Shooting of Trayvon Martin - Page 56

On May 03 2012 06:57 NEOtheONE wrote:
Honestly, Zimmerman should just plead guilty to the lesser and more accurate charge of manslaughter. What he did was not self defense, and because of the high certainty of a biased jury he should just take the manslaughter charge.

On May 03 2012 07:43 crms wrote:



correct me if I'm wrong but the prosecutors went full derp and charged murder 2... there is noway they can prove murder 2 even with a biased jury. If he just goes to trial for murder 2 he will be found 'not guilty' and not have to eat any charge, right? Perhaps he would have plead down to something if the prosecutors went for an appropriate charge that zimmerman might actually catch.

On May 03 2012 07:43 crms wrote:



correct me if I'm wrong but the prosecutors went full derp and charged murder 2... there is noway they can prove murder 2 even with a biased jury. If he just goes to trial for murder 2 he will be found 'not guilty' and not have to eat any charge, right? Perhaps he would have plead down to something if the prosecutors went for an appropriate charge that zimmerman might actually catch.

The network's coverage of the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin controversy costs reporter Lilia Luciano her job less than two weeks after the firing of Jeff Burnside.

A scandal at NBC News over the multiple airings of deceptively edited audio from a 911 call placed by George Zimmerman the night he killed Trayvon Martin has cost a third journalist her job, an NBC insider confirmed Thursday.

The fired NBC reporter was identified as Lilia Luciano, a national correspondent for the Today show, Nightly News with Brian Williams and MSNBC who joined the network 18 months ago from Univision.

Luciano is credited for being one of the earliest reporters to cover the controversial shooting, which occurred Feb. 26 but remained headline news for several weeks as civil rights activists like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson demanded the arrest of Zimmerman, who had claimed he shot Martin in self defense. Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder on April 11.

NBC and its sister network MSNBC has been under fire for seemingly going out of their way to advance the narrative that Zimmerman, a Hispanic, was racially motivated to kill Martin, a black teenager.

NBC’s Today show aired a doctored 911 call where Zimmerman appears to say, “This guy looks like he’s up to no good or he’s on drugs or something. He looks black.”

That edited version, though, filters out the middle of the call, where the 911 dispatcher specifically asks Zimmerman to describe Martin’s race. NBC apologized on April 3 and said three days later that they fired a producer over the edit, though it has yet to name the former employee.

Critics have also pointed out what they called deceptive edits on local NBC stations, and they were used online and in print, where ellipsis were used to mask the 911 operator’s question about race. NBC confirmed on April 26 that it fired reporter Jeff Burnside for one of those transgressions.

As for Luciano, she has been spearheading some of NBC’s coverage, and she used a more complicated edited version of the 911 call, where conversation wasn’t only excluded but was allegedly cut from parts of the call and inserted into other parts.

In Luciano’s version, which also aired on NBC’s Today show, Zimmerman is heard saying: “This guy looks like he’s up to no good or on drugs or something. He’s got his hand in his waistband. And he’s a black male.”

In the unedited call, which is embedded below, the conversation about Martin's waistband comes 40 seconds after the mention of "drugs or something."

Critics say the edits were made to advance the narrative of Zimmerman as a racial profiler and, in fact, Luciano has tweeted, sometimes in Spanish and sometimes in English, suggestions along those lines.

On March 17, for example, she tweeted: “Racial profiling? Trayvon Martin’s family seeking answers to the shooting death of the teen.” The tweet was a plug for an NBC segment that explored the question.

As is the case with Burnside, Luciano stopped tweeting since NBC fired her.

Media watchdogs – mostly conservatives – have been calling on NBC to do much more than issue an apology that called the airing of deceptively edited audio tape an “error,” and also to name the fired producer.

“How can they possibly have pretended these separate incidents were accidents?” asked Human Events writer John Hayward. “How could one producer, and two reporters, be entirely responsible for this? And how can NBC continue to justify keeping any part of its investigation under wraps?”

NBC declined to comment on the record for this report.

