Posted on 03/25/2012 12:30:48 PM PDT by Steelfish
Witness: Zimmerman 'Never ... Tried To Help' Trayvon Martin
By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services
A woman who says she and her roommate witnessed the final moments of Trayvon Martin's life told Dateline NBC that George Zimmerman had "his hands pressed on his back" and "never turned him over or tried to help him."
Zimmerman's lawyer, when shown part of the interview being aired Sunday night on Dateline, emphasized that his client would be claiming self-defense.
"I think there were efforts made to render aid to Trayvon," Craig Sonner told NBC's TODAY show.
Mary Cutcher told Dateline that she and her roommate both saw Zimmerman "straddling the body, basically a foot on both sides of Trayvon's body, and his hands pressed on his back."
Cutcher added that Zimmerman told her and her roommate to call the police. "Zimmerman never turned him over or tried to help him or CPR or anything," Cutcher said.
Sonner also reiterated what he had said in recent days, that Zimmerman suffered a broken nose and a gash to the back of his head.
A friend of Zimmerman's who appeared on TODAY with Sonner added that Zimmerman, 28, was distraught over the teen's death.
"Right after the shooting he couldn't stop crying," said Joe Oliver, who is African American and a former TV reporetr and anchor in Orlando.
Zimmerman has not been charged in the Feb. 26 shooting that has ignited racial tensions and raised questions about the Sanford police's handling of the case. Martin was black, and Zimmerman's father is white and his mother is Hispanic.
In a separate interview Sunday, Oliver said that "I'm a black male and all that I know is that George has never given me any reason whatsoever to believe he has anything against people of color.''
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.msnbc.msn.com ...
This is extremely simple. You seem to want Zimmerman charged with a crime.
I have repeatedly asked you to explain what crime under Florida law, and what evidence you have to support probable cause to arrest Zimmerman for that crime?
How can you guys call for someone's arrest when you cannot point out the law you claim he has broken? Is this a conservative position to take? To ignore the actual rule of law and deprive people of their liberty because of a slideshow at a community meeting?
Unfortunately, I am not. Beer cans, liquor bottles, etc. all over the place. Pills in baggies on my front lawn. One pregnant teenager after another, loaded with tats, waltzing by.
I hate it.
Zim may have had every reason to believe his life was in danger. Were you there? So many people (not necessarily you) seem to have known George Zimmerman's state of mind--amazing how the Al Sharpton mob and media have so many people suddenly able to discern George Zimmerman's motives.
Not really, the race baiters are the MSM who printpictures of Trayvon at his 14 year old best and Zimmerman at his 24 year old worst while pretending the3 neighborhood is a white enclave when in fact it is 51% minority and Zimmerman is the son of a Peruvian woman and a Caucasian male.
Well, ok...but it sounded as though the outcome would have been better if Zimmerman had not followed him. But I don’t know...from the 911 tape we only have one side of the story.
My initial reaction is that the whole thing need not have happened.
“(a) Such force is so great that the person reasonably believes that he or she is in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm and that he or she has exhausted every reasonable means to escape such danger other than the use of force which is likely to cause death or great bodily harm to the assailant
Seems to me that lying on one’s back and screaming for help, with an assailant atop and beating one about the face and head, satisfies this section of the code.
In fact, this statute actively exonerates Zimmerman even if he was the initial aggressor. “
So much for “guilty by politician” : )
OH, so NOW the Al Sharpton mob BELIEVES a white person? I see...
;-D
Not even close. First of all the due process clause has nothing to do with self defense and second of all it isn't whether you believed Zimmermans life was in danger it is whether or not Zimmerman felt his life was in danger that renders the use of deadly force lawful. If and only if Zimmerman was not the aggressor physically.
“So, if Trayvon Martin feared for his life because he was being followed by a suspicious man, does he have the right to fight back?”
Depends. Is it a “reasonable fear?” Does the man following announce intentions and display ability to attack him?
He’s got a right to fight back if attacked, but not to fight just because he doesn’t like being followed, or doesn’t like the looks of who he is being followed by.
According to the Florida statute someone posted earlier, even if the guy following him laid a hand on him to detain him (something that hasn’t been proven, or to my knowledge, even alleged) he has to lay off when the other party indicates they want out of the fight. Easier said than done, but laws are written by people in suits who aren’t rolling around in life threatening combat.
Actually, during the King coverage, they only played part of the tape. The part where Rodney got off the ground and charged the cops was left out. Matter of fact, the Federal jury held that the part of the tape the media repeatedly showed depicted a proper use of force against a resisting suspect. The Federal jury convicted not on the use of force, but on the finding it went on too long. Strangely, the officer who administered the kick that caused the incident to become extended wasn’t tried.
You must feel like a prisoner in your own home. How awful! I suppose most of these people are living off our tax dollars in one way or another.
I hate the rats.
Pox, org is believing everything she reads in the mainstream media and hears from the Al Sharpton mob...my advice is to ignore her.
I listened to the 911 call.
The guy screaming for help has been confirmed as Zimmerman.
There is genuine fear in the yelling.
There is also plenty of room for the shooting being the last resort rather than the first when help did not come.
On the police version of the 911 call, when the dispatcher told him not to follow Martin, he said, “OK”.
It also takes a very big person to back down from public pronouncement. I think this is why each side tries to whip up people well before the real facts are known, so they can get people to stake their claim to one side or the other and to publicly say what they believe the truth is. They know that even if the truth is not as it initially seemed many will stick by the first opinion they put out there, to avoid seeming to have stupidly jumped the gun.
And that’s why I’m stepping back and trying to wait for those silly stubborn facts. I sure don’t know what happened.
Yep. But, the person who starts use of physical violence is at a serious disadvantage when it comes to being able to claim self-defense.
I think what Zimmerman's detractors hold, is that conducting foot surveillance (following) is tantamount to initiating violence; or asking for violence, etc.
They are wrong, but not persuadable.
Anyway, my point in posting the statute was to correct the impression that the law fails to take the right of self defense away from the person who starts the use of physical violence.
Very much so.
That and the inability to sell my house due to the housing market so I can improve the situation.
There are houses here that have been for sale for 3+years.
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