Do you think Zimmerman will be convicted of murder?

It is telling that, on these boards, you have attacked laws--like rape/sexual assault laws, drunk driving laws, and laws prohibiting child pornography---laws that practically everyone supports and agrees are necessary--as being "crazy laws

People who think like you are the reason they are now in the process of re-examining
the very problematic Stand Your Ground law in the state of Florida.

It is telling that, on these boards, you have attacked laws--like rape/sexual assault laws, drunk driving laws,
and laws prohibiting child pornography---laws that practically everyone supports and agrees are necessary--as being "crazy laws".

But, the one law you choose to champion, Florida's Stand Your Ground law,
is a law which is so poorly written that it is quite arguably a "crazy law",
and a law that many officials in the state of Florida now realize must be corrected and revised.

It was not necessary to pursue Trayvon, because his father lives there. Zimmer wanted an altercation.

It sounds like Bill has taken a CONSISTENTLY pro-freedom, pro-Americanism stance.
(I cannot comment on what he said qua rape, for my paucity of knowledge of what he said.)

It's also hard to claim immunity under Stand Your Ground when you were the one who did the pursuing.
Zimmerman may not have wanted an altercation, but he certainly seems to have wanted a confrontation, since he did the pursing.

It's also hard to claim immunity under Stand Your Ground when you were the one who did the pursuing.
Zimmerman may not have wanted an altercation, but he certainly seems to have wanted a confrontation, since he did the pursing.

LOL that is why he call 911 to get police officers on the scene.

Good try but other then trying to keep an eye on Trayvon I see no wish by Zimmerman
to have any interaction with Trayvon of any kind.

Myths about the Country Walk case.
Cheit RE, Mervis D.
Source

Department of Political Science and Public Policy, Brown University, USA. [email protected]
Abstract

The Country Walk case in Dade County, Florida was long considered a model for how to prosecute a multi-victim child sexual abuse case involving young children. In the past 10 years, however, a contrary view has emerged that the case was tainted by improper interviewing and was likely a false conviction. This is the first scholarly effort to assess the competing views of this case.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18032242

Quote:

Myths about the Country Walk case.
Cheit RE, Mervis D.
Source

Department of Political Science and Public Policy, Brown University, USA. [email protected]
Abstract

The Country Walk case in Dade County, Florida was long considered a model for how to prosecute a multi-victim child sexual abuse case involving young children. In the past 10 years, however, a contrary view has emerged that the case was tainted by improper interviewing and was likely a false conviction. This is the first scholarly effort to assess the competing views of this case.

Maybe you should stick to claiming one of Mars' moon is an alien space station.

Citing Its “Uses and Abuses,” Rival Task Forces Duel Over Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law
FlaglerLive
May 1, 2012

As a task force formed by Gov. Rick Scott to review the “stand your ground” law prepares for its first meeting today, a rival panel convened by Democratic state Sen. Chris Smith found that the law needs significant revision.

“We took an adult look at ‘stand your ground,’ and we had adult discussions – not political,” Smith said Monday. “And I think we’re giving good direction to the Legislature on what should be done.”

Some panelists called for an outright repeal of “stand your ground,” but Smith said there wasn’t enough support to make that recommendation.

The recommendations call for lawmakers to require a grand jury review of “stand your ground” cases and to let law enforcement officers detain those who claim the law as a defense while an investigation is conducted.

“That’s what we mean by ambiguity – and a little bit of the absurdity of this law,” Smith said. “If you’re standing there and someone’s dead, to have police have to wonder, ‘Can I detain this person?’ is a concern.”

Smith said he started his own task force on April 5 after tiring of waiting for Scott to act on the Feb. 26 shooting of unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin and the delay in arresting acknowledged shooter George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer.

Since then, special prosecutor Angela Corey has charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder, and Scott has named a panel chaired by Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, who voted for the 2005 “stand your ground” law while serving in the Legislature.

Meanwhile Smith, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat, convened an 18-member panel of lawyers, judges and law professors, and on Monday released their report.

“There is ample and overwhelming documentation of the law’s use, and more importantly, its abuse,” the report concludes. “The Sanford shooting should not have been a cause for delay; to the contrary, it was a compelling call to action that something needed to be done about the law’s confusing and often misapplied provisions.”

