Not Guilty Verdict
The jury has spoken, but it was not a jury that examined all the evidence. It took bloggers longer than 16 hours just to read witness and police reports, listen to Zimmerman’s taped interviews, and watch his re-enactment. That did not include time to conduct comparison analysis.
State’s Attorney Corey and Assistant State’s Attorney Bernie de la Rionda, spoke at a press conference. An important piece of evidence they related is that there was no way Trayvon could have seen the gun, nor could George Zimmerman draw the gun, with Trayvon straddling as Zimmerman claims.
The jury’s verdict is so wrong. Those six women have to live with their decision. May God have mercy on their souls.
Our sincere condolences to Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin. They are the best examples of dignity that is found anywhere on earth.
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress” and that “power concedes nothing without a challenge. It never did and it never will.”
Frederick Douglas
Posted on 07/13/2013, in George and Shellie Zimmerman, Justice For Trayvon, Zimmerman Trial Videos and tagged justice for Trayvon, Sybrina Fulton, Tracy Martin, Trayvon Martin, trial, verdict. Bookmark the permalink. 53 Comments.
We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident 
I am truly sick..
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Just feeling sick right now…
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I am thoroughly disgusted. I screamed and scared everybody here, including Pat. I spoke with Pho Mccoy JUST to get some support from a fellow believer in Justice. This disgusts me to the core of my very being.
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and it was good talking to you my friend, just wish it would have been a congratulatory call.
this speaks volumes on how the state of florida wishes to be seen by the world. i hope their is fall out.
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i saw that press conference. rich mantei was the most real and touching out of all. the only one (or at least first) to speak directly of the martin/fulton family with utmost praise and admiration. i was impressed. corey seemed to be in total politician mode.
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Link please if you have one.
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i don’t — saw it live on MSNBC. i’m sure there will be videos up somewhere. i muted it when o’mara/west came on and walked away. melissa harris perry on now though.
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ok going offline for a bit…………………
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hey, thanks
not every state operates under such insane gun and self defense laws and not every state is as attached to maintaining it’s status quo.
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Attorney Benjamin Crump is holding a press conference now.
Sybrina and Tracy — you fought the good fight. You did so with dignity. Our love to you.
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My ongoing support for the Martin/Fulton family. Your son is our son.
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I am deathly sick from this verdict.I kept trying to flip channels to see how Trayvons Parents were holding up.All I could see all over the TV was West & O’smeara STILL murdering Trayvon,now Robert Jr is back spewing the same BS.I think what is making me so ill is the whole Zimmerman family was saying how HORRIBLE America was(even wrote a book about it)now its GOD BLESS AMERICA? Are you kidding me? REALLY??? Please God let these people go back to PERU .They have done enough damage here.Not one person is paying for the death of the Beautiful Child Name Trayvon Martin.
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I am stunned shocked most of all empty. I’M so sad for Trayvon and his family.
Fogen omar west all will be wearing hoodies in Hell.
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Please take what I say in the tone of humble, respectful, suggestion:
If ever there is a sacred call to us to continue to seek what is right, we heard it tonight.
If ever we need to work together it is now.
If ever people of different color need join hands in a sacred trust to pursue equality and justice it is now.
We are strong if we stay together, white with black.
Although I have never nor ever will have to face what people of color face…..your experience or your fears or your heartbreak, I think you can find some use for me.
The one thing that I do know is that racists like to divide and conquer.
I am at your service, my AA friends.
You need to make the calls as to how to organize for the good. I offer my support in the form of constructive forward moving action
I am ready and able to follow your suggestions.
Trayvon is calling you to organize.
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Amen Yahtzee.
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A letter from Alex Fraser:
Dear George Zimmerman,
For the rest of your life you are now going to feel what its like to be a black man in America.
You will feel people stare at you. Judging you for what you think are unfair reasons. You will lose out on getting jobs for something you feel is outside of your control. You will believe yourself to be an upstanding citizen and wonder why people choose to not see that.
People will cross the street when they see you coming. They will call you hurtful names. It will drive you so insane some days that you’ll want to scream at the top of your lungs. But you will have to wake up the next day, put on firm look and push through life.
