Court of public opinion looms large in George Zimmerman murder trial

The murder charge is going too far for what should be realistic true justice. I don't think very many people would believe that George acted in premeditation to kill Trayvon.

Someone might or might not develop a bias towards people of different skin color, but that is not a reason they would kill them out of the blue when they turn 28/29. If hehad a distaste towards dark skinned people (enough to kill them), he would've had a record of it from a younger age. A person doesn't just suddenly develop a prejudice towards races overnight.

I think that a reasonable charge for this trial should be voluntary or involuntary manslaughter, no matter how much the laws are spun around. The end result is a person died when it should have been prevented. We can reasonably assume that George had no intention of killing any person when he stepped out of the vehicle. He acted within his personal judgement, and that can be deemed irrational since it left person dead.
 
After viewing all the evidence I believe he is not guilty. In fact I believe this entire trial was a politically motivated waste of taxpayer dollars. This case is simple. Witnesses saw Trayvon on top>>GZ has injuries to support being assaulted>>Most sane people would feel their life was in danger after someone splattered their nose and jumped on top of them>>The statute I provided allows someone who believes their life is in danger to use a weapon...even if they were the aggressor.

That being said, I am sure the jury fears for their lives after seeing those mobs protest last year. Their fear will most likely lead them to a compromised judgement of Manslaughter or a hung jury. As a matter of law, any verdict other than not guilty would be a travesty.
 
TXgolfer said:
Not in this settlement. The money will come from HOA funds, possibly insurance and a special assessment in HOA fees to all home owners within the assoc. Some HOAs vary fees by size of property so technically he could pay a little more or even little less than everyone else. That is assuming he stayed/stays in the neighborhood.
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a very expensive lesson learned for HOA. next time - the committee should run a background check on volunteers and spell out legal issues, rules, etc.
 
TXgolfer said:
No, the judge will allow the suit against GZ. The Martin family won't get anything because GZ doesn't have anything. They will still sue to get a judgement in case GZ should make money from a book deal or something like that. GZ will probably spend the rest of his life living off of gifts which the Martin family can't touch in most cases.
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hence..... broke for life.
 
Jiro said:
hence..... broke for life.
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:lol: still stuck on that, huh? I am pretty certain he will be ok if found not guilty. There are alot of us willing to help him out now that the facts have been released.
 
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Update: The jury is suspend the deliberation today and will resume tomorrow.
 
TXgolfer said:
:lol: still stuck on that, huh? I am pretty certain he will be ok if found not guilty. There are aloy of us willing to help him out now that the facts have been released.
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be my guest and fund him for rest of his life.
 
Jiro said:
a very expensive lesson learned for HOA. next time - the committee should run a background check on volunteers and spell out legal issues, rules, etc.
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Realistically, I doubt that HOAs can run background checks on volunteers. Besides, anyone with a concealed carry permit has had a criminal background check done. There was nothing that a check would have revealed that could have prevented this tragedy.

Also, not all neighborhood watches are run by HOA's. I know the ones around here are autonomous from the HOA's.

If the Zimmerman HOA had fought the Martin suit, they probably could have won. Zimmerman's actions had nothing to do with the HOA. However, I'm sure they just wanted to avoid negative publicity and hassle, so they took the easier (albeit, expensive) route and opted for a settlement.
 
Reba said:
Realistically, I doubt that HOAs can run background checks on volunteers. Besides, anyone with a concealed carry permit has had a criminal background check done. There was nothing that a check would have revealed that could have prevented this tragedy.
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Police Captain stated that he was not aware of Zimmerman's arrest history.

Reba said:
Also, not all neighborhood watches are run by HOA's. I know the ones around here are autonomous from the HOA's.
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but this one was approved by HOA. I'm not talking about any other places... I'm talking about this specific place.

Reba said:
If the Zimmerman HOA had fought the Martin suit, they probably could have won. Zimmerman's actions had nothing to do with the HOA. However, I'm sure they just wanted to avoid negative publicity and hassle, so they took the easier (albeit, expensive) route and opted for a settlement.
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HOA accepted Zimmerman as de facto "captain". There were no rules, oversight, nothing. a very expensive lesson learned for HOA....
 
