Court of public opinion looms large in George Zimmerman murder trial

They showed evidenced close up and everything including the crime scene photos.
 
TXgolfer said:
Things are not going Zimmerman's way so far. That Knock Knock joke probably hurt him with the jury. His lawyer is not very good from what I have seen.
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Yea I didn't really get it.

and also I felt prosecutor's opening comment was distasteful and probably misleading.
 
Reba said:
Biracial means being of two races. Hispanic is not a race. Hispanic people come in many colors.
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Census might make “Hispanic” a race


According to this web site it could be consider a race.


"Jun 15, 2013 – George Zimmerman, who is biracial, contends that he shot the teen, who was black, dead in self-defense after being attacked. In the book ..."
I copied this from web site link and there has been a numbers of web sites that said he was biracial . Black people also have many skin color.
 
whatdidyousay! said:
Census might make “Hispanic” a race

According to this web site it could be consider a race.
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By the Census Bureau, maybe. That doesn't mean it's accurate.

Many (most?) scientists debunk the whole idea that there are sub-races within the human race.

Honestly, what is the Hispanic race? A skin color? Height? Nose shape? Hair, eye color? Curly or straight hair? Cheekbone roundness?

Where does the Hispanic race come from? South America? Central America? Caribbean Islands? Spain? If a person's great-great-grandparents moved from Mexico to France 100 years ago, is he still Hispanic?

Do all Hispanic people looked the same?

See, this whole Hispanic "race" thing is a can of worms.
 
whatdidyousay! said:
Census might make “Hispanic” a race


According to this web site it could be consider a race.


"Jun 15, 2013 – George Zimmerman, who is biracial, contends that he shot the teen, who was black, dead in self-defense after being attacked. In the book ..."
I copied this from web site link and there has been a numbers of web sites that said he was biracial . Black people also have many skin color.
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Who identified Zimmerman as biracial?

Just because someone says something it's not necessarily accurate.

Bonus question:

What are the races of humanity?
 
Jiro said:
Yea I didn't really get it.

and also I felt prosecutor's opening comment was distasteful and probably misleading.
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Very strange trial. It will be interesting to see the defense. Right now IMO the prosecution is putting on a surprisingly strong case.
 
The most recent witness on the stand has been very hard to understand. The jurors, lawyers, stenographer, etc., have to keep interrupting and asking her to speak up and repeat things. They have the audio cranked up yet it's still hard to hear her. Plus, she doesn't enunciate clearly.

One of the alternate jurors has been excused from duty. It was a young Hispanic male. So, they've lost one already.
 
The witness said that Martin told her that he was being followed by someone who was a "creepy-ass cracker."
 
George Zimmerman trial: Testimony continues today on Trayvon Martin shooting - OrlandoSentinel.com
SANFORD - Jurors this afternoon are hearing testimony from a crucial state witness in the George Zimmerman murder trial: A young South Florida woman who was on the phone with 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in the moments before his shooting.

Rachel Jeantel, 19, just took the stand.

She said she was on the phone with Trayvon when someone - presumably Zimmerman - started following him.

Trayvon described the man as a "creepy ass cracker" Jeantel said.

Jeantel said she told Trayvon she was worries that the man was a rapist. Trayvon said to "stop playing with him like that."


While being questioned about what was happening, Trayvon said that "n---- is now following him."

Jeanel said she told Trayvon to run, but he said he was near his father's girlfriend's house.

Trayvon then told her he was going "to run from the back, then I started hearing wind then the phone just shut off," she testified.

She said she called Trayvon back, and he answered.

She was able to start talking to him on the phone. "I asked him where he at, and he told me he at the back of his daddy fiance house."

Jeantel said she told him to keep running. "He said, nah, he'd just walk faster. Then a second later, Trayvon said, "Oh sh**."

De la Rionda asked, he said that to you? "Yes," she said, and then Trayvon said, "the ni---- behind me."