I bet you never thought that by shooting a black male you’d end up inheriting all of his struggles.
Enjoy your “freedom.”
Sincerely,
A black male who could’ve been Trayvon Martin
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Ahhh.. how ironic.
I wonder how he’s sleeping?
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People say we have moved so far in this country, as in electing the first mixed/black president. We all can agree America is very bad on judging others by skin complexion. I will not even say black/white type of judging, but being of mixed race myself, I get it from both sides of the fence.
Allowing Zimmerman to walk free from this shooting just explains how much white people stick together because “that is how it is in the south.” I am not upset with all white people, but the jurors and Zimmerman don’t have to answer to me, they will have to answer to the ONE on Judgment Day. I would love to be a fly on the wall to listen to their excuses, excuses that God will not tolerate.
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@Brian. Modern day Florida has now become the Jim Crow Mississippi for using the judicial system to set murderers of Black males free. It is the White Supremacists who developed the theory that Trayvon could have made it home if he was not outside up to no good. It saddened me to hear O’Mara and West use that at trial, because it is nothing more than the sundown laws of old Mississippi, only stated this time by men in suits rather than white, pointy hoods. What the Zimmerman trial and jury have effectively told America is that the State of Florida has replaced the sundown law with self-defense. It is used for the same purpose.
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@ Xena – think about all the times some white people were just out and about? They could have made it home in different time allowed. However, what others fail to realize is this… regardless if it is 4 minutes or 10 minutes, it is hard to make it home when someone is stalking you. Now, you have the issue of them knowing where you live.
I know this may be crazy and a bit much, but this reminds me of King Kong and other movies where humans have to feel superior to another (King Kong) and then when they felt threatened, they have to terminate life. Just like most black Africans did not offered to come to America, they were purchased and bought as slaves. Then most people have the nerve to ask why don’t we like them all??
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@Brian. You mean, capitalism that reduces all forms of human and animal life into being controlled or killed? Yeah. The love of money …..
Zimmerman has that same problem … the love of money. He can’t seem to keep it in his hands long or use it for anything significant either. When he was arrested, he had nothing. Now set free, he has nothing to return to.
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Remember this Trevor Dooley kills unarmed white David James guilty on all charges .George Zimmerman kills unarmed black Trayvon Martin acquitted of all charges.
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@mi. I am going to update the Dooley case soon. Did you read or remember this post?
It has a chart of comparison. Now that the verdict is in for Zimmerman, the Dooley case is more than significant. It is an eye-opener for how the juries decided based on the race of the victim.
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i am convinced that the micahel dunn case to be prosecuted by john guy is what to keep our eyes on. it will give is a real comparison of corey’s office, john guy specifically.
although there are significant differences in the situation (solid witnesses to dunn case, no real eye witnesses so in state vs. zimmerman) a comparison will give us some good information. how will evidence be submitted? will closing arguments be so haphazard? i have no info on dunn’s attorneys (whether they are public defenders of real moneymakers in the area). i assume we may see dr. rao as the ME even. how will race be dealt with, if at all? what will the verdict be?
just reading what little i have, it would seem that dunn is up shit creek. i really look forward to seeing how this all shakes down.
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Me too. Although I will admit to being jaded and cynical now, and that’s just not my natural state of being.
FROM THE CLUTTERED DESK OF Cielo62
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at the very least, it will answer some questions. i will send fred an email suggesting that we do this as we compare/contrast what we see. trial starts in sept. i think, not sure if we’ll have quite the same access to all the pre-trial hearings though, but maybe.
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@cielo — sadly, i am a jaded cynic at heart, but one who always hopes that this too can change.
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I get that… I know we are all. Feeling jaded and cynical.
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@fauxmccoy. There were eye witnesses in the Dooley case. That in fact, the victim’s own daughter testified that Dooley was walking away when her dad ran behind Dooley and knocked him down. The jury found that self-defense was not available to Dooley because he left his garage and walked over to the basketball court to approach James for mouthing off at him, making him the initial aggressor.
