General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Check in if you're a white person who thinks Zimmerman should have been convicted of something.... [View all]DallasNE
(7,403 posts)One clear problem was the rotten police work at the scene of the crime which caused the evidence to be more skimpy than it should have been so I'm sure the absence of evidence factored into the verdict but it shouldn't have been primary. Still, there was some outstanding evidence available from the phone calls, especially the 911 call with the scream that ended the millisecond the shot was fired. How did the jury come to dismiss that phone call. How they define this will determine the legitimacy of the verdict -- it is that key. No reasonable person can conclude that they can't be sure it was Martin screaming. Not when the scream ended the millisecond the shot was fired. Was it the small jury or lack of diversity that lead to group think? Something is terribly wrong and we need answers.
I'm also of the school that thinks 1st degree murder would have been easier than 2nd degree because Zimmerman's phone conversation provides the basis for premedication while a "depraved mind" is actually a higher standard in so many ways, at least in this case. Whether "f-ing punks" and "these a-holes, they always get away" meets that threshold is something the prosecution must determine (and I presume they did). The prosecution clearly made a mistake with charging 2nd degree. If they could not bring themselves to charge 1st degree then they needed to drop all of the way back to manslaughter.