The testimony went slowly because the court reporter and others in the room are having trouble hearing the young woman.

She said she heard Trayvon say "Why you following me for?" Then she said she heard a "hard-breathing man" say, "what are you doing around here?"

Then, she said, she heard Trayvon say "get off, get off."

Did you ever speak to Trayvon again, de la Rionda asked.

"No," Jeantel said.

She said the following day, a Monday, there was a rumor going around at school that said Trayvon "passed away."

"I didn't believe it," she said. Jeantel said she found out Tuesday afternoon that Trayvon had been killed.

A friend of hers sent her a text from a news report saying that Trayvon had died."I asked my firend what time he died."

"I tried to find out how he died because it was just a fight that broke out," she said. "He was just by his daddy house, I thought someone would come to help him."

At some point, she said, Tracy Martin called her to tell her that Trayvon had died.

"When Trayvon martin's dad called you up did you tell him you were the last person to talk to him?"

She said when his father called, she did not know that she was "a part of" the case.

Why didn't you go to the wake or the funeral?" de la Rionda asked.

"I didn't want to see the body," she said.

She later in testimony told de la Rionda that she's heard the recording oft he 911 call with the screams just before the gunshot, and said she believed it was Trayvon's voice she heard screaming.

Earlier, jurors heard from Ramona Rumph, of the Seminole County Sheriff's Office communications division. With Rumph on the stand, jurors heard several calls Zimmerman made to police in the months prior to the shooting, reporting young male African Americans as suspicious.

Circuit Judge Debra Nelson earlier today ruled that jurors can hear the calls, which the defense had objected to. The state argued they show Zimmerman’s state of mind. The defense says they're irrelevant character evidence.

Before Rumph, the jury heard from Jeannee Manalo, a resident at the Retreat at Twin Lakes, the community where the shooting took place.

Manalo said this morning that on the night of the shooting she heard "howling" sounds while in her living room with her family. She later heard cries for help and a struggle outside. She looked out her sliding door and saw two people on the ground, one on top, hitting the other.

The witness said she initially didn't have an opinion on who was on top, but after watching news coverage, believes it was Zimmerman, who she described as the bigger of the two.

Manalo said she also heard the gunshot.

In cross-examination Manalo said she came to her size comparison conclusion based on photos of Trayvon, which she acknowledged could be old. One of those appeared to show Trayvon at age 11 or 12, she said when shown it in court.

She added she could be wrong about the sizes: "I don't know who's bigger now."

The trial resumed today at 9 a.m. The first witness called was Jane Surdyka, another Zimmerman neighbor who said she heard two voices before the shooting: A dominant, male voice and a softer voice.

Surdyka said the dominant voice seemed "agitated." The witness said she turned off a light that was causing glare, then saw two people "wrestling" outside her window. She said the softer voice, which she called "the boy's voice," cried out.

Surdyka said she then heard three "pop" sounds, though evidence in the case indicates there was only one gunshot.

The state also played Surdyka's 911 call to report the shooting. In the frantic call, she described hearing a bang, and seeing someone dead in the grass.

Of Zimmerman, she says in the call: "I see the person right now ... I don't know what he did to this person." She says she wants to know why the shooting happened, and adds that she doesn't want to be a witness.

She later testified she changed her mind about that, talking to police and to CNN. The news network agreed not to broadcast her identity, she said.

In cross-examination, Surdyka acknowledged the couldn't identify the person whose voice she called dominant. She said she believed the cries for help were from Trayvon.

She also testified that the person on top during the wrestling she described was wearing dark clothing. Zimmerman was wearing a red jacket that night, and Trayvon was wearing a dark-grey hooded sweatshirt.

Also today, an alternate juror, a man identified as B-72, was dismissed. Nelson didn't reveal why, but said it was not related to the case.
B-72, a young possibly Hispanic man, does maintenance at a school and competes in arm-wrestling tournaments. He said he avoids the news because he does not want to be "brainwashed."

