Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman, The Sympathetic Defendant.

by Staff April 22, 2012 10 Comments News Opinion Weekly Columns

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(ThyBlackMan.com) Did you see George Zimmerman at his bond hearing this morning? He lost some more weight. Got a little darker. Found his cheek bones. He even put on a suit with his shackles.

He was solemn. He looked remorseful even if he wasn’t. He looked like a man who realized the gravity of his action and the affect it’s having on the country. He looked like a man ripped in two (much like this country) wishing he could take back everything that happened once he laid eyes on Trayvon Martin. I watched him on the television screen in the producer pod at work for hours and I felt sorry for him.

Trayvon Martin is dead. Gone too soon. After 45 days walking free George Zimmerman was finally arrested and charged in the death of the Miami teen. Zimmerman who will probably bond out and leave the state of Florida until his trial deserves to stand trial for his deeds. Does he deserve life in prison. Looking at this picture probably not.

Does he deserve to do some time in prison. Yes. A manslaughter charge. A plea deal. Five years out in three with good behavior.

I haven’t gone soft on the case. Trayvon Martin is still dead at the hands of George Zimmerman. However, the above photo is reasonable doubt. If the prosecution wasn’t already going to have a hard enough time proving their case this picture certainly doesn’t help. We will never know what happened in the final moments between Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. But we know something happened. We also know Trayvon Martin was not shot in cold blood. Just look at that man’s head. It’s a head wound. Head wounds bleed badly. (Just not as badly as bodies with bullet holes)

Some have suggested this trial could incite a race riot. Others say this will be the defining moment of the 2012 campaign. I say this will be a murder or manslaughter trial like any other where race is a factor. No matter the outcome no one will agree with how it all went down. Justice will have still been denied to one side even if justice was done.

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Have your feelings about the Trayvon Martin case changed since it’s been in the news?

Staff Writer; Nikesha Leeper

To connect with this sister feel free to visit; Change Comes Slow.

10 Comments

Don says:

April 23, 2012 at 4:28 pm

Nikesha,

Here’s one for you:

http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2012-04-21/story/naacp-weighs-what-they-say-stand-your-ground-case-against-jacksonville-0

A black woman, with a license to carry, fired one shot into the ceiling to stop a man with a history of domestic violence from assaulting her. The NAACP has stepped in to say she should have been protected under Florida’s self defense laws.

What do you think? Should she have taken another beating because her assailant was unarmed? Personally, I don’t think so, but I suppose opinions vary.

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Don says:

April 23, 2012 at 9:25 am

RE: “No one has the right to shoot an unarmed person no matter how heightened the argument gets.”

Hogwash! People have been killing each other with their bare hands since the dawn of time.

It’s really very simple. If you don’t want to get shot, keep your hands to yourself, because there isn’t a state in the union where it’s not legal to use lethal force to stop someone from assaulting you.

With the amount of damage Martin had already inflicted, only a raving lunatic could argue Zimmerman should have allowed it to continue for one second longer before using lethal force to end the assault.

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Nikesha says:

April 23, 2012 at 7:18 am

@DON

The fact of the matter is no one knows the facts. We know Zimmerman was injured and that Trayvon is dead. other than that no one else knows what happened.

I agree to an extent this story has been blown out of the water by media. Misrepresentation and lying by the media the person that butted the 911 calls together has been fired. So i think coverage has been as honest as possible.

As for your claims of race not having anything to do with it I disagree. You say Blacks would be screaming injustice if Trayvon had killed Zimmerman. Not true there is a similar case in Florida where a black man shot and killed a white man and claims stand your ground. He’s on trial for manslaughter as he should be.

No one has the right to shoot an unarmed person no matter how heightened the argument gets. Trayvon didn’t single out the mexican guy. Zimmerman singled out Trayvon Martin and followed him and did not stand down when a dispatcher ask that he do so.

If you’re following me in my own neighborhood I’m going to be defensive.

This has everything to do with race and racial profiling. The fact that you fail to see it proves you rather look at the world through rose colored glasses and point fingers at others instead of understanding America has never handled its race problem from the beginning to get over it.

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Nicholas says:

April 23, 2012 at 12:28 am

Looking at that picture, there is no way that the horizontal line at the rear of the top of Zimmerman’s head, was caused by Trayvon bashing his head on the concrete.

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Stavish says:

April 22, 2012 at 8:41 pm

Nikesha Leper expressed basically the same feelings I have on this, not going from one extreme to the other but rather to somewhere in the middle with regard to Zimmerman’s guilt. I feel l shows more than a “scratch” and even though we will never know the whole story there is more than enough reasonable doubt. I don’t know if it will come down to manslaughter; maybe he’ll get off completely. But I would feel best about a manslaughter settlement. I think such a verdict would (probably) be best for all parties involved, including George Zimmerman, mostly because I cannot see a scenario in which he does not bear, and feel, some moral guilt for what happens, and if you believe in things like like the immortal soul paying the physical atonement of prison time is a good step for someone in that position. I believe there was a fight and it spun out of control for both Martin and Zimmerman; but even without that being the case there is (as an armchair laayer, I must admit) probably more reasonable doubt here than in a lot of cases where defendants have gotten off. I really wish this case had been able to get the publicity needed to pursue justice for Trayvon Martin without being politicized to the extent that it has.

