VoiceofReason wrote:O.J. was another case entirely and I can’t understand how one could assume that because he lost, Zimmerman would lose also.
O.J. lost in civil court because in the overwhelming opinion of the public, he was guilty as hades. In Zimmerman's case, it seems to me that regardless of what the media is shouting, at least half of the people I talk to are willing to concede that he was in a fight for his life. Even if they think that he should have stayed in his car, they believe that he had a right to defend himself, including by means of deadly force if necessary........and I'm not talking about just my "gun friends." Even my non-gun-owning liberal brother in California thinks that Zimmerman is probably innocent.
Particularly after the facts of the case come out at criminal trial, if Zimmerman's innocence is demonstrated it will be likely be far more convincing than the proof, such as it was, of O.J.'s innocence—which was really, REALLY skimpy, and driven by a racially motivated jury which could not bring itself to convict a hero of the black community.
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/f ... ypage.html
The racial composition of the jury was strongly influenced by the decision of the prosecution to file the Simpson case in downtown Los Angeles rather than--as is usually the case-- in the judicial district where the crime occurred-- in this case, Santa Monica. Had the case been filed in Santa Monica, the Simpson jury would have been mostly white instead of, as was the case, mostly African-American. With poll data showing that most whites believed Simpson to be guilty and most blacks believing him to be not guilty, the decision to file the case in Santa Monica may have been the biggest mistake the prosecution made. Vincent Bugliosi, the celebrated prosecutor in the Charles Manson case, said the mistake "dwarfed anything the defense did."
For better or for worse, this dynamic will likely come into play in jury selection for Zimmerman. If we believe the press (
), Sanford is a city with racial troubles. I'm not saying that this is as it should be, but if I were Zimmerman's attorney, I would definitely make that an issue during jury selection because there will be no way that he'll get a fair trial with a predominantly black jury. With a charged backed by really thin "evidence," which any competent attorney ought to be able to pick apart, and with good voir dire, Zimmerman is going to be acquitted.
The trial will make obvious the extent of A) the media's deliberate culpability in his persecution, opening them to libel; B) the malicious persecution by attorney Crump, who manufactured evidence out of whole cloth which has now been exposed, and which could lead to his disbarment; C) the politically motivated persecution by Angela Whatshername, the state attorney whose presser was so outrageously unjust that even liberal attorney Alan Dershowitz calls it "irresponsible and unethical" (other commentators are saying that, like Nifong, she'll be ultimately disbarred because of this); and D) possibly even against Treyvon's parents if it comes during or after trial that theirs and Crump's strategy was aimed at setting up a fleecing of an innocent man in civil court.
And the Sanford chief who stepped down is a coward. He should have told them all to go hang themselves and stood by the results of his officers' investigation and defended their integrity. No new "evidence" has been discovered
since their investigation....except for the now shown to be false "evidence" of a non-existent girlfriend which Crump made up out of whole cloth. You want more fallout? The mayor of Sanford ought to step down for his shameless involvement in prejudicing the case against an accused man who, unlike thugs who kill during robberies and rapes, is accused of killing someone in a self-defense gone wrong.....even if the believed that to be a flawed defense. Instead, he jumped on the race-card bandwagon and help gin up more hysteria. He's a coward too. Sans a confession of poor judgement at the least, I predict a recall movement after all of this blows over. And don't get me started with Al Sharpton, and Crump, etal. There isn't anything wrong with him that couldn't be fixed with a judicious application of ....... well I'm not going to go there in print.