Dunn terminated his first attorney and IIRC, the court denied his indigent application, so he has to pay for his own attorney.
I plan on following the Dunn case and already have discovery documents. He still insists that a sawed off shotgun was pointed at him.
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@xena
i am aware of the witnesses in the dooley case. that along with the races of the parties surely helped with the verdict.
i would be grateful for any resources you have for dunn. i am just starting out on that one. i have found links to his police interviews and some affidavits, but no real good central spot to start working from.
there are witnesses and CCTV video with the dunn case, which is an improvement over what was available in trayvon’s case.
anyway, i am just starting out here and would appreciate any tips. i have written to fred suggesting that this be our next major topic, i hope he agrees.
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fauxmccoy, I really hope too that Jacksonville won’t fail the fail the family of Jordan Davis.
One main difference though, is that our city, police, mayor and even our fire department were sympathetic with the family of Jordan Davis and Dunn was arrested as quickly as possible. Our fire department created an arch of water for the plane carrying Davis’ young body home, to fly under while taking off. Knowing the mentality of some here though (caveman/neanderthal) I can’t help but wonder if maybe they just didn’t like outsiders coming here to kill our ‘kids’.. and I don’t mean ‘kids’.
but the public, the hateful public, those that comment the most on our comment boards, mostly blame Jordan for his own death, citing he was ‘disrespectful to Dunn’ in not complying with Dunn’s request to turn down the music.
They totally ignore the fact that no one heard Dunn ask the kids to turn down the music so they don’t know how respectful HE was to them in making his request. They also blame Jordan’s family for having allowed him to be hanging out with a ‘convicted felon’ (, Tommie Stornes, is NOT a convicted felon. He was arrested once for theft but adjudication was withheld.) Tommie had a curfew and this killing happened 15 minutes after he was to be home.
Evidence– it’s complained about here how police took 4 days before they looked for the gun Dunn alleges to have seen. Dunn’s lawyers will play that to the hilt no doubt.
What is wrong with some in the South? Like with Zimmerman, some will never step up, man up and own that maybe what they did was wrong and will always blame someone else for their own actions.
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thanks, mindyme for providing some additional background on the case. i look forward to seeing how this one unfolds and to comparing how the very same SAO prosecutes within their own district. it was obvious to me by testimony of singleton, serino and former chief lee that they held resentment for the ‘outsiders’ coming into ‘their’ territory and ‘their’ investigation. i wish i knew more about that. undoubtedly that problem will not be evident when they are prosecuting within their own district. i would sure hope to see a more organized prosecution though.
as the daughter of a southern woman who chose to escape the confines of her native georgia upon receiving her RN license, i am all too aware of ‘what is wrong with some in the south’. it is painfully clear at every family reunion i have ever attended. i am ‘blessed’ to hear what white folks say when they think everyone in the room thinks like them. i’m just glad my mother chose to get out and create better, more diverse lives for her children.
i spent plenty of time there as a kid and by the age i could understand adult conversations (but was expected to remain silent) i heard things that just boggle my mind. on the top of the list was the every day phrase ‘the south will rise again’. at 15, i attended a baseball game where the local team ‘atlanta braves’ played against my beloved home team, the SF Giants. while it was awkward at best to be cheering on the giants in this crowd — there were other things that were far more awkward starting with the ‘tomahawk chop’ and the crowd actually singing ‘dixie’ after the national anthem. i was old enough to understand that i was a stranger in a strange land.
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mindyme62 fauxmccoy, I really hope too that Jacksonville won’t fail the fail the family of Jordan Davis.
Since the Dunn case is a Murder 1 case after seeing the Zimmerman verdict I doubt that any prosecution could get a jury of twelve to unanomously convict a white male of killing a black male so I believe that although what done definitely fit the definition of Murder 1 I believe it should be decreased to Murder 2 to avoid stealth jurors like the ones who acquitted Zimmerman.
I can imagine that Dunn’s attorneys will scour the internet for background information on potential jurors and on prosecution witnesses like O’Mara and West did successfully.
