Special Prosecutor Press Conference
Developing Story via Fox News: Zimmerman is in custody and, according to AP sources, will be charged with 2nd-degree murder.
More details and official charges to follow during scheduled 6pm press conference with Special Prosecutor Angela Corey.
UPDATE (ongoing):
Some notable quotes from Special Prosecutor Corey at the press conference:
“We do not prosecute by public pressure or by petition. We prosecute based on the facts of any given case, as well as the laws of the state of Florida.
“We did not come to this decision lightly.”
“When we charge a person with a crime, we are equally comitted to justice on their behalf, as we are on our victims behalf.”
“We will continue to seek the truth… There is a reason cases are tried in the court of law, and not in the court of the public, and not by the media.”
“Today.. [we charged] George Zimmerman with murder in the second degree.”
“George Zimmerman turned himself in.”
UPDATES — WAJ — thanks to Bryan for coverng the press conference for me. I’m in the car (not the one driving!) and the Verizon Wireless connection is good, but not great for live streams while traveling. But, I did get to listen to almost all of the press conference on radio.
We learned nothing new about the facts of the case. What irked me was to hear the prosecutor thank the Martin family attorneys — that seems a little close for my liking in a prosecutor, and in fact the Martin family attorneys have acted irresponsibly in the media as I have addressed before.
I saw on Twitter that the Martin family held a press conference with Al Sharpton by their side, but I didn’t get to see it. Although Zimmerman now is charged, and the case is in the courts, I expect the Martin family attorneys, Sharpton, and others continue to work the case in the media from a racial angle and to inflame passions in the community as a means of tainting the jury pool.
For the prosecutor to embrace the Martin family attorneys with thanks at the press conference, and for AG Eric Holder verbally to praise Sharpton today, tells me that a case which should be about facts of who did what to whom is going to turn into an even bigger racial narrative for a variety of purposes which have nothing to do with the guilt or innocence of the accused.
Comments
Look, you have to be an idiot to believe the SP was appointed due to any legal problem with the police or local prosecutor’s investigation and disposition of the case. It was political in its entirety, to avoid rioting by the mob.
I hope some good attorneys step up and help GZ. But his situation is another example of why talking to the police CANNOT help you. http://youtu.be/6wXkI4t7nuc
Murder 2? Really? I see six possibilities in order of probability.
1 – She’s deluded enough to think 12 jurors will vote for a conviction on this, or she has some sort of super-secret evidence that nobody else on the planet knows about.
2 – She thinks she can get a plea-bargain out of him by starting high and working down.
3 – She’s playing for time, a murder trial could take place *years* from now, and the Sharptons of the world may lose interest and wander off as the facts become known. At which time the charges can be quietly dropped and he can rejoin society, with no dirt on her shoes. Zimmerman on the other hand will have been dragged through the mud and well-mangled by the press and other predators by then, sucked dry of cash and thrown into yesterdays news.
4 – She’s shooting *too* high intentionally, so the case will be thrown out of court fairly fast. (somewhat like the trials of the police officers in the Rodney King beating who were originally charged with the equivalent of Attempted Murder)
5 – Politics. (Although I’m fuzzy on the details of how this is going to get anybody votes)
6 – Aliens (most likely)
If they’re going to prosecute Zimmerman for murder, why did they leave him run around loose for 45 days after the event? I would think/hope that a prosecutor who believes they have a case “beyond a reasonable doubt” of murder, would maybe…arrest the guy? There was even a question during the press conference that brought it up, and was promptly brushed off. Quite a few good questions really, and the most amazing tapdance from the SP worthy of a future politican. Not that I think she’s looking to use this as a stepping-stone. Really. Honest.
#2 if this charade was actually on the up and up.
#4 if the Men in Black (pun intended) gave her an order she could not refuse to foment roller coaster emotions in the mob leading to further racial division and likely riots.
#5 have your media spin doctor lackeys blame #4 on conservative republicans (including the foolish SP Corey who blew the case) and assure a broader voting base.
#6 Run the Fed Gov and de facto the whole show.
The thing is, there’s no telling what 12 jurors will do. They may well vote to convict him, either because they’re racists or because they’re afraid of a race riot if they don’t. That’s essentially why the second jury convicted the policeman who hit Rodney King six times too many, and his supervisor who didn’t stop him. (They acquitted the other two policemen, who only hit him as many times as they had to, and stopped when he stopped resisting.)
It’s also the reason the Oakland transit authority cop was charged and convicted.
Skinner is correct on the law. Zimmerman was well within his rights to kill Martin. Martin caused the potentially lethal contact by hitting Zimmerman and then pounding on him while on the ground. I’ve worked these cases, one blow can be lethal.
As for no grand jury, in my post I reason that it was not called to indict was it wasn’t going to, and that made the SP force the situation. All the parents wanted was an “arrest” according to Sharpton and their spokesman. SAO gave them the arrest. A grand jury would have kicked the case.
A jury trial will be tough for the prosecution. I worked a case where and older drunk man got into a fight with a younger man. He was dropped and then kicked in the head until he died by the younger guy. we arrested him for murder, SAO prosecuted the case. The jury found him not guilty. Their reason? The older guy started the fight and should have known the risks.