He grew up in Chicago, is single and an alumni of Phi Beta Kappa. During jury selection, he said that he doesn't believe you can determine a person's strength based solely on their size or how they look.

With B-72 dismissed, there are just three alternate jurors remaining.

On Tuesday, prosecutors called a variety of witnesses, including a Zimmerman neighbor, a police sergeant and a Sanford Police Department employee who helped Zimmerman start his community's Neighborhood Watch.

The SPD worker, Wendy Dorival, said program volunteers are warned not to pursue people they find suspicious or "take matters into their own hands," as the state alleges Zimmerman did after seeing Trayvon. However, she also described Zimmerman as professional and said burglaries were a legitimate worry in his neighborhood.

The most dramatic testimony came from Sanford police Sgt. Anthony Raimondo, one of the first officers to arrive at the scene after the shooting. He described checking Trayvon for a pulse and performing CPR when he didn't find one.

Jurors saw photos of Trayvon's body, including a close-up image of the bullet wound. They also saw the clothes he and Zimmerman were wearing that night, including Trayvon's hoodie, a much-discussed element of the case.

They also saw photos of Zimmerman's injuries, which defense lawyer Don West pointed out repeatedly in questioning a crime scene technician. That same witness said she searched the shooting scene for blood, including the sidewalk where Zimmerman says Trayvon bashed his head into the concrete, but didn't find any.

The trial will continue to be closely watched across the nation. When Sanford police didn't arrest Zimmerman after the Feb. 26, 2012, shooting, citing his self-defense claim, it prompted widespread civil-rights protests, in Sanford and across the globe.

Zimmerman, 29, was later charged by a special prosecutor. He says he fired in self-defense after Trayvon attacked him. Zimmerman faces up to life in prison if convicted as charged.

This is a developing story. Check back later for updates and visit OrlandoSentinel.com for a live stream and chat.
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Threads has been merged.
 
Yeah...been a lot of cussing...even read where the Father of Trayvon called one of Zimmerman's family a "MF" when he was going into Court....Plus, Trayvon calling Zimmerman the "N" word....
 
I'm mild confusedly about Zimmerman's trial and there are some of pieces seem different from Zimmerman's story about situation with Trayvon Martin.
 
Reba said:
The witness said that Martin told her that he was being followed by someone who was a "creepy-ass cracker."
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Yes, quite surprise because sometime, the Hispanic could be pretty confusing - not know if it was white or not.

By picture, I see Zimmerman as Hispanic white.
 
There's one part of the young girl's testimony that I don't get. She said something about hearing grass noises on Martin's phone. I've got great hearing and I can't recall ever hearing a noise emanating from lawn grass. :dunno:
 
Yeah, it's on CNN live WITH CC since yesterday afternoon but I didn't see all of it because I had to sleep before working nightly. The defense is still cross-examining the witness today. I don't know what's going on but I am DVRing it since yesterday (hoping it doesn't take up alot of spaces on my DVR) so I am behind all of you who have nothing to do but watch TV or whatever. :lol:
 
Reba said:
The most recent witness on the stand has been very hard to understand. The jurors, lawyers, stenographer, etc., have to keep interrupting and asking her to speak up and repeat things. They have the audio cranked up yet it's still hard to hear her. Plus, she doesn't enunciate clearly.
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Sounds like she's shy. :dunno:
 
Reba said:
There's one part of the young girl's testimony that I don't get. She said something about hearing grass noises on Martin's phone. I've got great hearing and I can't recall ever hearing a noise emanating from lawn grass. :dunno:
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Maybe she has sharp ears like a rabbit? :hmm:
 
Friend: Trayvon Martin encounter racially charged

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — A friend of Trayvon Martin's who was on the phone with him shortly before his fatal fight with George Zimmerman testified Thursday that she thought the encounter was racially charged.

