Conviction or Acquittal to be determined by the tangled web of lies and the credibility deficit of Zimmerman’s defense.
Conviction or Acquittal to be determined by the tangled web of lies and the credibility deficit of Zimmerman’s defense.
If I have a chance to live my life all over again, my profession of choice would be nothing else but the Law profession. I made a great mistake when I as a teenager getting ready for College, I was persuaded by my late father to not study Law because lawyers according to my poor old man, were devilish professionals and up to no good because they were capable of turning day light into darkness and perverting the course of justice using legal technicalities.
Among my greatest heroes today in Nigeria and even here in the United States are legal luminaries and Civil Right leaders like the late Gani Fawehinmi and Femi Falana among several others in Nigeria. The list is inexhaustible in the United States where the great majority of her Civil Right Leaders and even Presidents and political leaders on both sides of the Isle have been attorneys by profession. I have now come to realize and appreciate that the Law is a noble profession that I would not hesitate to recommend to any of my children and grand kids who may seek my opinion on choosing a career.
I watched the O.J. Simpson trial with passion from gavel to gavel. I am doing precisely the same thing with the on-going Zimmerman trial at Sanford, Florida. I have come away with the same impression that the study and practice of Law in this country is so much advanced that I cannot think of any other country around the world that comes anywhere close to it. Not even Great Britain with the sophistication of her judicial system comes close to America, all things considered. The Jury system in America is very unique and special in so many ways and the mere fact that each of the 50 states has their own peculiar Laws that make America a real case study for the whole world is a point that cannot be over-emphasized.
The central question for me in the George Zimmerman trial is to differentiate between murder based on malice aforethought or murder based on self- defense where the burden of proof lies with the Prosecution which has to prove beyond reasonable doubt that George Zimmerman had done what he did not because he reasonably believed his life was in imminent danger or that he had to do something to defend himself but that in fact he murdered Trayvon Martin based on malice. All the Defense has to do, on the other hand, is simply to create some reasonable doubt or establish enough probable cause that Zimmerman’s life was in serious danger and that poor Trayvon was not the victim but the aggressor. That to me is the crux of the matter because the Florida Law is very clear on what the Defense attorneys have to prove as they methodically present their case. America, the leader of the free world would not be the same great country much of the free world has all come to respect and emulate if the Zimmerman’s interpretation of the Florida Law is allowed to stand. At the minimum, manslaughter should remain a possible option in this case if second degree murder cannot be sustained. It will be a travesty of justice if Zimmerman is allowed to walk free and it could set a terrible precedent for the future in a country where gun violence has become a serious cause for concern.
Both the Prosecution and the Defense are prima facie presenting witnesses and evidences that they believe should favor their clients based on their individual interpretation and perception of what the Florida Law requires them to do to either get conviction or acquittal. The Defense would appear on the surface to have made some gains as they try to weaken the case and the evidences offered by the Prosecution. If the denial of the motion made last Friday by the presiding Judge is anything to go by, it would appear that the Prosecution has clearly won the first round in the opinion of the Judge but the matter does not rest there. The case now has to go to the next crucial stage meaning the 5 white female Jurors and one female Black or Hispanic who will be instructed by the judge on what the Florida Law says while leaving those jurors to form their own opinions not based on preponderance of evidence but on whether or not the Defense has met the criteria to acquit George Zimmerman of second degree murder as charged or the lesser charge of Manslaughter based on their own collective interpretation of the Florida Law.
For me as a lay man who does not pretend to understand the full intricacies and ramifications of the Florida Law or the racial bias of each of the white jurors picked to decide the case and prior to the final submission of both of the Defense and the Prosecution as they make their closing arguments to the jurors, my take on the case as at the end of the Court session on Monday, July 8 is to highlight the biggest challenges to the Defense as the huge inconsistencies in the evidences presented by Zimmerman in his deposition just to convince the jurors that if Zimmerman is lying about all those inconsistencies, that could undercut his reliability or truthfulness as the Defendant. If the Prosecution could put their searchlight on those inconsistencies in their final summation to the jurors they could still laugh last and laugh best even though the Defense right now, would appear to be succeeding in their goal of trying to poison the well, or muddy the waters to establish reasonable doubt which is all they arguably need to do to get acquittal for their client. I don’t know about you, There are far too many holes in the Zimmerman evidence that cannot be dismissed with the wave of the hand in a country governed by the rule of Law.
If Zimmerman was viciously attacked by Trayvon like he claimed in his report to the police and first responders, the evidence he provided did not very much support that and the fact that he did not receive any sutures for any of his exaggerated injuries and the fact that he was not sent to the emergency room for any further treatment. The fact that his so-called yelling for help had stopped as soon as he shot Trayvon in the heart at close range was a clear proof that he was probably not the one yelling for help as he claimed. The forensic evidence did not back up his claim that Trayvon had grabbed or even touched his concealed weapon. He, Zimmerman, could not have been the one yelling for help, and if he was, he was probably faking it because he already made up his mind he was going to kill Trayvon and he had to know he had the means to do so with effortless ease with his loaded concealed gun which evidence has now proved that Trayvon did not know and could not have known about.
Zimmerman, with a deadly weapon at his disposal, had to be seen as the aggressor without any question because an assailant with a concealed gun clearly at his disposal had to be seen as the aggressor. If it is true he did not set out to murder poor Trayvon in cold blood, he would not have aimed his gun at Trayvon’s heart. He could easily have shot him in the hand or the leg where his life could easily have been saved. Zimmerman would look to any fair-minded person like a professional killer who already had a malice aforethought and a depraved hatred or bias to want to kill the helpless black intruder in his neighborhood. Whatever Zimmerman is saying now could be taken as an after-thought to save his own life as someone very familiar with Law Enforcement protocols and the stand your ground Laws in Florida and how best to navigate it for his own defense, if it ever gets to that. That was why he, Mr. Zimmerman, totally ignored the Police advice to not take the law to his own hands but to leave the poor boy alone and to not follow him until he got into a confrontation with Trayvon whose only crime at the time was walking alone in a preponderantly white neighborhood. Zimmerman claimed that Trayvon had emerged from a bush to confront him. That claim has proved to be a lie. He was the one stalkng the poor boy and haunting him to his death because he felt he could, and get away.
Any of you reading this must remember that Zimmerman, left to the Police in Sanford alone, would never have been arrested nor charged for anything after the incident because the Police had taken hook, line and sinker his own version of what happened. He was only charged after it became clear that Human Right leaders like Rev. Al Sharpton and others were not going to let the case go unchallenged. It was the pressure they brought to bear on the Police and the involvement of the Mayor’s Office that led to Zimmerman’s arrest. When a white man kills a black boy it is just like a dog biting a man. That is nothing unusual. What is unusual is when a man bites a dog. That is when you hear anybody complaining. Mr Zimmerman could easily have gotten away with the Trayvon murder if nobody has lifted a finger. The trial would never have seen the light of day but for the activities of civil right leaders and the reaction of the news media and television stations across the country and their refusal to keep quiet.
I cannot help but draw attention before I end this write-up to how far racial awareness and tension has come in this country. We are still a long way from overcoming the Cancer, but the country is definitely making some incremental progress. Law-abiding citizens must not let go in the melting pot that this great country of immigrants with a rainbow coalition of ethnicities has become.
I rest my case.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of SaharaReporters
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