and see that a WHOLE LOT OF STUFF had to be set into place BEFORE they went after Z.
It is almost rhetorical...but if the incident was reversed, with a black youth shooting and killing a hispanic after the hispanic was beating his head against the pavement, would we have seen ANY of this? Of course not, except maybe to paint the 17yo as a hero. We certainly would not have seen headlines like that in the Post or any other slimerag.
MR. DERSHOWITZ SHOULD JOIN ZIMMERMAN’S DEFENSE TEAM!
What happened to prsecutor Nifong? Disbarred and bankrupt.
Will the florida bar step up to the plate or is it a special set of free pass rules for political lawyers.
Dershowitz is an appeals lawyer. It’s unimaginable, to me, that Zimmerman will need to appeal any verdict but if he does Dershowitz is the best.
There’s still the one poor guy, Fuster, rotting in a Flori-duh prison for shit which not only never happened, but which isn’t even physically possible involving one of Janet Reno’s witch-craft trials from the 80s.
Which, as another FReeper astutely noted, bolsters George's statement that Martin was acting weird and that he thought he might be on drugs.
Depraved prosecutors just can’t control themselves.
Alan Dershowitz needs to be careful here. What he is advocating could be construed as fomenting a riot. If Zimmerman is released with or with out a trial, there will be major rioting in the larger cities. I am sure Holder’s Just-us Dept has been watching him for a while now.
The case is really very simple.
Was it reasonable for George Zimmerman to conclude that he could not avoid death or serious injury by retreating, once he was down on the ground being beaten?
If the answer to this question is “Yes”, there is nothing to argue about.
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