Smith is also pushing for a special session of the Legislature to review and amend the law.

“I think it’s still a public safety concern,” he said.

Smith said he will give the recommendations to Scott, Carroll, the members of the governor’s task force and Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island.

Critics of the Scott panel say it’s top-heavy with supporters of the National Rifle Association, which spearheaded the effort to make Florida the first state in the nation to adopt the “stand your ground” legislation.

Last week state Rep. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, asked Scott to change the composition of his task force by removing at least one of the legislators who backed the law. That could be House sponsor Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, or Sen. David Simmons, R-Maitland, who co-sponsored the law.

Smith, Bullard, Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa and other black lawmakers say they have tried to become members of the Scott panel, to no avail.

“We have tapped a diverse and qualified group to carefully review our laws and our policies,” Scott said on April 19, announcing his selections. None of his appointees are lawmakers who favor gun control.

Smith said he’d requested the opportunity to give the recommendations directly to the panel Tuesday, but was told no public comment would be part of the inaugural meeting.

His panel’s recommendations are broken down into unanimous, consensus and minority findings.

These findings of the Smith task force were unanimous:

-Cases should be presented to a grand jury to allow for a cross section of society to determine what a reasonable person would do in that case.
-Educate the public and law enforcement.
-Create a system to track self-defense claims in Florida.
-Add language requiring an “imminent” danger provision throughout the statute.
-Change the “Defense of Others” wording in the law’s title to “Defense of Property.”
-Allow law enforcement to detain someone who uses the Stand Your Ground defense while they investigate.

Consensus findings included eliminating the presumption of reasonable fear and clarifying the role of provocation in the law’s application.
http://flaglerlive.com/37668/stand-your-ground/

And none of us deserves to have our lives taken from us, by a man with a gun, without adequate legal justification for the act

An none of us deserve to be charge with murder for the crime of self defense.

Trayvon Martin case spurs other investigations
By FRANCES ROBLES
Miami Herald
May 1, 2012

Kenneth Chamberlain Jr.'s foray into activism started with a Facebook post.
Someone placed a petition demanding the arrest of Trayvon Martin's killer on Chamberlain's Facebook wall, and that got the New York behavior counselor thinking: What about his own dad's unprosecuted killing?

"I signed Trayvon's petition, sat back, and thought, 'Well, maybe I should do a petition,'" he said. "I did and got 1,000 signatures. I was happy with 1,000."
Then came more: Five months after Chamberlain's father was killed in his home by a White Plains, N.Y., police officer, Chamberlain has not only 208,000 online signatures -- he got a grand jury investigation as well.

Across the nation, experts say people disillusioned by the criminal justice system were galvanized by the Trayvon Martin case and took to the Internet to demand that police and prosecutors take a second look at questionable shootings. From New York to Chicago, Atlanta, North Carolina and elsewhere, people whose relatives were killed by cops, zealous security guards or neighbors are inundating law enforcement officials with online petitions, calls from attorneys and rallies.

With Trayvon's killer, George Zimmerman, now facing second-degree murder charges, cases that activists say would otherwise have been swept under the rug are gaining new momentum. Social media tools allow anyone to start a petition and keep in touch with the people who signed. Experts say that has played a key role in spreading the word about other killings and helped empower victims, who are often poor and black.

The phenomenon has lifted the veil on dozens of questionable shootings around the nation where police or prosecutors carried out lackluster investigations or were perceived to have protected law enforcement, activists said.

"This is a message to law enforcement: Families are no longer powerless," said Steven Biel, director of SignOn.org, the online petition site associated with MoveOn.org. "These petitions offer a way to send emails and organize people in an ongoing way. That's the most exciting thing: It's not just petitions, but organizing rallies and making sure the targets understand this is not just a bunch of people clicking a mouse."

Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., 68, was killed Nov. 19 after police went to his apartment responding to a medical alert alarm. An agitated Chamberlain would not let police in, so after a standoff that lasted an hour and a half, police removed the door. Police accused the retired corrections officer and former Marine of coming at them with an axe. Officers tasered him, shot him with a beanbag shotgun and then killed him with a live round.

