The future George Zimmerman Acquittal Trial Megathread!

[Ed Anger]

Cursive is pretty retarded.

Young people. 

[Neil]

Cursive is pretty retarded.

Young people. 

Yeah?  You write a lot of letters do you?

[CountDeMoney]

I do. 

And cursive comes in handy when I have to write fast.  The Prof didn't have a problem with my cursive during exams this summer.

[derspiess]

I do. 

And cursive comes in handy when I have to write fast.  The Prof didn't have a problem with my cursive during exams this summer.

I'm sure he made plenty of allowances for your age.

[CountDeMoney]

I'm sure he made plenty of allowances for your age.

Pfft, I smoked all those kiddies.  Buncha Snowden Assburger millenials.

[Kleves]

I haven't been following this all that closely. Did Trayvon have any facial injuries that indicate that he was being beatean, or was his only injury the bullet wound? Was Zimmerman on top of Trayvon when he shot him, or underneath him; i.e. was Zimmerman shooting down or up?

[CountDeMoney]

The only injury that Trayvon Martin had was an abrasion to his left pinky finger.  He was right-handed.  And there was no DNA from Martin on Zimmerman.
They haven't gotten to the forensics of the GSW, but Martin apparently had no powder burns directly at the wound, just on his hoodie which could be explained by the ejection cloud.

Zimmerman's problem is how the body was found.  Face down, with his arms under him;  not out from the body as Zimmerman claimed.

[Kleves]

Zimmerman's problem is how the body was found.  Face down, with his arms under him;  not out from the body as Zimmerman claimed.

What does that prove (non-facetious)?

[CountDeMoney]

That his account of what happened was at best erroneous and at worst a lie.

[Kleves]

People get fairly minor stuff wrong all the time in their testimony. If the only thing this shows is that Zimmerman didn't remember correctly whether Trayvon's arms were under him or to the sides (and that distinction doesn't have any independent probative value - i.e. if Trayvon's arms were under him it shows that he couldn't have been hitting Zimmerman or whatever), then who cares?

[CountDeMoney]

He said he physically and purposefully extended Martin's arms after he was shot.

[Malthus]

Look at how many civil court shows, police/court procedurals there are on tv.  It shouldn't be that surprising.

Thing is, I would have thought generally trials are dead boring ordeals, unless you are yourself a lawyer.

The ones they show on TV usually just have the exciting bits (highly fictionalized).

[Neil]

I do. 

And cursive comes in handy when I have to write fast.  The Prof didn't have a problem with my cursive during exams this summer.

It just occurs to me that I don't often write things anymore, and the few times that I do, I'm printing on forms.  I guess that's why I don't really care about the demise of cursive the way you guys do.  I guess my old-fashionedness is tempered by some degree of practicality after all.

[Siege]

Oh shit, shit is going down!

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/06/28/zimmerman-defense-grills-witness-for-second-day/?test=latestnews
John Goods testimony is tha bomb:

A resident of the Florida community where George Zimmerman shot Trayvon  Martin last year told jurors Friday afternoon how he encountered a bloodied  Zimmerman immediately after the confrontation and took pictures of the murder  defendant's injuries.
State witness Joe Manalo testified that took the photos with his cell phone  that showed blood on Zimmerman's lip and scalp.
"He had blood running down his nose from both nostrils and over his lips,"  Manalo told Prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda.
Manalo said Zimmerman asked him to call his wife, Shellie, and tell her that  he just shot someone as cops arrived on the scene.
"He had a cell phone in his hand and he tossed it on the ground asking if I  could call his wife," Manalo testified. "He gave me her number. I had a  connection right away and said, 'Your husband has been involved in a shooting.  He's detained by Sanford police.'"
"Just tell her I shot someone," Manalo recalled Zimmerman saying, to which he  obliged.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Don West read a transcript of what  Manalo claims Zimmerman told him after the shooting.
"This guy was beating me up and I was defending myself. I shot him," the  statement read.
West then asked Manalo, "George Zimmerman asked, 'Am I bleeding?'" Manalo  confirmed that he did.
Manalo also confirmed his earlier statement that when the police officer  asked him who shot Martin, Zimmerman replied immediately saying that he had.
Earlier on Friday, another neighbor, John Good, testified how he witnessed an  MMA-style fracas between Zimmerman and Martin. He described seeing one person  straddling another and throwing punches down at the person which he described in  a statement as a "ground and pound."


