George Zimmerman Charged

[GASPASSERDELUXE]

If he is found not guilty the Feds will probably go after him for "civil rights violations".  They have done it in the past on a few cases.

[MikeBjerum]

Don't know about FL but in a lot of places you can only pass sentence on the original charge, not drop to a lower one.  That's why in "typical" murder trials, they are charged with murder, manslaughter, and any other crime they can to have a better chance of conviction.
If Zimmerman is ONLY charged with murder and they can't convict on it, it's double jeopardy to try him for manslaughter.  He CAN be charged with civil penalties though, which unfortunately he probably will.

They need to charge with everything prior to going to trial.  My guess, and it is only a guess, is that they are only charging Second Degree Murder and holding Manslaughter as a bargaining chip for plea agreement.  Otherwise I would have thought they would have charged with both and let the jury decide which one.

[tombogan03884]

Don't know about FL but in a lot of places you can only pass sentence on the original charge, not drop to a lower one.  That's why in "typical" murder trials, they are charged with murder, manslaughter, and any other crime they can to have a better chance of conviction.
If Zimmerman is ONLY charged with murder and they can't convict on it, it's double jeopardy to try him for manslaughter. He CAN be charged with civil penalties though, which unfortunately he probably will.

If he is found not guilty the Feds will probably go after him for "civil rights violations".  They have done it in the past on a few cases.

Just like with the  Rodney King trials. Keep trying them until you get the result the media wants.   

[LittleRed]

He CAN be charged with civil penalties though, which unfortunately he probably will.

My understanding is that if he is not found guilty by way of self-defense, then he can not be sued.

776.032 Immunity from criminal prosecution and civil action for justifiable use of force.
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0776/Sections/0776.032.html

In fact, if he is found innocent (not guilty), then any civil suit and expenses will fall on Trayvon's family.

[Tyler Durden]

but Trayvon's mom went ahead and trademarked his name, so when the "Justice for Trayvon" hoodies start getting cranked out and are on store shelves, she will have a lot of money rolling in to sue Zimmerman for wrongful death.

[Sponsor]

[santahog]

Because they didn't arrest the guy in the beginning, and for the month that nobody outside the local media/community knew about it, I think it was a "relatively" clean case of self defense. I'm curious about why the Head of the Dept stepped aside though, unless he saw this mess headed his way..

[Solus]

Because they didn't arrest the guy in the beginning, and for the month that nobody outside the local media/community knew about it, I think it was a "relatively" clean case of self defense. I'm curious about why the Head of the Dept stepped aside though, unless he saw this mess headed his way..

He made a wise choice stepping aside.  Even if he made a perfect decision from the start, his being associated with the proceedings when they moved into the Circus Tent would only have added to the hoopla and controversy.

At least the current prosecutor can have as clean a slate as possible in a mud puddle.

[Pathfinder]

I just saw something that made me realize this Zimmerman kerfuffle is yet another tiny cog in the Master Plan. It is not about black or white, or Zimmerman or Martin or anything else. Remember, when dealing with leftoids, it is NEVER about what they say it is about. The situation is simply about what they are trying to achieve.

Enter today's AP wire story. From that story I offer you this:

"MIAMI (AP) — George Zimmerman persuaded the police not to charge him for killing unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, but the prosecutor has accused him of murder. Soon, armed with unparalleled legal advantages, Zimmerman will get to ask a judge to find the killing was justified, and if that doesn’t work, he’ll get to make the same case to a jury."

OK, I didn't think of this, but the article I got this from (http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/54222) brought it into focus for me.

This whole story is about the destruction of the rule of law. Lynch Zimmerman now and make the story go away. Oh, yeah, the leftoids want to use the law when it is in their favor, but if it is "wrong" in their eyes, they simply want the law ignored. A lot like bho is doing in the WH these days, and what the kongress kritters have been doing for decades.

By trumping the rule of law, they can re-institute the rule of man (their man, obviously, not a Constitutionalist) and thereby morph this country more easily into the totalitarian socialist/commie dream the Founders obviously meant it to be - according to them.

Dangerous times . . . . . .

[Magoo541]

My take is that with the "evidence" I have seen, odds are Zimmerman is guilty.   Just like I felt OJ was guilty...but if I had been on OJ's jury with the facts I know, I would have voted not guilty.  Too much proof of police tampering with evidence to allow me not to have a reasonable doubt about all the evidence.

But there needs to be a fair trial for Zimmerman, if that is possible any longer.  And my hunch, again from what has been released is that there will not be enough evidence to convict him unless some eye witness to  how the confrontation evolved comes forward.

That Zimmerman seemed aggressive in his surveillance of the kid and probably pushed it too far just doesn't cut it for removing reasonable doubt.

Guilty of what exactly?  I mean we are all guilty of something at sometime but what do you think he is guilty of?  Murder 2?  Manslaughter?  Assault?  Having a white, Jewish father?  Obviously the "evidence" we have seen has been tampered with, cost one SOB his job at NBC (don't worry he/she will find employment in the MSM soon with a nice jump in pay), and the evidence doesn't matter right now anyway, its the seriousness of the charge which is-White man killing Black man solely because of his ethnicity.

I don't think he'll be found guilty based on the eye witness accounts that have come forward but more likely on the lynch mob mentality the MSM has stirred up over race.  Zimmerman ought to hyphenate his last name to reflect his Latino heritage or just change it to his mothers surname and save himself from the public gallows.

[Solus]

Guilty of what exactly?  I mean we are all guilty of something at sometime but what do you think he is guilty of?  Murder 2?  Manslaughter?  Assault?  Having a white, Jewish father?  Obviously the "evidence" we have seen has been tampered with, cost one SOB his job at NBC (don't worry he/she will find employment in the MSM soon with a nice jump in pay), and the evidence doesn't matter right now anyway, its the seriousness of the charge which is-White man killing Black man solely because of his ethnicity.

I don't think he'll be found guilty based on the eye witness accounts that have come forward but more likely on the lynch mob mentality the MSM has stirred up over race.  Zimmerman ought to hyphenate his last name to reflect his Latino heritage or just change it to his mothers surname and save himself from the public gallows.

That would depend upon how the encounter moved to grappling distance.    If Zimmerman was the one to cause that after following the kid around for awhile, he escalated the situation to a confrontation....then shot the kid when the kid reacted.  It is likely Zimmerman made some comment or even an action to restrain or direct the kid to get out of the neighborhood.  If it was verbal, I'd call it taunting and look for manslaughter.  If it was physical, or if he drew on the kid, I'd be looking for Murder 2.

I have no legal experience and this is only what I see "likely" from what has been reported.  No way to I say what I know is the end of the story...just what seems likely to have happened.  If that was all the evidence presented at the trial and I was on the jury, I'd vote Not Guilty because there is nothing presented so far to indicate Zimmerman escalated the situation...and without such evidence, he is Not Guilty....which is not necessarily Innocent.