George Zimmerman told investigators that while he was on the phone with a Sanford police dispatcher reporting Trayvon Martin as suspicious, the teenager was circling his vehicle on foot, a source familiar with the investigation told the Orlando Sentinel.

The source said Zimmerman's account of events hasn't changed in his several statements to police — in which he said he was so unnerved by the teen's behavior that he rolled up his window to avoid a confrontation. However, he never mentioned any of that while talking to the dispatcher.

The details revealed by the source provide new insight into what Zimmerman said happened in the earliest moments of his contact with Trayvon. And they may reveal the inconsistencies alluded to by prosecutors in the case.

One of those inconsistencies: Zimmerman told police Trayvon had his hand over Zimmerman's mouth during their fight on the night he shot Trayvon.

The Sentinel's source confirmed that Zimmerman's statements include that allegation. But authorities do not believe that happened, the source told the Sentinel, because on one 911 call, someone can be heard screaming for help. If it were Zimmerman, as he claims, his cries were not muffled, the source said.

Zimmerman also told police, the source told the Sentinel, that while the two were on the ground, Trayvon reached for Zimmerman's gun, and the two struggled over it.

Those portions of Zimmerman's account are not corroborated by other evidence, the source said.

Zimmerman's attorney, Mark O'Mara, said he hasn't yet seen his client's statements to police, and it would be inappropriate for him to address specific evidence in the case.

"It's hard for me to even comment on it," O'Mara said.

Sanford Spokesman Sgt. David Morgenstern said the police department "cannot make any comments on anything related to the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin case."

Reached in Birmingham, Ala., Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump said Thursday that Zimmerman's claim that he was screaming in the 911 call and that his mouth was covered by the teen don't add up.

"[Trayvon's father] Tracy Martin told me that that's what [police] told him," Crump said, of Zimmerman making those statements to police.

"It's either one or the other, it can't be both," Crump said. "We have to put together this puzzle because, unfortunately, we don't have Trayvon Martin's version" of events.

A spokeswoman for Special Prosecutor Angela Corey declined to comment.

Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon in a Sanford gated community on Feb. 26. Zimmerman told police he acted in self-defense. Critics say he is guilty of racial profiling and killing an innocent teenager.

In an audio recording of Zimmerman's call to police that night, Zimmerman says Trayvon is acting suspiciously and describes him as a black teenager when prompted by the dispatcher.

He does not say that Trayvon was circling his vehicle, but that's what he told police later that night and has consistently told authorities in subsequent interviews, according to the Sentinel's source.

Here, according to that source, is the sequence that Zimmerman provided:

Zimmerman spotted Trayvon, called a nonemergency police number and began describing the teenager. While he was doing that, Trayvon came toward his vehicle and began to circle it.

Zimmerman, though, never described that to the dispatcher.

At one point, about halfway through the four-minute call, he told the dispatcher, "Now he's just staring at me. … Now he's coming towards me. He's got his hand in his waistband. … He's coming to check me out."

Trayvon then disappeared, Zimmerman later told authorities, according to the source, and while Zimmerman was still on the phone, he parked his vehicle, got out and began trying to find Trayvon on foot.

Zimmerman can be heard huffing and puffing on the call to police.

"Are you following him?" the dispatcher asks.

"Yeah," Zimmerman said.

"We don't need you to do that," the dispatcher says.

Zimmerman later told investigators he could not find Trayvon, so he turned and was walking back toward his SUV. A short time later, Trayvon approached him from the rear, and the two exchanged words, he told authorities.

Trayvon threw the first punch, he told police. It knocked Zimmerman to the ground, and the teenager then got on top of Zimmerman and began beating his head against a sidewalk, police have said in recounting Zimmerman's version of events.

At an April 20 bond hearing in Sanford, Dale Gilbreath, an investigator for Special Prosecutor Angela Corey, testified that Zimmerman told authorities he was frightened because Trayvon circled him while he sat in his SUV.

Gilbreath described that as one of the inconsistencies in Zimmerman's story — because getting out of the vehicle and looking for the teen is not the act of someone who is afraid.

Gilbreath did not testify that Zimmerman claimed the circling happened while he was on the phone with the dispatcher.