As to Martin knowing he was jumping an armed man, something he would realize if Zimmerman was aggressively stalking him, I’ll guarantee you Martin didn’t know. Bravery and courage are not synonymous with acting like a thug. Actually, “thuggin'” takes on a flavor more like what happened in Gainesville or Baltimore.
Since the NBC lout was found out, I think charges from the feds are unlikely. Especially, when it was discovered he’s not white, has black family and friends and didn’t pick Martin out by color. That’s good news. Unless of course, Obama needs to swing the minorities in Florida this fall, in which case, Zimmerman may be in more trouble.
Amazing how corrupt we have become. It is not even a straight line graph anymore, it is a “J” curve.
Obama won’t need to sway the black vote in FL this November. They’ll fall in line and follow their marching orders like always. He’s more likely to have trouble with the Hispanic vote, though.
People keep talking about how fomenting this case gives obama an advantage. I just don’t see it.
He has a broader agenda. You may be able to find some hints if you do some deep research, but I will give you the skinny.
Barry, his handlers and underlings have not struggled for 60 years to attain power just to be elected out.
There are powerful elements in the military complex who have decided not to allow Barry back in the Oval office, and may not even let it get to election day. Especially as Barry has initiated plans to unionize the military.
Barry knows of this unstoppable opposition, and though he will continue the facade of a campaign, votes mean nothing to him.
His primary goal is to create deep class divide, and deep racial divide, leading to nationwide unrest. Then his weather underground friends along with whoever and whatever they snuck across the mexi border will be used to cripple a city or three, setting the stage for executing martial law and REX 84.
The white hats are carefully monitoring the situation and if they need to they will move early to pre-empt such catastrophe. And if they cannot prevent it, they will slam an iron fist down to quash the rebellion quickly and decisively.
Okay, I just read about Rex 84.
Who are some wearing the white hats you speak of?
Hasn’t this claim about martial law been said about each administration for about the last thirty years or so?
To what eventual end does obama want to initiate martial law? To suspend the constitution so he can cancel the election? Besides fomenting racial strife, what other steps has he taken to lead us to the anarchy necessary to this plan? Ruining the economy? Or is that just a reflection of his marxist values and hatred for capitalism?
If you read the archives of the Ulsterman report, specifically each of the interviews from the past year of “White House insider” and “Wall street insider”, including the comments to each interview, that will paint a pretty good picture of the network of corruptocrats which Obama is a major player in, and their deeper agenda. Breitbart.com is playing catch up, though doing it admirably.
As for the white hats, they largely remain anonymous, are few and far between but have the ear and loyalty of well placed patriots, as well as friends in even “higher places” who have vested interest in the near term destiny of America, the center of light on this blue green jewel of a planet.
3 percent. David and Goliath. Watch the sky in July.
I hate to say this, but WH Insider/Ulsterman has been discredited as a fraud.
I think that if you think this through, charging Zimmerman with the most he can be charged with, and playing out the evidence in a public trial is the only way that both sides ever would be satisfied. It’s the jury that is going to be in the hot seat.
I’m sure the jury will be threatened and intimidated, but it really is poor George Zimmerman who is in the hotseat. He’s the one in true jeopardy now.
I wonder if George is seeing the error of his ways in voting for dimocrats. Even thoough Corey and the governor who appointed her are ‘pubs, it is black America and their supporting libtard handmaidens that have fomented this and put George where he is now, and they are 93% dimocrat.
Why should both sides be satisfied? What has satisfaction got to do with anything? It’s meant to be about justice, not politics. In any case, unjustly arresting someone and putting him through a trial is hardly satisfying for that person, is it?
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/on-the-record/index.html#/v/1557602002001/otr-legal-panel-the-trayvon-martin-shooting/?playlist_id=86925
that’s Greta on the case
seriously, there is no way he is going to get a fair trial cause if he did he would most likely be found not guilty and the rodney king crowd would riot in the streets and steal tvs and jewerly while doing it. this prosecutor needs to be disbarred for this nonsense. it is time to stop having to apologize for being non-black.
It is time to start fighting back.
There are a lot of blacks right now strutting their stuff and bragging about all the power they have now to put whitey in his place so we don’t fight back against their violent attacks. I read a bunch of their crap on several of their websites earlier tonight. Some of the idiots were bragging that this case is going to make “crackas” lose our guns so we can’t defend ourselves.
Al Sharpton at the press conference:
“And I think that that credit should go to the nameless, faceless people, black, white, Latino and Asian all over this country that put hoods on and said take another look at this, and that look has lead to where we are tonight.”
The South and the Democrats, of course, have a rich history of “nameless, faceless people” “that put hoods on” when they felt that legal authorities were not acting to their satisfaction.
How much damage will be done from the riots after he is found not guilty?
Kiss that white Spaniard’s ass goodbye. Now they will make sure they go to trial before election day.
If the law is squarely on Zimmerman’s side, as it seems to be given what we know, is the any chance that he would waive a jury trial and have the decision rendered by the judge? In a case where the jury might reasonably feel physically threatened if they returned a Not Guilty plea, it seems like it might be a reasonable option.
Ultimately it would depend on the judge assigned and the evidence, but that would really be rolling the dice and very foolish, imo.
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