I listened to the entire trial. I recall this being a pretty fascinating case with a very unfortunate set of circumstances. IMO both Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman both caused the outcome.
A few points:
- Zimmerman was not on duty that night as Neighborhood Watch captain.
- Martin was walking down a sidewalk between houses that led directly to his house.
- Zimmerman left his car after Trayvon circled his vehicle to follow him. Police told Zimmerman they didn't need him to do this.
- Martin attacked Zimmerman after confronting him. (Zimmerman's account, obviously not Martin's)
Why does Martin not just keep walking to his house? The possible answer: maybe he doesn't want this person following him knowing where he lives. Or maybe he felt disrespected. We'll never know.
Why does Zimmerman follow him when he's not on duty and packing a weapon? Was Zimmerman playing cop? Or was Zimmerman just trying to ascertain where Martin is? But seriously, why does Zimmerman care? He's not on duty. Martin is aware of his presence and likely not breaking into anyone's house even if that were his intention. Worst of all, why does Zimmerman proceed down a dimly lit sidewalk?
At the end of the day the prosecutor totally over reached with 2nd degree murder. They never had a prayer of proving 2nd degree. Voluntary (or involuntary) manslaughter was more likely to stick. I think they could have proven Zimmerman had no intention on killing Martin, but through his actions caused the outcome. Unfortunately the usual race accusations along with public pressure surfaced and the entire case spiraled out of control.
Yours is not the worst analysis I have seen and in fact you make a couple of relevant points but overall your score is not good.
I will take it apart now point by point.
Whether or not Z was on duty that night is totally irrelevant...he was a citizen of that community and he was entirely correct to report a suspicious person in the area....you have to remember this is something Z had done numerous times...and never had a problem aka observe a suspicious person and report it to the police...nothing would have happened if Trayvon had remained on the scene and wited till the police arrived, nothing would have happened if when Trayvon ran off...he had gone home and stayed there.
It makes no difference where Trayvon was walking...it was a dark and rainy night...a normal innocent person would have been hurrying home...not lollygagging about in a complex plagued with burglaries and home invasions not to mention peering into windows.
Thus he attracted the attention of Zimmerman as a suspicious person. Thus Zimmerman reported it.
Zimmerman actually had completely lost sight of Trayvon shortly after he took off running...Z was on the phone with dispatach when Trayvon took off...he told dispatch...he is running...dispatch axed...which way he is going...since Z could not see he got out of his truck and started walking in the last direction he saw trayvon headed to try and confirm to dispatch which way he was going...dispatch heard the wind in Z's phone and axed him...are you following the suspect...Z replied yes...dispatch said...'we do not need you to do tht' Z said o.k. and stopped. Then dispatch axed Z for his exact address so they could direct the police to the exact location....Z could not see any house numbers since it was a dark and rainy night....he told the dispatcher to have the police call him directly so he could tell them exactly where he was...
then as he was headed back to his truck he was confronted by Trayvon...who had doubled back to confront Z....trayvon axed him if he had a problem....Z said no took out his phone to call dispatch and Trayvon sucker punched him while he was trying to make the phone call.
The old lame assertion that Z would follow trayvon to his house is always trotted out....Trayvon had completely eluded Z...Z had no idea where trayvon was and it would have been impossible for him to follow him to his house
The best theory as to why trayvon went back and assaulted George is supported by Trayvons g/f he was talking to on the phone...she said tray thought Z was a queer aka a homersexual....thus it is quite possible that tray being a homophobe attacked George because he looked gay to trayvon.
Z should not have been charged with anything.....the local police did a thorough investigation and cleared Z...that should have been the end of the affair.
Instead what happened was that Al Sharpton heard about the case and based on George's last name thought he was a jew...Al sharpton is a well known Jew hater....and he was incensed thinking a jew killed one of his homies. Not finding out till much later that Z was not a jew...was in fact a hispanic with a black grandfather.
But the ball was rolling...the feds at the bequest of attorney general eric holder backed by obama got involved and put pressure on Rick Scott the governor of Florida to indict Z....thus the ball picked up speed and the media jumped in with their photograph of trayvon when he was a very innocent looking l2 yr old and the public thought that was the way he looked the night of his murder and lots of people were outraged....because they really believed Trayon was still that innocent looking l2 yr. old.
The worst thing about this whole ridiculous affair was how some completely innocent white folk were attacked and some were killed by radical young blacks angry because Z was found not guilty....the media bears most of the responsibility for that as they did their best to stir up public emotions by spinning the facts, by putting out dis-information and by outright lying...to such an extent that their dupes still believe the crap the media put out....and you see them on here making fools of themselves.