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Don says:

April 22, 2012 at 6:16 pm

People believe what they want to believe. The most tragic aspect of this incident is no one is holding the media accountable for all the false and misleading reporting of this case. I’m a licensed gun owner and I do carry. The only time I’ve ever pointed a gun at another person was when a rather attractive white woman was trying to break into my home. I didn’t shoot her, but I did notice the neighborhood was totally crime free for years afterward.

If someone was sitting on top of me, smashing my face in, and pounding my head against the ground, I’d say the odds are good that I would have done exactly what Zimmerman did. I sincerely hope I am never faced with that choice. Getting punched in the face hurts. Getting punched in the face repeatedly hurts a lot. I can’t imagine anyone faced with a violent assault of that nature not using any and all means available to stop the attack, including lethal force. It wouldn’t make a speck of difference whether the assailant was white, black or anything in between. It wouldn’t make a speck of difference even if the assailant was a spouse or family member. It isn’t about race. It never had anything to do with race, unless you take into account the possibility Martin figured it was okay to violently assault the little Mexican looking guy.

If there’s anything the comments on this story has brought to light it’s the fact that racists and bigots come in all colors, and some of the worst today are, in fact, black. They are blinded by color and can’t see the facts through the haze of their bigotry. If the guy on top had been white, and the guy with the gun black, you’d all be singing a different tune. You’d all be hollering about how unfair it was to demonize the black man and unfairly prosecute him in such an open and shut case of self defense. And ya know what, you’d be absolutely right.

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kafantaris says:

April 22, 2012 at 4:31 pm

Though the apology humanized the defendant, it also build an anticipation that Zimmerman will testify at his trial. If he does, he will be hit with any inconsistent statement he gave to the police — and perhaps even to Sean Hannity. Yes, Sean may have become a State rebuttal witness.
More importantly, Zimmerman would have to explain not knowing there was no weapon since Martin was pleading for help. http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11548279
Indeed, why would Martin plea for help if he was armed and could have fired his own gun? The “help” pleas went on for almost a minute, and thus unequivocally put Zimmerman on notice that Martin was at his mercy — without a weapon to resort to.
It was disingenuous then for Zimmerman to testify that he did not know if Martin was armed. This undermined the sincerity of his apology.

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Tony Lindsay says:

April 22, 2012 at 2:22 pm

The only thing that head injury photo shows is that the unarmed young person that George Zimmerman stalked while carrying a gun, DEFENDED himself. The legal loopholes and obscurities of the “justice system” in this country provide ample resources for criminals to get away with the most heinous crimes, and just because the technicality states one thing…the blatant and obvious truth does not and should not change. George Zimmerman, as pitiful as he looks today, is reaping the results of his own actions…actions which robbed a young promising 17 year old boy of his life. Those actions robbed a family of their child, and for the author of this article to state that George Zimmerman deserves just 3 years in prison…well, that says a great deal about the tragic and distressful contiditon and mindset of our society today. This article serves as a total insult to rational thinking people everywhere, and it also serves as a complete disservice to those who have continuously sought and have had denied, the justice that we are all entitled to as citizens of this country, and as human beings.

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Tony Lindsay says:

April 22, 2012 at 2:21 pm

The only think that head injury photo shows is that the unarmed young person that George Zimmerman stalked while carrying a gun, DEFENDED himself. The legal loopholes and obscurities of the “justice system” in this country provide ample resources for criminals to get away with the most heinous crimes, and just because the technicality states one thing…the blatant and obvious truth does not and should not change. George Zimmerman, as pitiful as he looks today, is reaping the results of his own actions…actions which robbed a young promising 17 year old boy of his life. Those actions robbed a family of their child, and for the author of this article to state that George Zimmerman deserves just 3 years in prison…well, that says a great deal about the tragic and distressful contiditon and mindset of our society today. This article serves as a total insult to rational thinking people everywhere, and it also serves as a complete disservice to those who have continuously sought and have had denied, the justice that we are all entitled to as citizens of this country, and as human beings.

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KB says:

April 22, 2012 at 2:07 pm

My feelings on this case have remained the same. I believe Zimmerman was completely wrong in his actions that night. Yes some will say that the photo above proves reasonable doubt, however I believe differently. Martin was running from Zimmerman to get away from this unknown individual who was following him (all on the police recording). Zimmerman disregarded the law when he decided to purse Martin even after he was told not to. Even if Martin beat Zimmerman down, I think he had every right. If I were walking home at night by myself and some lunatic began following me, I would have probably done the same thing. I don’t think Zimmerman will get the time that he truly deserves, and justice for the Martin family will never completely be served if you ask me. Smh…btw how did Zimmerman think his life was so much in danger ? He was two scratches / scrapes (pretty much) on the back of his head. He lie and said his nose was broke however never was even admitted in the hospital?? Oh yeah I’m sure he really did fear for his pathetic life.

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