Good said he was watching TV with his wife when they heard a noise and he  went out to investigate, despite his wife warning him not to. At first, he  thought a dog might be attacking someone, but as he moved closer, he said he  observed what looked like "a tussle" between two people.
"It looked like a tussle," Good said. "I could only see one person. At one  point, I yelled out, 'What's going on? Stop it,' I believe.
Under questioning by De la Rionda, Good said one of the combatants was  straddling a man lying face up on the pavement, and throwing punches. The  testimony appeared to corroborate Zimmerman's claims that he shot the  17-year-old African-American with a legally registered gun in self defense, as  he was being pummeled.


"I could tell that the person on the bottom had a lighter skin color,"  testified Good, who also said the person on the bottom appeared to be wearing  "white or red," while the one on top wore dark clothing. Zimmerman identified  that day as Hispanic and was wearing a red jacket. That also would corroborate  Zimmerman's claims he was on the losing end of a violent confrontation when he  fired the fatal shot.
But Good said he did not see the person on top slam the other one's head into  the pavement. Zimmerman had wounds to his scalp following the  confrontation.
Good, who went back inside and was calling 911 when he heard a gunshot,  listened as an audio recording of his call was played in the courtroom.
"It looks like there's a black guy down, and he's dead," Good said on the  call.


During cross examination, defense attorney Mark O'Mara  asked Good to be  more specific as to the exact positions of the two men on the ground and even  demonstrated in the courtroom asking for visual confirmation. He also asked what  Good meant on the 911 call  when he said the person on top was engaged in  an "MMA-style" move of "ground and pound". The witness also said during  testimony that the person on the bottom was unable to move under a flurry of  punches.
When O'Mara asked him if the person on top was Martin, Good said: "Correct,  that's what it looked like."
Good also said he believed the person on the bottom yelled for help, but  later conceded that he was not 100 percent sure it was the person on the bottom  calling for help while he was in his house placing the emergency call, only that  it "sounded like" it came from the person being attacked.
During cross-examination, O'Mara got on his knees to recreate the fighting as  he asked Good to walk him through it.
Good was also shown by O'Mara a picture of Martin in a 7-Eleven convenience  store and said that the person on top during the struggle was wearing the same  dark clothing in the image.
Questioning was then redirected back to the prosecutor who tried to discredit  a strong testimony for the defense.
De La Rionda asked Good if he used the term "ground and pound" in his  statements to investigators or if it was a Sanford Police Department  investigator first used the term. Good replied that it was possible. De La  Rionda also used water bottles to help demonstrate the position of Zimmerman and  Martin and even got Good to concede that he did not actually see punches thrown  and that he "only saw downward movement" of arms.
The testimony came as Zimmerman's murder trial entered its fifth day Friday,  a day after the former neighborhood watch volunteer's attorney tried to  demonstrate that the woman who was on the phone with Trayvon Martin shortly  before he was fatally shot was not believable because her story changed over the  course of the last year.
An attorney for Martin's family, meanwhile, suddenly declared Thursday that  the high-profile case was not about race.
"It's not about racial profiling," Daryl Parks told reporters. "He was  profiled (criminally). George Zimmerman profiled him."
Parks made the comments after prosecutors spent several days arguing that  Zimmerman profiled the 17-year-old specifically because he was black. Asked why  he changed his take on the matter, Parks replied: "We never claimed this was  about race."
Zimmerman, 29, has said he opened fire only after the teenager jumped him and  began slamming his head against the concrete sidewalk. Zimmerman identifies  himself as Hispanic and has denied that his confrontation with the black  teenager had anything to do with race, as Martin's family and its supporters  have claimed.
Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty, claiming self-defense. He could face life  in prison if convicted.

[CountDeMoney]