Posted on 06/20/2013 12:17:51 PM PDT by Bubba_Leroy
A jury has been selected for the second-degree murder trial of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, after more than a week of intensive jury selection in the high-profile case.
The lawyers have selected 10 Seminole County residents -- six jurors and four alternates -- to serve as jurors for a trial which is expected to last two to four weeks, and is sure to be closely watched across the nation.
Prosecutors say Zimmerman profiled, pursued and killed the unarmed teen Feb. 26, 2012, in Sanford. Zimmerman says he fired in self-defense after he was attacked by Trayvon, a high school junior from Miami Gardens.
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
Very unlikely.
If they do, then it will open the door for the defense to introduce all of the evidence about what a good boy Trayvon was not, such as the fight videos, the school suspension, the marijuana use, etc.
Riots are a small price to pay for justice. Well worth the price.
Isn’t that man Zimmerman’s black grandfather, not “great”?
WHOA! Never heard that one before... That's a question jurors should be asked ahead of time, 'are you afraid to judge another person?'.... Someone who's uncomfortable 'judging' should NOT be on a jury... ever.
People afraid of fire shouldn't be firemen... those scared to death of water should not be hired as lifeguards... the list is endless...
I am not a governor, and I dont play one on TV - but in my fantasy, if rioting starts the governor calls up the television and radio stations and tells them that they will not fan any flames of lawlessness by anybody. And if they do promote lawlessness the National Guard will shut them down and they will go off the air. And after things cool down, anything they did which caused him to act against them will be treated as a tort in a civil case to pay for the damages of the riot.IOW, during a public emergency journalists in general and broadcast journalists in particular have a responsibility to promote order.
What's important is not whether a particular shooting is OK or not OK, but rather whether certain people's right to bash in the heads of those who disrespect them is properly protected. If GZ had simply shot some random black person for the fun of it, such conduct would have generated less outrage than shooting someone who responded to a show of disrespect by perfectly reasonably trying to beat to death the guy who dissed him.
From what I’ve read, I believe he was the grandfather of Z’s mother.
Your "etc" would include a backpack containing stolen jewelry and a screwdriver, wouldn't it? Zimmerman thought the kid was casing the neighborhood, looking for a good place to burgle, which is exactly what a would-be burglar does, hoping to find signs of nobody home.
But like his”typical white” grandmother with bias toward black men
I am much more comfortable with employing lethal force, as opposed to actively participating in physical violence.
While I purposely avoid both situations, whenever and wherever possible, as a woman, I am very unlikely to engage in or approve of, any physical altercations.
While I initially thought the composition of the jury was unfair to Zimmerman, upon greater reflection, it does seem he will be tried by a jury of his peers.
Zimmerman is the one on trial here, not Trayvon Martin.
I do pity everyone involved, especially the family and friends of Trayvon Martin, and still want justice to be done.
To date, the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman has been a total media and politically induced “Flying Circus” of lies and twisted half-truths, and not a sober gathering of all the facts surrounding the sudden violent death of a 17 year old boy.
Let the trial now begin, in earnest this time.
I wont defend sexist snark, but I will defend the principle that conservative men have less built-in bias than liberals do.Theodore Rooseveltfamously asserted that<blockquote> "It is not the critic who counts . . . the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena . . . who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds . . . It is in the public interest that people who do the things that need doing get credit in proportion to their contribution, but journalists act on the opposite motivation.
- I will first define the terms liberal and conservative as I interpret them. Because IMHO they are code words or, if you will, Newspeak. And that is true because journalists and intellectuals find it convenient to make is so.
Implicit in those definitions are the premises that
- Although the dictionary definition of liberal says different, the actual definition of liberal as used by journalists is, reliably going along to get along with journalism.
- Likewise, the actual definition of conservative, as the word is used by journalists, is one who does not reliably go along to get along with journalism.
- Journalism exists as a singular entity. This is readily observed in reality, but you may insist on substantiation. Journalism is a single entity for the simple reason that
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary. - Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (Book I, Ch 10)All major journalism outlets are members of the Associated Press, and the wire is a virtual meeting of all members of the AP. That meeting has been in continual process for over a century and a half - ample time to convert the membership of the AP into little else but a conspiracy against the public.
- Journalism has an identifiable, non-objective POV. The fundamental motivation of journalists is to promote the idea of their own importance. That is human nature, and it is especially the nature of those who select themselves to make a difference by becoming journalists. They tend to promote their own reputations at the expense of the people who do not just talk, but actually do things.
Journalism claims to be objective - or at least strongly insinuates it - and yet no one can know that they themselves are objective. And if they cannot know that, they cannot know that people who agree with them are objective. The reality is that journalisms claim of objectivity is identical in intent and effect to the ancient Greek Sophists and their claim of superior wisdom. In ancient times the Sophists were rebutted by the Philosophers, who eschewed and condemned argument from a claim of superior wisdom. The Philosophers claimed only to love, not to own, wisdom, and they insisted on restricting arguments to facts and logic. The result is that the term philosopher has a positive connotation but the term sophistry is a term of derogation.
My conclusion is that liberals, being committed to the superficial self-interest of journalism, strongly resemble the Sophists, and conservatives more resemble the philosophers. Generally they have to, in order to be able to stand up to the sophistry of journalism. And even then it is a struggle . . .
Thanks for your excellent reply. I admit my big fear is that a stealth Trayvon supporter managed to make it onto the jury. We know that at least one person tried it & failed. We can only hope that a sneakier person didn’t succeed.
As for Trayvon, I don’t want to sound callous, but here goes. If his parents had given one-tenth the time & attention to him while he was alive they’ve given after his death, things might have been far different. He was giving off all kinds of danger signals, with robbery & drug issues, etc. He appears to have been under-supervised in a major way, even as the problems escalated. Then he died & turned into a cash cow. It’s a great shame.
Let us at least hope & pray justice is done for Zimmerman. That is all we can do at this point.
Thanks!
You bring up an important and many-times-neglected point. I've been on several juries in my time....and the actual physical looks and demeanor of a defendant play an enormous part in the final verdict.
George Z. has gained a lot of weight the past months probably due to lack of regular exercise during his long "laying-low" period. His face now looks more "babyish" and cherubic ......plus he's always had a rather vulnerable, soft-eyed "deer caught in the headlights" look about him.
It's a face that a lot of mothers could love...and a face that female jurors could very well warm to.
In short, he doesn't look or carry himself like an axe murderer as the state prosecution kangaroos and the Obama-Jackson-Sharpton race-pimps try to portray him.
Leni
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