Posted on 05/21/2012 8:14:25 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
SANFORD — Judging by evidence photos released Thursday in the Trayvon Martin case, it appears Martin got the best of Zimmerman during an altercation between the two prior to Martin’s killing. But Martin’s family's attorney insists Martin was fighting for his life.
WFTV learned Martin was just a feet from the steps of the home where he was staying in Sanford and was on the phone with his girlfriend when he encountered Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman.
Newly obtained video recorded before Martin's death shows the teenager encouraging others to fight. However, Martin's brother said Trayvon is not in the video.
And the Martin family lawyer said the video is just another attack on Martin’s character.
Nearly 200 pages of evidence and audio records revealed only one man actually witnessed the fight between Martin and Zimmerman.
“The one guy on top with the black hoodie was pretty much throwing down blows on the guy, kind of (mixed martial arts) style,” the witness said.
Police reports reveal no one saw what started the fight, but evidence photos show Zimmerman suffered cuts to his head and face.
Investigators believe the confrontation could've been avoided if Zimmerman had waited for police or identified himself as a neighborhood watch captain. And the police representative who helped set up the neighborhood watch said the rules are clear.
“You don't approach them. You don't make contact, no confrontations,” the volunteer coordinator said.
Opposite of what the neighborhood watch volunteers were told, one witness told police Zimmerman was the confrontational type.
“I know George, and I know that he does not like black people,” one witness told police. “He would start something, He's a very confrontational person.”
One of Zimmerman's former co-workers called him a bully, so much that the co-worker said employees threw a party when Zimmerman was fired for bogging down the human resources hotline with too many complaints about other employees and management.
The evidence released so far is also raising the question of whether Zimmerman can claim self-defense, even if he started the confrontation.
The stand your ground law has changed self-defense in Florida to the point that WFTV’s legal analyst said even if George Zimmerman was the initial, physical aggressor, he could make the argument that he became the victim.
If the evidence shows that Zimmerman physically assaulted 17-year-old Trayvon Martin first, legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said there are two scenarios that could help him argue that at some point the unarmed teenager became the aggressor.
The first involves what Sheaffer calls a “reset” of sorts.
Zimmerman told police that at some point he stopped following Martin and started walking back to his car. But even if that's not what happened, even if Zimmerman started a fight with Martin and it continued, Sheaffer said, Zimmerman could still argue under the stand your ground law that he eventually became the victim and was justified in using deadly force to defend himself.
“The defense will argue that those injuries (to Zimmerman), at some point, turned George Zimmerman from the aggressor to the victim in this case,” said Sheaffer.
Sheaffer said the big reason the stand your ground law is so controversial is that people can start fights, get in over their heads, use deadly force and then try to use the law to justify it.
And Sheaffer said the controversial law gives the one who started the fight two chances to walk: One to ask a judge to throw out the case and if that doesn’t work, the person can ask a jury to let them go free.
If his nose be broke, you must acquit the bloke!
Its so easy to get confused. ‘Trayvon’ is such a popular name, you know.
Yeah, like 300 feet.
why do they keep saying zimmerman followed him???? he didnt follow him......he was attacked by trayvon as he, zimmerman was going back to his car....
No one is making any noise that the autopsy showed the innocent little waif had Marijuana in his system.
At this point all the info about Trayvon and Zimmerman is interesting, but none of this rises to the level of a cae the nation needs to discuss, it does not tell us much about whites allegedly “hunting down” black people. It’s all just a great big reality show at this point.
The reason no one is making any noise that the autopsy shows Marijunana in his system is because it is irrelevent to the case.
There are plenty of drugs that make people aggressive and likely to instigate a fight - drugs like PCP, meth, etc. - but cannabis is not one of them.
Also cannabis stays in the system long after it has stopped effecting the user (up to 30 days). So it is possible that Travyon could have smoked pot a week or two prior to all of this, and it would have absolutely no bearing on the trial.
All that being said - you are responsible for your own actions. If you are drunk and you go start a fight, you are responsible for what happens to you - it’s YOUR fault, not the beer’s fault.
Why would they write this just a couple of paragraphs after acknowledging that no such evidence exists? Talk about agenda driving spinning.
Palm Beach Post, helping prosecutors lie for over 40 years...
>WFTV learned Martin was just a feet from the steps of the home<
Am unable to locate any such reference from WFTV about this. More media BS
” “If the evidence shows that Zimmerman physically assaulted 17-year-old Trayvon Martin first...”
If I had won 100 million in the super lotto..
"It wasn't my brother, it was someone else. Besides, everybody knows that ALL blacks look alike to crackers."
that make no medical logic.
either way it impairs brain chemestry and the ability to rationalize of the user. It also creates moodswings depending on whatever else in his sysmem. All with no predictability just inivitability. A potheat with no rational mental stability.
It is VERY relavent and only adds another reasonable doubt and just even more to the preponderance of the evidence that this should NEVER reach a jury.
I think you are missing my point; tetrahydracanniboids (THC) stay in the body for up to 30 days longer than it effects your brain chemistry.
Or, to put this in simpler, more familiar terms... it would be like setting up a road block to check for DWIs if the test that they used only showed if you had used alcohol in the past 30 days.
I’m not sure who told you that cannabis causes you to feel “invincible” but that’s just not true.
The facts in this case seem to be open and shut, it looks to be a very clear case of self-defense. The fact that the kid had smoked pot within the past 30 days has absolutely nothing to do with Trayvon assaulting Zimmerman and ending up shot dead.
Had the toxicology report showed meth or PCP, which *do* cause aggression and feelings of invinciblility, I would wholeheartedly agree with your conclusion.
Why then, is the video repeatedly removed from YouTube?
It should be easy enough to identy who the person in the video actually is, and lay the matter to rest conclusively.
Schaeffer is an idiot.
You don't adopt laws based on the rare and exceptional event.
It is not intended to be challenged by habitual repeat criminals, major or minor, but by random and unique victims.
No controversy there.
Schaeffer is an idiot.
You don't adopt laws based on the rare and exceptional event.
It is not intended to be challenged by habitual repeat criminals, major or minor, but by random and unique victims.
No controversy there.
Schaeffer is an idiot.
You don't adopt laws based on the rare and exceptional event.
It is not intended to be challenged by habitual repeat criminals, major or minor, but by random and unique victims.
No controversy there.
Schaeffer is an idiot.
You don't adopt laws based on the rare and exceptional event.
It is not intended to be challenged by habitual repeat criminals, major or minor, but by random and unique victims.
No controversy there.
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