It's really hard to separate personal feelings from just factual evidence in situations like this. I'm listening to the statements of the prosecution and I have to say that I really feel like they have not proven their case. I question if they have even proven Manslaughter. I am listening to the prosecutor and he is saying to the Jury that they should not judge the girl (Martin's girlfriend) on how she sounded, past history or let what they saw be a determining factor in the case but rather, what she said. I'm thinking to myself, isn't that what they are asking everybody to do with George Zimmerman? Make a judgement on the basis of racial undertone that Zimmerman is supposed to have, consider the fact that Martin is 17? If Martin were 21 instead of 17, would this be viewed in the same light by people? That doesn't make sense to me. It's a contradiction and it only makes the prosecution look like it's reaching to me.
This is about reasonable doubt and I can see no way that anybody can not look at this and say that there is no reasonable doubt.
Will also say that this thing could come back as a verdict of guilty but I honestly don't see how the evidence supports that.
JMO
If you listen to Zimmerman's phone call and pair it with the reenactment video he made there's some pretty interesting inconsistencies.
On the phone call he clearly gets out of his truck to follow and even admits to doing so but in the reenactment he says that he got out to check the street sign. This is also in his written statement. Not to follow but to check the street sign because he couldn't remember the name of the street. This is 1 of 3 streets in the community he has lived in and at each end of the street there is an entrance to gated community. These are the only two entrances. He's lived there for like 2 years and drives on that street every time he enters or exits the community but he can't remember the name of the street?
He also says that the dispatcher had asked him to see where Trayvon was going which never happened.
He says Trayvon actually circled his truck which he made no mention of in the phone call, only saying "he's coming to check me out". This guy is so suspicious and even says Trayvon is on drugs, up to no good and everything else but he doesn't mention that he's circling his truck like a shark in the water? And if he was circling the truck, why didn't he just say that he was part of the neighborhood watch and wanted to check things out? He's in his car, has his gun, but can't initiate dialog?
The timing of the whole even is just incredibly blurry and begs serious questions as to what he was actually doing. He gets out of his truck and after about 12 to 13 seconds he's told not to follow. The call continues for almost another 2 minutes and he never makes it back to the truck. Then more time passes before even the first 911 call comes in and I think something like 3:30 minutes have passed before you would expect the fight to even start. So what was he doing in this time? How did he never make it back to the truck while on the phone and then he wasn't even halfway back when he was supposedly approached by Trayvon? The answer is pretty simple, he wasn't returning to his truck in that time. If he were, this story never happens because the distance he would have to travel is not great enough to take that long. There was a reporter who walked the distance from the street George was going to back to the truck while he was on camera and it took about 1 minute which still leaves far too much time that is unaccounted for.
Who knows what he was doing, he says he had decided to get an address from a house on the next street over but a minute and a half after he's told not to follow Trayvon the dispatcher asked him what the address of the house he was standing of front of was and he said that he didn't know. He didn't know because he was standing in the "cut-through". To top it off, he ends the phone call by asking for police to call him so he can tell them where he's at which is just an odd request from someone who would either be in their truck or at an address they were supposedly going to look for. This is a weird thing in itself, he sees Trayvon just kind of standing around and thinks it's suspicious but if he were to go across the street and get the address and wait there for police it wouldn't be suspicious to someone else who may have seen him just standing around? Ultimately he never gave any address which means his entire purpose for getting out of his truck to get an address is not only completely unsupported by him actually giving an address, it just makes absolute zero sense that he was actually seeking an address and never provided one, even when asked to provide one.
Ultimately I don't think anyone knows what happened from the time he got out of his truck. I think his versions differ by so much that his version of the story is questionable. We don't have a version from Trayvon. One thing I think is clear is that he wasn't returning to his truck. He most assuredly would have made it if that had been the case. That said, given the fact that he exited his vehicle to follow Trayvon and admitted this to the dispatcher and the fact that it's pretty obvious he was doing a little more than checking an address, I think the guy is at fault.
I wouldn't say 2nd degree murder because I don't think that's supported but manslaughter for sure. I think he got out of his truck to follow, disregarded the dispatcher saying not to follow and the proceeded to scour the area until the two of them crossed paths. What happened from there is only according to George's version which I think is either not entirely inclusive (at best) or deliberately altered to remove responsibility (at worst).