The audio of the entire episode was recorded by the medical alert company, which caught the officers using racial epithets and the elder Chamberlain telling a black police officer: "Black officer, why are you letting them do this? Why are your guns drawn?" attorney Randolph McLaughlin said. Video also was captured from the police Tasers.

The Westchester District Attorney declined to comment on the case, saying just that it is being presented to a grand jury. The five-month delay was necessary to gather forensic reports and other evidence, spokesman Lucien Chalfen said.
"It's been investigated from the beginning," Chalfen said. "It did not take a long time to take to a grand jury. It's within the margin of error for the appropriate length of time."

Although Chamberlain's shooting has stark differences from Trayvon's, the two have been likened as incidents where media attention and activism are credited for reopening investigations.

"They are killing young men in Florida and killing old men in New York, but there are significant differences in the cases," said McLaughlin, an attorney with the law firm Newman Ferrara in New York. "There are also similarities: Trayvon was walking while black, while Mr. Chamberlain was just living while black."

Treka McMillian was inspired by the Chamberlain online drive to start a petition of her own. Her goddaughter, Jasmine Thar, a 16-year-old high school sophomore, was killed two days before Christmas in Chadbourn, N.C., when a man across the street said his rifle went off by accident.
The bullet struck Jasmine, McMillian, and another 17-year-old. No arrests have been made.

"I don't care if it was an accident -- still someone should be held accountable: Someone shot somebody," said McMillian, a college women's basketball coach. "You don't want to make it about race, but you have to think that if a black person shot two kids, they'd be arrested."

Jasmine was black, and the shooter is white.

The Justice for Jasmine petition on SignOn.org now has more than 70,000 signatures. McMillian recently learned that the FBI will investigate the matter, and the district attorney agreed to meet with the dead teen's family.
"I didn't want it pushed under the rug and not dealt with," she said.

The Change.org petition launched by Trayvon Martin's parents after his Feb. 26 shooting ultimately gathered 2.2 million signatures. With Zimmerman now before the criminal justice system, the petition drive will be logged as a successful campaign, said Jon Perri, senior organizer for criminal justice at Change.org.

Dozens of petitions have sprung up since, including several for and against Florida's Stand Your Ground law. Several drives have taken up the cause of Rekia Boyd, a 22-year-old Chicago woman shot by an off-duty police officer.
The officer claimed self defense because he was in a dispute with another man.

"I think overall there are people concerned and frustrated with the criminal justice system for a variety of reasons," Perri said. "A lot people feel that if they don't have money, they feel they have nowhere to turn. This platform is opening the floodgates."

Trayvon's parents' attorney, Benjamin Crump, agreed.
"I would say I have gotten 20 calls at least," he said. "You hear these cases, young men -- black and Hispanic -- getting killed in very suspicious circumstances. They are often poor minorities, and it's rare that I see a full impartial hearing."

In the Bronx, activists are hoping the shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old killed in his grandmother's apartment gains the kind of momentum Trayvon's killing did. The Bronx district attorney is investigating why police followed Ramarley Graham into his apartment and knocked down the door and killed him, but no arrests have been made in the February shooting.

Graham was killed in the bathroom, where he was disposing of marijuana. The case has brought new attention to the New York Police Department's "stop and frisk" policies that activists say inordinately target blacks and Hispanics.
Graham's family's attorney, Jeffrey Emdin, said he deliberately scaled back publicity so that if a case ever goes before jurors, defense lawyers would not argue for a change of venue. But when hundreds of thousands of people hit the streets for Trayvon, the comparisons were quickly made and the momentum picked up.

http://www.bradenton.com/2012/05/01/4020467/trayvon-martin-case-spurs-other.html#storylink=cpy

I don't know the Florida law with respect to the possibility of a reduced finding. Is it all or nothing with respect to Second Degree Murder????

--just as it was in the case of Trayvon Martin. Certain segments of the population may be systematically disadvantaged, or unequally treated, by the criminal justice system, and this sort of activism raises awareness and forces public officials to be answerable to the public they serve, as they should be.