<p>In general, it is difficult to prove that something didn’t happen.</p>
<p>That quote by Dershowitz is a little inaccurate I think. Z had a fractured nose and black eyes; not a broken nose and bloodied eyes. I think that T broke his nose first which is what caused Z to fall on the ground. That’s just timeline stuff - evidence from the eyewitness, Z and the injuries on Z and T indicate that it was T beating Z.</p>
<p>It’s interesting that Corey didn’t include the exculpatory evidence in her affidavit. It’s reminiscent of Nifong.</p>
<p>The senior police officer at the scene wanted to prefer charges but was overruled by the Police Chief. The chief is now gone and that same senior officer maintains his original assessment. </p>
<p>A pre-opinioned and armed Zimmerman instigated the confrontation with an unarmed person he had deemed suspicious. Martin had every reason to feel threatened. </p>
<p>Losing a fight that you, yourself, instigated is not grounds for using lethal force.</p>
<p>The witness of the two struggling, how now changed his story. The forensic evidence - what forensic evidence? There is clear evidence there was a fight, but there is zero evidence of who started the fight. As I mentioned before, just because Z got the worst of the fight is not evidence that the other guy started it.</p>
<p>And we have Z’s side of the story. Really? We don’t. He was questioned for 5 hours by the police. We have none of that testimony as of yet.</p>
<p>Why are you so amenable to accepting Z’s story at 100% face value? You yourself said the police should look at past patterns. If you did the same, you would see Z has his own pattern of violence in his past. Doesn’t mean he’s in the wrong in this case, but it doesn’t buy him 100% credibility either.</p>
<p>To my knowledge, there isn’t a report on what happened in the verbal confrontation. The only evidence that I’m aware of is what T’s girlfriend reported.</p>
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<p>“an angry or heated discussion or quarrel; argument”</p>
<p>No, the police department took the case to the D.A., who made the decision not to file charges. The D.A. was ultimately replaced by Corey in order to sanitize the perceived bias. The Police Chief is not gone. He tried to resign because he felt he was a distraction (the press was crucifying his dept over this case), but the City Council would not accept his resignation.</p>
<p>“I would disagree with your last statement if losing the fight means losing your life.”</p>
<p>Z initiated the confrontation, a fight ensues, Z has a gun, Z fears for his life facing Skittles and iced tea? The premise must be believable to be credible. </p>
<p>Do we as a society want to accept the statement “I truly feared for my life” as excusing every such killing? Groups that hate each other will have a free pass to kill each other if that’s all it takes. Initiate a confrontation, make sure a fight ensues, shoot, walk away free. Ludicrous.</p>
<p>Just to repeat, this is the same prosecutor that sent a woman to jail for 20 years for firing a warning shot charging her with attempted murder on her husband that had a history of beating her.</p>
<p>Marissa Alexander, the 31-year-old Florida woman who fired what her family calls a warning shot at her abusive husband, was sentenced Friday morning to 20 years in prison.</p>
<p>Alexander was convicted of three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for firing into a wall near her husband and his two young children at their Jacksonville home in 2010. Alexander has maintained that she wasn’t trying to hurt anyone and that she was standing her ground against a man who had over the course of nearly a year punched and choked her on several different occasions. Alexander says that she believed she was protected that day under the state’s Stand Your Ground Law, which gives people wide discretion in using deadly force to defend themselves.</p>
<p>^I think that case bodes badly for Zimmerman. The Floridian jury may have been trying to salvage their reputation after the press maligned them in the Trayvon Martin case by proving they can be tough on gun users, and Alexander was the sacrificial lamb. She is appealing the case.</p>
<p>I’m wondering what’s in the water down there that she would be convicted. I can’t imagine that she would have been convicted in New England and we don’t have any Stand Your Ground laws up here.</p>
<p>This is irrelevant to what is happening pragmatically.</p>
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<p>What policy? If you’re getting beaten, have a broken nose, two black eyes and lacerations and someone is beating you in the head, you’re supposed to just take it?</p>
<p>“If you’re getting beaten, have a broken nose, two black eyes and lacerations and someone is beating you in the head, you’re supposed to just take it?”</p>
<p>If you instigated, have a gun, the victim is unarmed, then yes, as far as shooting is concerned. You are at fault, and have only yourself to blame for the results.</p>