Posted on 07/13/2013 3:17:06 PM PDT by Clint N. Suhks
(CNN) -- After more than 12 hours of deliberation, the six women deliberating George Zimmerman's fate asked the court Saturday evening for clarification on the instructions regarding manslaughter, the judge said.
That couldn't have even been a question a few days ago: Judge Debra Nelson ruled Thursday, over the defense's vehement objection, to include manslaughter as an option for jurors, in addition to the second-degree murder charge. Their third option would be to find Zimmerman not guilty.
The question -- which was read out in court, without the jurors present, shortly before 6 p.m. -- was the first posed by the jury since late Friday afternoon, when they requested an inventory of evidence. Afterward, lawyers from both sides approached Nelson's bench; their comments could not be heard.
How long other juries deliberated for in other high-profile cases One of 1,009 fatal shootings in Florida in 2012, Trayvon Martin's death stood out -- the various threads of the story helping to capture the public imagination.
There was, for instance, the fact that an adult had fired on an unarmed teen, soon after police told him not to follow the 17-year-old. And there was the accusation of racial profiling: that Zimmerman -- the son of a Peruvian mother and a white American father, who identifies as Hispanic -- had singled out Martin, at least in part, because the teenager was black.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Just think how stupid the average juror is...
And then realize that half of them are stupider than that!
(paraphrasing George Carlin)
That jury should have been out no longer than 30 minutes. They are worrying about what is the verdict that will make them look to be “caring.” Zimmerman might become another genuine American political prisoner like the fellow who did the little video trailer that got blamed for Benghazi.
What I hate about the rule that a lesser charge has to be considered is that it makes that lesser offense seem like a reasonable “compromise” in the eyes of the jurors, and lets them be lazy about what the evidence actually showed.
OMG!! I would NEVER...EVER want to be judged by my “peers”!!! I’ve served on one jury and they were DUMB as ROCKS!!! Thought it was ALL FUN and GAMES!!!
That’s called “normalcy bias”. The universe has changed and you haven’t caught up to it yet.
There will be no appeal if he is convicted. George will not survive incarceration in Gen Pop long enough for that to happen.
But unfortunately I’m not sure he’ll survive that long.
Someone has to work to create that description of what was a man on his back bleeding, with broken bones, getting off a single shot into the man on top of him as they were clutched together in a death struggle, this description makes it sound as though Zimmerman fired on Martin at some distance in an act of aggression.
He was cold cocked because he did not exercise due caution.
He had every right to defend himself at that point. However, a little common sense and caution would have helped Zimmerman stay out of jail.
I think what the state of Florida is doing is a travesty of justice. Zimmerman did not commit any crime. I think he is a bit of a dolt, but even dolts don’t deserved to be falsely prosecuted.
If that was the extent of the idiot judges “clarification” on manslaughter then it will be reversed.
That is beyond horrible.
It’s either gross incompetence or downright malicious.
That instruction (even if it accurately followed a statute) would be constitutional defective and a violation of due process.
Just horrible.
I’m in disbelief.
It was raining. Washed off.
At this point, it looks like a hung jury is GZ’s best hope.
I still think that the jury’s going to “compromise” on manslaughter though.
A travesty of justice.
As if following someone would give that person license to hold the following guy down and beat his head into the cement.
Why do they keep giving CRP to this dead horse?
Trayvon stays on the sidewalk making a bee-line home, no problem. He goes up close to the back of homes, there’s a problem. It looks like he’s casing the joint.
If we’re going to be reminded constantly that Zimmerman followed, then we should also be reminded that it looked like Martin appeared to be casing the homes.
Disgusting that they are even considering ANY charge against this poor man.
Reversal on appeal does not preclude the near inevitable Federal Civil Rights trial.
Reversal on appeal does not preclude the near inevitable Federal Civil Rights trial.
The defendant’s supporters contend that no blood was detected on the cuffs and lower sleeves of Trayvon Martin’s two sweatshirts because the rain had washed away all of the defendant’s blood and the scrapings from only one fingernail were tested. They also claim that no blood was discovered on Trayvon’s hands because Trayvon covered them with plastic bags before he assaulted the defendant.
Let’s deal with the last claim first because it is the most ridiculous. Police routinely bag the hands of homicide victims to preserve trace evidence and that is what they did to Trayvon’s hands.
They also complain that Trayvon’s hands were not swabbed, but that is not surprising since the standard practice is to cut a homicide victim’s fingernails and examine them for trace evidence. Forensic scientists do this because trace evidence can transfer from a victim’s hands to another person, surface or fall off. Trace evidence, particularly blood and DNA gets trapped under fingernails and that is why fingernail cuttings are the preferred location to check for trace evidence.
They soak the fingernail cuttings in a solution of purified water overnight and spin it out in a centrifuge to obtain all of the cellular debris present. Then they examine the debris under a microscope. If they find intact cells, the extract the DNA and type it. They do not scrape one fingernail and throw the rest away. Whoever conjured up that explanation has absolutely no idea what they are talking about. It’s probably the same person who said Trayvon wrapped his hands in plastic bags before assaulting the defendant.
Pathetic and laughable nonsense.
What about the claim that rain washed away the blood and DNA?
That claim is almost, if not quite as ridiculous, because we are discussing whether the rain would wash away all blood present on fabric leaving no detectable trace amount. To understand why the rain would not wash away any detectable amount of blood, let us take a look at presumptive tests for blood and failed efforts to remove all detectable trace amounts of blood invisible to the human eye.
Experience has shown that it’s virtually impossible to clean-up blood spatter at a crime scene so that no DNA can be detected. And that is after using water, solvents, cleaning fluids and other assorted chemicals in multiple washings to remove all visible traces of blood. Even though the human eye cannot see trace amounts of blood residue, luminol will detect it. Luminol is so sensitive that it can detect the presence of blood in serial dilutions down to 1:100,000. If luminol can detect it, PCR testing certainly will type the DNA present.
Other chemicals used in presumptive testing for the presence of blood are leuchomalachite green, phenolphthalein, Hemastixs, Hemident, and Bluestarr. All are as equally sensitive to blood as Luminol except for leuchomalachite green (1:10,000). For more information, please read this Technical Note in the Journal of Forensic Science, published in 2006. JFS is a peer reviewed professional journal.
The defendant’s supporters do not realize that a complete DNA profile can be developed from the DNA contained in a single white blood cell by using the STR/PCR process (red blood cells do not have a nucleus). In practice, they require more than a single cell to avoid copying a contaminant DNA introduced extraneously into the testing process, but they do not need very much sample.
Her honor specifically DID NOT mention that little factoid in her instructions to the jury.
All they know is:
The judge’s instructions to the jury:“MANSLAUGHTER To prove the crime of Manslaughter, the State must prove the following two elements beyond a reasonable doubt: 1. Trayvon Martin is dead. 2. George Zimmerman intentionally committed an act or acts that caused the death of Trayvon Martin.”
They don't even know the penalty is nearly as harsh, that minor detail has also been deliberately withheld from them.
What a crock of brown stinky stuff. Ho can he be not guilty of murder 2 based on a self defense defense, yet guilty of manslaughter? Either it was self defense or it wasn’t, end of story. Dumbing down to manslaughter sounds like an automatic reversal on appeal. Why not save everyone the trouble and, oh by the way do what’s right, and find not guilty.
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