Rachel Jeantel testified for the second day in a row, saying she thought race was an issue because Martin told her he was being followed by a white man.

"He was being followed," Jeantel said.

Her answer came in response to questioning from defense attorney Don West about why she had given differing accounts about what she had heard over the phone when Martin first encountered Zimmerman on a rainy night on Feb. 26, 2012, at the Retreat at Twin Lakes townhome complex.

West suggested in his cross-examination that 19-year-old Jeantel had raised the racial issue in some accounts but not others. In some accounts, West implied, Jeantel said Zimmerman responded one way when he first encountered Martin, but in other accounts she said he responded another way. Jeantel gave her version of events in a deposition, in a letter to Martin's mother and in a recorded interview with an attorney for the Martin family.

Jeantel testified Wednesday that her friend's last words were "Get off! Get off!" before the phone went silent. But on Thursday, under cross-examination, she conceded that she hadn't mentioned that in her account of what happened to Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton.

She had left out some details to spare Fulton's feelings, and also because neither Fulton nor the Martin family attorney asked her directly about them, Jeantel said. At one point, West handed her a letter she had written with the help of a friend to Martin's mother explaining what happened. She looked at it but then said she couldn't read cursive handwriting.

When asked by West if she had previously told investigators that she heard what sounded like somebody being hit at the end of her call with Martin, Jeantel said, "Trayvon got hit."

"You don't know that? Do you? You don't know that Trayvon got hit," West answered angrily. "You don't know that Trayvon didn't at that moment take his fists and drive them into George Zimmerman's face."

Jeantel recounted to jurors on Wednesday how Martin told her he was being followed by a man as he walked through the Retreat at Twin Lakes townhome complex on his way back from a convenience store to the home of his father's fiancee.

She testified that Martin described the man following him as "a creepy-ass cracker" and that he thought he had evaded him. But she said Martin told her a short time later the man was still behind him, and she told him to run.

Martin said Zimmerman was behind him and she heard Martin ask: "What are you following me for?"

In one account, according to West, she said Zimmerman responds, "What are you doing around here?" In another account, according to West, she says Zimmerman said, "What are you talking about?"

She then heard what sounded like Martin's phone earpiece dropping into wet grass, and she heard him say, "Get off! Get off!" The phone then went dead, she said.

Rachel Jeantel, the witness that was on the phone with Trayvon Martin just before he died, gives her …

Later, she bristled and teared up when West asked her why she didn't attend Martin's funeral and about lying about her age. She initially told Martin's parents she was a minor when she was 18. She said she didn't want to get involved in the case.

The exchanges also turned testy, including one moment when she urged West to move on to his next question: "You can go. You can go." And she gave him what seemed like a dirty look as he walked away after he had approached her on the stand to challenge her on differences between an initial interview she gave to Martin family attorney, Benjamin Crump, and a later deposition with the defense. Jeantel explained it by saying she "rushed" the interview with Crump because she didn't feel comfortable doing it.

And when the judge asked if both sides wanted to break for the day, prosecutors said they'd like to continue, believing the testimony could take another two hours, to which Jeantel reacted with surprise, repeating, "Two hours?" Instead, the judge decided to continue the cross examination Thursday, carefully instructing Jeantel to return at 9 a.m. and not discuss her testimony with anyone.

Jeantel's testimony was more subdued on Thursday, and West took note of her calmer demeanor. She answered many of West's questions by repeating "yes, sir," almost in a whisper.

"You feeling OK today? You seem different than yesterday," West said.

"I got some sleep," she answered.

Zimmerman, 29, could get life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder. Zimmerman followed Martin in his truck and called a police dispatch number before he and the teen got into a fight.

Zimmerman has said he opened fire only after the teenager jumped him and began slamming his head against the concrete sidewalk. Zimmerman identifies himself as Hispanic and has denied the confrontation had anything to do with race, as Martin's family and their supporters have claimed.

Friend: Trayvon Martin encounter racially charged
 
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