Gilbreath also testified briefly about Zimmerman telling police that Trayvon had his hand over Zimmerman's mouth during the fight.

Several audio experts who have analyzed the 911 tapes for the Sentinel and other news outlets have said they believe it is Trayvon's voice — not Zimmerman's — crying out for help. However, Gilbreath testified that similar identification attempts by law enforcement were fruitless.

George Zimmerman has waived his right to a speedy trial, arguing to a Florida court that he needs more time to prepare. The move means it could be October at the earliest -- and likely much later -- before the start of his second-degree murder trial.

Zimmerman's intentions were outlined in two brief documents that Zimmerman's attorney, Mark O'Mara, filed Tuesday in Seminole County, Fla., circuit court. The actions did not come as a surprise to legal experts, who said such moves are common even in less-complex and lower-profile felony cases.

Florida's rules of criminal procedure require that suspects charged with a felony be brought to trial within 175 days of their arrest, unless those defendants ask that the right be waived. Zimmerman turned himself in to authorities on April 11, charged with the murder of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager who was walking in Zimmerman's neighborhood, and whom Zimmerman considered to be suspicious.

Zimmerman, 28, was released from jail after posting $150,000 bond. He admits he shot Martin, 17, but claims he did so in self-defense. He has pleaded not guilty in court documents, making his appearance unnecessary at a Tuesday arraignment hearing.

Law enforcement officials' initial reluctance to arrest Zimmerman sparked a national outcry, with many observers suspecting that Zimmerman, who is half-white and half Latino, was given a break because of his race, and the race of the young man he fatally shot.

Kenneth B. Nunn, a professor and criminal law expert at the University of Florida, said that prosecutors are likely pleased to have the extra time, given the expert witnesses to line up, police audiotapes to analyze and other details to sort out. Nunn said he wouldn't be surprised if the trial started sometime in the spring of 2013.

The shooting has been a major story for American news media this spring, with interest generated by the Internet and social media as well.

It is not clear whether the public's passion for the case will be sustained over many months, but another racially charged trial -- that of the officers charged with beating black Los Angeles motorist Rodney King -- has been a somewhat inescapable reference point.

A jury's April 1992 acquittal of the police officers who had been captured on tape beating King more than a year earlier sparked the deadly Los Angeles riots. The African American activist Al Sharpton marked the 20th anniversary of the riots last month with a call for a peaceful response to the Martin verdict.

On May 03 2012 06:57 NEOtheONE wrote:
Honestly, Zimmerman should just plead guilty to the lesser and more accurate charge of manslaughter. What he did was not self defense, and because of the high certainty of a biased jury he should just take the manslaughter charge.

On May 12 2012 09:10 dAPhREAk wrote:
this is the world we live in people:

Trayvon Martin gun range targets sold online

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/news/Trayvon-Martin-gun-range-targets-sold-online/-/9533136/13069306/-/10ffct0z/-/index.html

On May 12 2012 09:16 aksfjh wrote:

What did you expect?

On May 12 2012 09:22 Dark_Chill wrote:


That makes absolutely no sense at all. There are far more supporters for Trayvon and people who really hate Zimmerman. Why didn't he make a Zimmerman gun range target instead? How's he going to make a profit with that?

"My main motivation was to make money off the controversy." The seller did not disclose how many paper targets were made, but said in an email, "The response is overwhelming. I sold out in 2 days."

"This is the highest level of disgust and the lowest level of civility," Zimmerman's attorney Mark O'Mara said in the news piece. "It's this type of hatred—that's what this is, it's hate-mongering—that's going to make it more difficult to try this case."

SANFORD, Fla. — WFTV has learned charges against George Zimmerman could be getting more serious.
State prosecutors said Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman, profiled and stalked 17-year-old Trayvon Martin before killing him, so the FBI is now looking into charging him with a hate crime.

A medical report compiled by the family physician of accused Trayvon Martin murderer George Zimmerman and obtained exclusively by ABC News found that Zimmerman was diagnosed with a "closed fracture" of his nose, a pair of black eyes, two lacerations to the back of his head and a minor back injury the day after he fatally shot Martin during an alleged altercation.