Jiro said:
Police Captain stated that he was not aware of Zimmerman's arrest history.


but this one was approved by HOA. I'm not talking about any other places... I'm talking about this specific place.


HOA accepted Zimmerman as de facto "captain". There were no rules, oversight, nothing. a very expensive lesson learned for HOA....
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Might not cost them anything... Maybe a slightly higher insurance premium spread across all the homeowners...
 
TXgolfer said:
Might not cost them anything... Maybe a slightly higher insurance premium spread across all the homeowners...
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it's not about how much it costed them... it's how much they settled for... hence a very expensive lesson learned. their insurance carrier is obviously not pleased about it and would jack up the price if HOA is to continue its neighborhood watch program.
 
Jiro said:
it's not about how much it costed them... it's how much they settled for... hence a very expensive lesson learned. their insurance carrier is obviously not pleased about it and would jack up the price if HOA is to continue its neighborhood watch program.
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We don't know what the settlement was for... We have no way of knowing if it was expensive or not. I do know of golf club was hit with a $1 million wrongful death verdict. Insurance covered and dues remained the same.
 
TXgolfer said:
Might not cost them anything... Maybe a slightly higher insurance premium spread across all the homeowners...
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I don't know how much their settlement was but the one our HOA was involved in didn't cost anything to the homeowners. It happened a few years ago and our fees did not increase. In the 23 years we've lived here I think our fees increased only once.
 
Reba said:
I don't know how much their settlement was but the one our HOA was involved in didn't cost anything to the homeowners. It happened a few years ago and our fees did not increase. In the 23 years we've lived here I think our fees increased only once.
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Yeah, mine rarely change. We did have an assessment for construction once but that was only $23/mo for one year I think.
 
TXgolfer said:
We don't know what the settlement was for... We have no way of knowing if it was expensive or not. I do know of golf club was hit with a $1 million wrongful death verdict. Insurance covered and dues remained the same.
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but did they enact a new rule/policy/restriction or what since death?
 
Reba said:
I don't know how much their settlement was but the one our HOA was involved in didn't cost anything to the homeowners. It happened a few years ago and our fees did not increase. In the 23 years we've lived here I think our fees increased only once.
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it's most likely not in the area of $10,000 or $100,000. probably somewhere higher.
 
naisho said:
The murder charge is going too far for what should be realistic true justice. I don't think very many people would believe that George acted in premeditation to kill Trayvon.

Someone might or might not develop a bias towards people of different skin color, but that is not a reason they would kill them out of the blue when they turn 28/29. If hehad a distaste towards dark skinned people (enough to kill them), he would've had a record of it from a younger age. A person doesn't just suddenly develop a prejudice towards races overnight.

I think that a reasonable charge for this trial should be voluntary or involuntary manslaughter, no matter how much the laws are spun around. The end result is a person died when it should have been prevented. We can reasonably assume that George had no intention of killing any person when he stepped out of the vehicle. He acted within his personal judgement, and that can be deemed irrational since it left person dead.
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I totally agree. Any murder charge, whatever degree, was ridiculous, they never should have pursued that, manslaughter yes. I personally would hate for him to walk away with no punishment whatsoever. What he did was stupid, it was reckless and unnecessary and I have to wonder if he'd have even gotten out if his car if he wasn't armed. I highly doubt. You don't get to kill somebody just because they're beating you up.
 
ambrosia said:
I totally agree. Any murder charge, whatever degree, was ridiculous, they never should have pursued that, manslaughter yes. I personally would hate for him to walk away with no punishment whatsoever. What he did was stupid, it was reckless and unnecessary and I have to wonder if he'd have even gotten out if his car if he wasn't armed. I highly doubt. You don't get to kill somebody just because they're beating you up.
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See, that is the problem. A lot of people want to punish him. Most people think what he did was stupid. But there is just no legal justification for manslaughter. The prosecution provided nothing to prove manslaughter beyond a reasonable doubt.

I believe most if not all of the jury will see it your way but that isn't really a good thing. If that happens it means the jury acted out of emotion or fear rather than following the law. We all lose when that happens.
 
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