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i think a 12 person jury is certainly a step up from a 6 person one. it will be much harder to thwart diversity at the very least.
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But you still has to be a unanimous verdict.
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if we look at this case for example, had there been 12 jurors, we would have progressed down the list until there were blacks on the jury. if the jury was simply not able to reach a unanimous vote, then a mistrial would have ensued.
i’m just saying it gives greater opportunity for diversity.
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I agree with you on the idea of diversity but regardless the jury would have been hung at best because racists like Juror B37 would have found their way onto the jury.
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you are of course, right. i actually expected a hung jury here.
i wrote a rather long comment regarding the topic of this article — ‘what went wrong …’ and came up with what i think is a well thought out list of 15 items which all pointed to systemic problems — i.e. institutionalized racism. to achieve racist verdict, just add jurors. check it out, should you wish.
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@fauxmccoy. A 12 person jury certainly would have provided opportunity to have minorities on the panel. Florida gives defendants the option for a 12 person jury, but GZ new it was not to his benefit to go beyond six.
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It was a long trial, a trial that I felt a conviction was going to be the outcome. When you have jurors like that, who need enemies?
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Xena,
Did you see Anderson Cooper tonight.
Hope you don’t mind, here’s PART 1
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Thanks for these. I’ll watch them soon!
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PART 2
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@Lolypop. Thanks for embedding the interview of Juror B37. She really exposed her bigotry and violations of the court’s orders. Here’s a woman who criticizes Rachel Jeantel and assumes she is not educated, when she is the wife of a lawyer and cannot understand jury instructions. (SMH)
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I have been spiritually unable to watch this interview yet. Every thing I’ve heard pisses me off… I heard she says she felt going in that Zimmerman was not guilty and the fact she’s married to a lawyer and already had a publisher for a book doesn’t bode well with me. Have heard a rumor that she is Mark Nejame’s wife. I know this cannot possibly be true.
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Xena, I’m so so sorry. This is NO.2
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Xena, Did you see this tonight?
Pretty important!!!
Rachel was on Piers Morgan.
I’m getting ready to watch the tape that I taped earlier.
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@Lolypop. Yes, I saw Rachel’s interview. She was very candid and and confident. I suspect we will see more of her in the future because of her great personality.
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She is so incredibly brave. Tom Joyner is paying her full ride for college.
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Mindyme- that’s great news! And she gets to pick the college.
FROM THE CLUTTERED DESK OF Cielo62
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I know right!! Restores a tad bit of faith in mankind, for me.
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The Michael Dunn case isn’t comparable to TM’s.
The Gate videotapes show shooting
Dispassionate eye witnesses
One eye witness wrote down killer’s tag
killer fled scene, returned to his hotel, ordered pizza
Only to flee next morning to his home out of Jax.
Swat surrounded his home and immediatly returned him to Jax.
Jax. Has AA mayor
Six bullet holes in rear of kid’s car as they were fleeing bullets
killer is marksman, being charged w/ 1 first degree murder, 5 attempted murders,etc.
Mother hired an attorney paying him 7500.00/mth. How long and what kind of excellent lawyer can you hire for peanuts.
Police didn’t wait 4 days they were at scene immediatly. Fire, EMS .
His lawyer actually said, and I am not making this up, ” he reupholstered his gun as he responsible gun owner old”. Even the avid gun notes questioned that logic.
Attorney will try to say ugly things cuz that is all he can say, that is par for the course when you don’t have any defense.
I really loved his attorney’s latest statement re- upholstering his gun as a responsible gun owner.”
His first attorney, Mitch Stone, is one of the best but his mother hired an out of town guy This attorney asked Judge to recuse herself and she did.. However, this Judge is the most pro defendant judge in Jax.
Criminal attorney’s ridiculed his new attorney for this screw up.
I can’t imagine there will be a trial, he’ll plead out for no death sentence. Although, with AC’s reputation kind of damaged, she may want this win for PR.
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So far here in Jacksonville, we know nothing of any of the many security cameras capturing the actual shooting. I’d love to have that story/ link though, it’d mean a lot when I rattle the cages of the haters..
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