Professor William A. Jacobson, author of the Legal Insurrection blog I’ve been getting most of my material from for the Zimmerman posts, had an interview about the case with a New York radio station.
You can listen here. One thing that jumped out at me was that, while no one saw the initial confrontation between the two, Trayvon Martin’s texts apparently outline exactly the same sort of tactics that Zimmerman claimed he used on him. That is, if you want to start a fight, give one hard punch to the nose, knocking down your victim in a surprise attack.
This was interesting to me, since during the day I was reading different perspectives around the internet. And it did occur to me that, ultimately, no one really knows what happened at that moment when they met. That doubt swings the situation Zimmerman’s way in a trial. But with these texts, we can be a certain as we will ever be that Martin attacked Zimmerman.
CNN managed to get an interview with one of the jurors. Legal Insurrection has those interviews on this post. I think she is very brave for having done this, since there are people who would like to kill her too. But it is clear that the jury applied common sense, dismissed evidence that had no credibility (it made no sense to have tit-for-tat parents testifying that they thought the screamer was their boy), felt sorry for Rachel Jeantel, and saw through the massive problems with the prosecution case.
She was asked if she would have Zimmerman as her neighbourhood watch, with a gun. She said she would, pointing out that Zimmerman would now be the safest person in the US to give a gun to.
Let’s hope he never has to use one to defend himself again.
Update: I’m sure many people know this (I knew about the jewellery ), but it is worth repeating. Were it not for a police chief trying to make himself look good by not doing his job, Trayvon Martin would almost certainly be alive today.
Both of Trayvon’s suspensions during his junior year at Krop High involved crimes that could have led to his prosecution as a juvenile offender. However, Chief Charles Hurley of the Miami-Dade School Police Department (MDSPD) in 2010 had implemented a policy that reduced the number of criiminal[sic] reports, manipulating statistics to create the appearance of a reduction in crime within the school system. Less than two weeks before Martin’s death, the school systemcommended Chief Hurley for “decreasing school-related juvenile delinquency by an impressive 60 percent for the last six months of 2011.” What was actually happening was that crimes were not being reported as crimes, but instead treated as disciplinary infractions.
In October 2011, after a video surveillance camera caught Martin writing graffiti on a door, MDSPD Office Darryl Dunn searched Martin’s backpack, looking for the marker he had used. Officer Dunn found 12 pieces of women’s jewelry and a man’s watch, along with a flathead screwdriver the officer described as a “burglary tool.” The jewelry and watch, which Martin claimed he had gotten from a friend he refused to name, matched a description of items stolen during the October 2011 burglary of a house on 204th Terrace, about a half-mile from the school. However, because of Chief Hurley’s policy “to lower the arrest rates,” as one MDSPD sergeant said in an internal investigation, the stolen jewerly[sic] was instead listed as “found property” and was never reported to Miami-Dade Police who were investigating the burglary. Similarly, in February 2012 when an MDSPD officer caught Martin with a small plastic bag containing marijuana residue, as well as a marijuana pipe, this was not treated as a crime, and instead Martin was suspended from school.
Either of those incidents could have put Trayvon Martin into the custody of the juvenile justice system.
Such is life.
Something should go here, maybe later. 