On May 16 2012 07:25 ShoCkeyy wrote:
Uhhh, if I had this crazy guy following me, of course I would fight back... So what if he had bruises on his knuckles? I'm sure he was punching zimmerman trying to get him off of him.

On May 16 2012 07:25 ShoCkeyy wrote:
Uhhh, if I had this crazy guy following me, of course I would fight back... So what if he had bruises on his knuckles? I'm sure he was punching zimmerman trying to get him off of him.

On May 03 2012 07:43 crms wrote:



correct me if I'm wrong but the prosecutors went full derp and charged murder 2... there is noway they can prove murder 2 even with a biased jury. If he just goes to trial for murder 2 he will be found 'not guilty' and not have to eat any charge, right? Perhaps he would have plead down to something if the prosecutors went for an appropriate charge that Zimmerman might actually catch.

Saying he had no discretion under state law, a judge sentenced a Jacksonville, Florida, woman to 20 years in prison Friday for firing a warning shot in an effort to scare off her abusive husband.
Marissa Alexander unsuccessfully tried to use Florida's controversial "stand your ground" law to derail the prosecution, but a jury in March convicted her of aggravated assault after just 12 minutes of deliberation.
The case, which was prosecuted by the same state attorney who is handling the Trayvon Martin case, has gained the attention of civil rights leaders who say the African-American woman was persecuted because of her race.
After the sentencing, Rep. Corrine Brown confronted State Attorney Angela Corey in the hallway, accusing her of being overzealous, according to video from CNN affiliate WJXT.
"There is no justification for 20 years," Brown told Corey during an exchange frequently interrupted by onlookers. "All the community was asking for was mercy and justice," she said.
Corey said she had offered Alexander a plea bargain that would have resulted in a three-year prison sentence, but Alexander chose to take the case to a jury trial, where a conviction would carry a mandatory sentence under a Florida law known as "10-20-life."
'Stand your ground' plea rejected
The law mandates increased penalties for some felonies, including aggravated assault, in which a gun is carried or used.
Corey said the case deserved to be prosecuted because Alexander fired in the direction of a room where two children were standing.
Alexander said she was attempting to flee her husband, Rico Gray, on August 1, 2010, when she picked up a handgun and fired a shot into a wall.
She said her husband had read cell phone text messages that she had written to her ex-husband, got angry and tried to strangle her.
She said she escaped and ran to the garage, intending to drive away. But, she said, she forgot her keys, so she picked up her gun and went back into the house. She said her husband threatened to kill her, so she fired one shot.
"I believe when he threatened to kill me, that's what he was absolutely going to do," she said. "That's what he intended to do. Had I not discharged my weapon at that point, I would not be here."
Alexander's attorneys tried to use the state law that allows people to use potentially deadly force anywhere they feel reasonably threatened with serious harm or death.
But a previous judge in the case rejected the request, saying Alexander's decision to go back into the house was not consistent with someone in fear for her safety, according to the Florida Times Union newspaper.
A jury convicted Alexander in March and Judge James Daniel denied her request for a new trial in April.
Daniel handed down the sentence Friday after an emotional sentencing hearing during which Alexander's parents, 11-year-old daughter and pastor spoke on her behalf.
Several people had to be escorted from the courtroom after breaking out singing and chanting about a perceived lack of justice in the case, but Daniel made a point to say that he had no choice under state law.
"Under the state's 10-20-life law, a conviction for aggravated assault where a firearm has been discharged carries a minimum and maximum sentence of 20 years without regarding to any extenuating or mitigating circumstances that may be present, such as those in this case," Daniel said.
Brown, the Jacksonville congresswoman, told reporters after the sentencing that the case was a product of "institutional racism."
"She was overcharged by the prosecutor. Period," Brown said. "She never should have been charged."
Brown has been more complimentary about Corey's work in the Trayvon Martin case, where her office filed second degree murder charges against neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in the February 26 death of the unarmed African-American teen-ager.
That case provoked nationwide protests demanding Zimmerman's arrest after an initial police investigation released him under the "stand your ground" law.