Another bite of the Zimmerman apple?

[fdcg27]

In American law, the jury is the sole trier of fact.
One cannot be tried for the same offense twice unless the trial jury fails to reach a verdict.
One can, however, be charged with a different offense arising from the same set of events.
In this case, there is talk of bringing a federal criminal action against George Zimmerman.
Whether you agree with the verdict of the trial jury or not, and I don't, both sides had their day in court and Zimmerman was found not guilty of either murder or manslaughter.
I find it reprehensible that our Justice Department is actually considering charging GM under federal law, simply because some people believe that the trial jury reached the wrong result.
While I may feel that the jury erred, it is not appropriate to try this man again under a different statute.
This would not constitute double jeopardy as a matter of law, but it would be morally wrong as well as disrespectful of the jury system.

 

[Shannow]

Kudos for the post.

It's big of a person to diasagree with an outcome but defend the person's rights to proper legal process.

 

[hemitruck]

yup, time to start healing the division. makes me wonder just what our gov't is really up to. imo, they are going to use this to ban guns.

 

[rshaw125]

The Florida trial should never have happened. It probably would not have if it was not for the pressure from Washington.

Sad case but when an armed person is attacked by a wanna be 'gangsta' bad things happen.

 

[JOD]

Originally Posted By: hemitruck
yup, time to start healing the division. makes me wonder just what our gov't is really up to. imo, they are going to use this to ban guns.


yep, that's it...

 

[Cujet]

Agreed. GZ was acquitted. No way he should stand trial again for issues relating to this.

OJ was acquitted, yet lost in civil court. That's not right in any way, regardless of how the supremes ruled on this subject.

These "sham" trials, based on pressure from government officials exactly mirror what the soviet union used to do.

And the civil case is simply an "end run" around the constitution.

 

[JOD]

I think I stand a better chance of being indicted on civil rights charges in the case than GZ. It's not going to happen, and even the mention of it is simple an appeal to folks who didn't like the outcome. Anyone who knows the slightest thing about the law knows it's a non-starter. I'm sure some will use this as a reason to rail against any and all actions categorized as civil rights crimes, something with which I strongly disagree. But there's obviously no case here.

 

[aquariuscsm]

It's time for Zimmy to start suing!!

 

[fdcg27]

Tell that to the cops who were acquitted in their trial under California law in the Rodney King case.
Let's just keep on trying these folks until we get the right result.

 

[dishdude]

I think he should have been convicted in Florida, but don't agree with the Feds pressing charges.

Personally I think he is guilty and a reckless individual, and he sure was able to fool the totally incompetent Sanford PD.

 

[Mystic]

Zimmerman should never have been even tried on Second Degree Murder charges. Even if there had been an attempt to charge him on Manslaughter charges most of the legal experts say that case would have been weak. So now the Justice Department under Holder are going to get involved.

What a lot of people do not know is that the FBI has already investigated to see if Zimmerman engaged in a hate crime. They could not find any evidence. So there has already been an investigation and the investigation turned up nothing.

In addition, there is evidence that a woman in the District Attorney's office in that Florida city tried to withhold evidence from the Defense. That woman may actually face criminal charges over this and a man was fired because he knew it was wrong what they were doing and he did not want to be held responsible himself.

This whole thing is getting more disturbing every day that goes by.

 

[65cuda]

The whole case is a bad deal. To me Zimmerman should have stayed and not followed, but he chose to do so. Legally he was right, but wasn't very smart. I can see where Martin saw that he was being followed even though he wasn't doing anything illegal. So for whatever reason they met up what was Martin suppose to do? If you support self defense and stand your ground then you should have no problem with a person doing nothing illegal trying to protect himself. Trouble is even if maybe your actions led to the confrontation if you feel like you are in danger you still are able to legally kill someone. I do believe that he was overcharged, but do believe that he should face some kind of legal action for what he did. Of course I guess he will have the rest of his life looking over his shoulder.

 

[Drew99GT]

Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
It's time for Zimmy to start suing!!


He's already suing NBC for their slander. Next up, CNN for airing all his personal information (including SSN).

All the people publicly running their mouths about him and saying things that are untrue should probably just shut the heck up at this point. It's done. Let it go.

 

[JOD]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Tell that to the cops who were acquitted in their trial under California law in the Rodney King case.
Let's just keep on trying these folks until we get the right result.


First off, I don't see much of a comparison between the two cases. Secondly, I'll be outraged right along with you if charges are brought. But lets save the outrage until it actually happens, because the chances of it happening are vanishingly small.

 

[97tbird]

911 tells GZ not to follow, and he does JUST that, and ends up killing TM.
He should have been punished - he didn't even testify, guilty as [censored].
His life will never be the same though; and he deserves it.

 

[Mystic]

Zimmerman did have bad judgment, but you have to realize where he was coming from. He lived in a gated community and he was trying to cut down on the crime there-people breaking into houses, etc. I can't remember the exact details but either Zimmerman's house had been broken into or somebody that he knew had their house broken into. Zimmerman was kind of a neighborhood watch guy.

This entire situation was a local event. The news media made it a national event. NBC allegedly doctored an audio recording. That is unbelievable. And now there is evidence that evidence was withheld by a woman in the District Attorney's Office. She allegedly withheld evidence from the Defense. And the FBI has already investigated Zimmerman for any hate crime evidence or civil rights violations and they could not find anything.

This is getting ridiculous and frankly the people who are trying to make this into some racial crime are making themselves look really, really bad. I think it is time to back off. Heck, Zimmerman's life is already ruined anyway.

Anybody who still respects the mainstream news media after all of this apparently lives on Mars. I have nothing but total disrespect for most of the mainstream news media. The only network that has been professional in its coverage has been Fox News, regardless what the haters want to say.

 

[fdcg27]

I think it's probably a done deal, but we shall see.
In the next week or so, a spokesperson from Justice will appear on our screens during the network news and announce that after a careful review of the facts of the case, the government has found no option other than to bring a criminal civil rights action against the hapless George.
I'm not being funny, either.
This case becomes more political by the day, and there will be elections in 2014.
This whole case should fade away and allow us to concentrate on dealing with the real problems we have in our country.
Won't happen.

 

[Trav]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27
I think it's probably a done deal, but we shall see.
In the next week or so, a spokesperson from Justice will appear on our screens during the network news and announce that after a careful review of the facts of the case, the government has found no option other than to bring a criminal civil rights action against the hapless George.
I'm not being funny, either.
This case becomes more political by the day, and there will be elections in 2014.
This whole case should fade away and allow us to concentrate on dealing with the real problems we have in our country.
Won't happen.


The second POTUS threw his totally unwarranted 2c in the game was on, put GZ behind bars at any and all cost even if you have gin something up.
If you don't get him the fist time around gin something else up, anything including "Civil Rights" charges.

This country has gone down the tubes when it condones someone/anyone to use these tin pot dictator, banana republic tactics.
Calling GZ a "white Hispanic" is the best one yet. IMHO There is more racial divide in this country today then in the 60's.

 

[Jim74]

Juror B37: "If he didn't go too far. ... He just didn't stop at the limitations he should have stopped at."

So in other words, the exact definition of manslaughter.

Manslaughter: The crime of killing a human being without malice aforethought, or otherwise in circumstances not amounting to murder.

 

[walk23]

GZ, under the Law is a free man, but I doubt he'll ever be free. Hope he uses the donations sent wisely b/c his ability to earn went to Zero.