Prosecutors in Florida have released some of the much anticipated evidence in the case of the shooting of Travon Martin, the unarmed teenager who died after being shot by George Zimmerman while returning from a snack run, Skittles in hand.
The Daily Beast reports that among the evidence were photographs of George Zimmerman’s bleeding head:
A paramedics’ report corroborates the photograph, identifying “abrasions to his forehead,” “bleeding/tenderness to his nose, and a small laceration to the back of his head. All injuries have minor bleeding.”
All of the other evidence seems to be one contradiction on top of the other. One witness places Matin on top in the fight, another says you couldn’t tell. Martin’s mother recognized Trayvon’s voice in the 911 calls, whereas Martin’s father says it isn’t him screaming.
Confounding evidence aside, so many questions in this case remain, such as whether or not Zimmerman can claim “Stand Your Ground” as a defense when he was told by police not to confront Martin, and why Zimmerman’s first legal team quit so hastily right before he was arrested.
What do you think? Has any of this evidence changed your mind?
What lessons can we learn from the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, and the resulting police, news, and tabloid circus?
For more information, watch the ABC news video below, and visit The Daily Beast.
According to the ME report, Zimmerman’s blood (from the nose?) was found on Martin’s shirt but not his hoodie. None of Martin’s blood (or so little the examiner couldn’t tell) ended up on Zimmerman. How could Zimmerman’s blood drip onto Martin if he was not sitting on top of him? ME report also says Martin had “moderate congestion of the leptomeniges” in the brain. In other cases congestion of the leptomeniges has been associated with blunt force trauma to the head. Is there an explanation for this? One witness claims he sees a man with a red jacket on the… Read more »
told “by”….
I haven’t made up my mind; when the court case is complete and a verdict delivered then we’ll know (mostly) what happened. Until then, main stream media will keep aligning what they report with their own bias. Journalists are human too and they are not free of their own agendas. I am not surprised that the initial, breathless articles about a racist attack are now being replaced by a different story. Depending upon how long Zimmerman waits for his day in court, the “story” told my media outlets will change as well. What is worth watching is how media outlets… Read more »
The only mistake Jorge Zimmerman made was to assume that T. Martin was mainly interested in avoiding being watched instead of being all-out willing to try to kill him. That is why he got out of his SUV. He would never have done it otherwise. He profiled TM; but only to the extent of assuming he was less violent and aggressive.than he turned out to be.
The only trials we will see will be in regard to the dis-barment proceedings for every lawyer who lied in public for team skittles.
No, this does not change my opinion of the case. I always assumed the Sanford Police department, and the local prosecutors, with access to ALL the information, had reasons beyond “derp we’re racist” for not filing charges immediately. Given the evidence of a struggle, it is now clear that they did have other reasons. I also always assumed that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions about the appropriate charge or even guilt without getting all the evidence first, and that we did not yet have enough to make an appropriate conclusion. This is also clearly the case. Given the level of… Read more »
Changes things a little, but not a whole lot. Zimmerman had no reason to follow him and while he didn’t deserve to be attacked for doing do (acting in an anti-social manner) using his gun was excessive. It’s not like he’s a 90 pound weakling, even after he was attacked I’m convinced he could have gotten out of there.
Doesn’t change my opinion. Confirms everything I already thought was true about the case. The most relevant question at this point is whether Zimmerman committed second-degree murder. It’s hard to see how he did considering we have the pictures of his bloodied head and face, the broken nose, and the eyewitness – the only one who can definitively say who he saw hitting whom – who says he saw Martin on top of Zimmerman. Also, the timeline of the call and the short distance which Martin would have had to run if he had indeed been pursued by Zimmerman suggests… Read more »
Its not tht the dispatcher’s warning is legal authority but it does establish that any confrontation that happened was the result of Zimmerman making the first move.
Now from there it may be that Tryvon started any type of fight that happened or Zimmerman started. Either way it started because Zimmerman chose to go after him.
And the “but he was protecting his neighbourhood” crowd almost seem to depend on the idea that they knew Trayvon was up to no good.
The dispatchers warning does not carry any legal authority. That is a misconception that keeps rearing its head. The neighbourhood had 11 breakins in the past cpouple of weeks. Even iw ould follow a stranger in my own neighborhood. Being followed in no riught to attack your pursuer. There are many facts that are now coming to light about this case. ———————— Frankly, I was and still am in the wait and see camp. So this new eveidence does not change my mind either way. There are parts of both versions that do not add up. Let the case speak… Read more »
True, but it proves that he had the option not to pursue, and decided not to.
“Being followed in no riught to attack your pursuer.” Actually, it is. In fact…. Zimmerman’s saving grace, the “Stand your ground” law, in my opinion should be used AGAINST him rather than as his defence. The law states that a person may use force against someone when there is reasonable belief of threat. If some beefy, strange man was following ME around at night in his car, and got out to chase me when I started moving faster away from him….. I would also feel the need to defend myself in order to, you know, NOT GET ABDUCTED! Duh! Trayvon… Read more »
As an allegedly feminist lapdog, I can’t believe I’m the one bringing this up, but isn’t there a gender question as well as a race question in the death of Trayvon Martin? Perhaps his race was a factor in why he became a target. I’d say the fact that he was male is *definitely* a factor in why he was targeted. It’s useless to break it down into percentages, but if you’re targeted for violence for being a black male, that’s partly because of racism and partly because of sexism. And, don’t give me the “people who are ____ statistically… Read more »
Definitely.
Shhhh…..didn’t you know that you are only allowed to bring up gender when its women on the short end of the stick or when talking about men on the short end of the stick can be spun to make it look like it really is women on the short end of the stick.
Honestly for me no it doesn’t. There is evidence that Zimmerman actively pursued Martin. Therefore any injuries that occured afterward are the direct result of Zimmerman going after him. If he hadn’t have gone after him (and the dispatcer he spoke to told him specifically not to puruse) the confrontation would have more than likely never have occured.