That really comes under “reasonable expectation of privacy” stuff & basically the fact that Trayvon was in possession of the phone makes it his for all purposes related to search & seizure.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the only time that would ever come up would be if the police searched the phone, found evidence of criminal conduct, and then decided to use that to prosecute the parent who owned the phone.</p>
<p>The same rationale would apply to all personal effects ever found in the proximity of any dead body. How do you know that the purse or backpack or attache case they were carrying when they died doesn’t really belong to their spouse or parent or employer? </p>
<p>My guess is that the cops simply bought into Zimmerman’s narrative that the kid was a ******* as opposed to a neighbor. They can’t tell from a dead body that the kid is 17 as opposed to 19. They probably figured the fingerprints were the way to go, simply on the assumption that the dead black “*******” would likely have a criminal record.</p>
<p>–
haha – I used a word to describe the cops likely belief that is the same as the name of a competing college information site! p r o w l e r</p>
<p>I also question whether it is appropriate for the Orlando Sentinal to hire “experts” on voice analysis and then release “opinions” that the screams on the 911 tape are not from Z. </p>
<p>Even the “expert” Owen’s website discloses that there are court rulings that have disallowed such evidence and I dug deeper and there are industry standards that require a 10 word matching sample from both a recording and the suspect to make a determination that the suspect is the voice that was recorded.</p>
<p>I saw a (ABC?) story online that gave the name of a 13 year old witness who said he say Martin on top of Z. Disclosing a minor’s name in a flash point case seems wrong at so many levels.</p>
<p>“How about Martin is banging Z’s head into the ground, Z manages to kick Martin off of him for a moment, doesn’t have time to escape or even get up and Martin decides to attack again instead of running away.”</p>
<p>This assumes that Martin was the aggressor, and that Z having pushed Martin off him once felt incapable of doing it again. Still, I’ve thought about that scenario as it would explain how Z could have freed and aimed the pistol AND fired at close range. But you have to ask yourself … what if a neighbor got enraged and came after you. Would you really put a bullet in his chest? Or would you try for a shoulder first? Or having pushed the neighbor off you, would you stand up and show the pistol? Fire a warning shot? Were there really no other options than fire-to-kill?</p>
<p>I’ve read that Zimmerman was about 5 inches shorter and 20 pounds heavier than Martin. How much does size matter and would weight or height be more beneficial if they were actually fighting?</p>
<p>And, it is not just having your name known that would be difficult at that age. I have listened on the City of Sanford website to the 911 call that has the screams and the gun shot on it. It creeped me out and I’m 61 and have been part of an attempt at rescue and resuscitation in a fatal drowning accident and finding a dead body (twice). </p>
<p>I speculate that most 13 year olds would have been unnerved at the sound. If I have the timeline correct, there is only approximately 1 minute that contains the confrontation/shooting, but listening to the 911 it seems like the screams went on much longer (although they didn’t since the media player times the tape.)</p>
<p>I do not envy that kid. He is going to be in the middle of any trial (assuming it goes to trial).</p>
<p>Depends on the individual 13 year old and/or the environment he/she happens to be raised in. </p>
<p>My father had to learn to cope being completely on his own as a refugee without family after both parents died years before and he had to flee the Chinese Communists at 12 in the late '40’s. This included figuring out how to handle Communist troops when they captured his group twice, avoiding the battlefields/being summarily drafted as soldiers, and coping with heavily armed deserters/bandits…one of whom shot a Nationalist army officer trying to reach his unit right in front of him. He managed to cope and survive…along with thousands of others of his generation. </p>
<p>Several years earlier, an older uncle around the same age was part of a small group of youths who’d risk their lives going behind Imperial Japanese lines to perform sabotage and post anti-Japanese slogans knowing full well that they’d faced brutal torture and certain death if caught. </p>
<p>My mother’s older siblings around the same era had to learn how to be alert and extremely quiet at younger ages to avoid alerting Japanese patrols when fleeing from their hometown in the late '30s or cope with having to go into air raid shelters in Chungking when Japanese bombers happened to be overhead. </p>
<p>By the time I was thirteen, I already had experienced/witnessed several muggings…including a few at gunpoint, drugged out crack/cocaine/heroin addicts in the neighborhood parks littered with needles/drug paraphernalia, the loss of an elementary school friend due to being caught in a crossfire between two rival drug gangs, and countless brutal fistfights/beatings at the hands of junior high bullies…most of whom eventually ended up on Rikers for various violent felonies. </p>
<p>Granted, all of this is nothing compared to what relatives in my parents’ generation experienced during the Second Sino-Japanese War/WWII and the Chinese Civil War at 13 or younger. </p>
<p>Moreover, when I started high school at 13 at my NYC public magnet, I’ve met plenty of 13 year olds…and younger whose maturity, street smarts, and presence of mind was such they’d put many older adults to shame. In college…knew several classmates who were as young as 14 who were so mature and wise to the ways of the world you wouldn’t have known their ages unless they told you & showed their IDs. </p>
<p>One who has been living on his own as an undergrad student since well before 13 is now a young tenure-track professor.</p>
My son attends a NYC public magnet and I stand by my statement.</p>
<p>I really wonder if any of the protagonists in your stories would stand up well to the force of media scrutiny. I’m betting no. But I do enjoy your stories.</p>
<p>I’m betting the kid wasn’t atypical BEFORE this happened.</p>
<p>Gee–the kid gets to go before the grand jury (which starts April 10th, correct?).</p>
<p>BTW–according to the Fla. Attorney General’s website posted opinion, Florida law makes the grand jurors’ names non-public except for the foreperson where there is an indictment handed down. The indictment is filed of record (with the foreperson’s signature) but a year down the road, as I read the opinion/statute).</p>
<p>Another mother of a 13-yo boy here. My son would have been traumatized by the experience of witnessing a violent crime, especially in circumstances like these, where he might have felt that he should have done something to help. The mother of the 13-yo eyewitness said that her son heard the screams, but his dog escaped at that moment and ran in the opposite direction. The boy chased the dog and came back after he’d captured him, but by then Trayvon was dead. In his mother’s shoes I would be grateful that my son had not run toward the altercation. What could he have done? And the chances of being hit by a stray bullet were fairly high.</p>
<p>Maybe atypical by mainstream upper-middle class American/First World standards of the late 20th/early 21st century. </p>
<p>However, keep in mind that less than 3 generations ago…even here in the US…13 year olds were held to a far higher expectations of maturity…especially considering many finished their schooling by 6th -8th grades and were expected to start the life-long work/career phase of their lives by then as only the well-off and those who were academic performers were expected to continue on to high school or more so…college/university.</p>
<p>The influences from grandparents or in some cases…parents with those experiences/living memories continued to be felt when I was attending K-12 back in the '80s and early '90s.</p>