Zimmerman Charged With 2nd-Degree Murder of Trayvon Martin 4/11/2012 Angela Corey's press conference

[mucifer]

Here is a 7 minute version from the press conference.
It is very impressive:

http://xfinity.comcast.net/video/george-zimmerman-charged-for-travon-martin-s-death/2221985904/Comcast/2221952878/?cid=hero_sf

I like the way she talks about Trayvon's family in the end.

[freshwest]

1. Thanks, it's why I get most of my news here.

[NCcoast]

2. 'There a reason cases are tried in a court of law'

Why do I fell like I'm being lectured? Yeah there are reasons why cases are tried in a court of law. And no one is objecting to that. What we're objecting to are the reasons why some people get charged with the crimes they commit and some people don't.

[mucifer]

3. I really think she is talking to the fox news people.

At the end she asks for people to support Trayvon's family and support the prosecutors she does not mention zimmerman. It's in the second video that is not the youtube.

[freshwest]

4. I think she's also speaking to the Nazis roaming loose in Sanford right now. They would claim GZ did

Nothing at all, just as the Zimmerman family has claimed, all of these outrageous things his friends and family have said, and they too, will be proven wrong.

They will have the truth rubbed in their faces, by a detailed trial. His father was a magistrate judge and his mother worked for the court, they will be forced to see what their son did in their own world.

Second degree is the highest the probably could have charged him with, since he didn't know his victim. This is much stronger than negligent homicide or manslaughter. I'm glad this didn't wait until Friday as they said it would, greatly relieved and I'm sure the Martins approve.

[Bjorn Against]

6. I think she was right to say that

The media has not always handled this case well, remember how some media outlets tried to portray Trayvon as a thug? Corey knows there is both good and bad information out there and she also knows it is going to be very hard to find a jury who has not heard some of the false or misleading information that has been presented in the media. I think that in nearly all cases where there is a media feeding frenzy it is a bad thing for the criminal case, in this instance there is the good side in that these charges would have probably never been filed if there had not been media attention but that does not mean there have not been negative consequences as well.

[JDPriestly]

7. Yes. But this prosecutor is explaining how it is supposed to work.

I think she made a good statement. We shall see what really happens.

I am uncertain from what the prosecutor said as to whether due to the Stand Your Ground law the issue of an affirmative defense, in other words, Zimmerman's claim that he was justified in killing Trayvon in self-defense will be heard first, before other issues are decided.

Seems rather awkward to me because by pleading self-defense, a defendant essentially admits having committed the act -- here the killing. Wouldn't it be better to require the prosecutor to prove first that the defendant committed the unlawful act?

Alternatively, the prosecutor seemed to suggest that she had already considered the self-defense issue. How would she have the authority to decide that? Wouldn't the court have to decide? And how can a court consider the self-defense argument without first hearing the prosecutor's case? I can't picture how this would work under the SYG law.

Another problem with the SYG law that has become apparent to me in this case is that we have a defendant who may or may not have committed a crime. Here we know that the defendant shot Trayvon, but in many cases we would not. And in this case, we had a defendant running around without being charged, not communicating properly with his lawyers and talking not only to the press but perhaps also the prosecutor outside the presence of his lawyer.

That is a horrible situation as many commentators have pointed out. No matter the crime, no matter the situation, a defendant, it seems to me, is better off charged and awaiting trial.

If there is an arraignment, then the defendant will either be assigned an attorney or be represented by one he has hired. And once the defendant really has appeared with an attorney, it would be easier for the attorney to explain things to his client and thereby, hopefully, control the defendant. That is far better for the defendant.

I don't have much experience with this particular kind of situation, but this is what I see here.

The SYG law does not seem to work well either for the defendant or the victim.

[Grassy Knoll]

5. I'm glad this wasn't a Friday Evening News Dump......

And She's a Republican, so the bias claimers can STFU.

[Rhiannon12866]

8. K&R! Thank you! Missed this, since I just got home...

I'm sure it'll be on the TV news constantly, but I checked DU first!