The Seminole County Courthouse

I decided to take a trip up to the Seminole County courthouse to take a look around. I want to familiarize myself with the building. It’s a lot different from the one I got so used to during the 3 years I covered the Casey Anthony story.

I plan on attending today’s hearing regarding what evidence the public will get to see before the trial. I have a noon doctor appointment and the hearing is slated to start at 1:30.

If the picture quality is poor, it’s because I used my cell phone.

A shot in the dark heard 'round the world

Blackfields & McWhites, Part 2

It really saddens me that Trayvon Martin’s tragic shooting has set people on such opposite paths that it’s gotten downright frightful. In all seriousness, I don’t expect a race war to break out, but there’s no doubt, two paths exist and they are as opposite as north and south, east and west, night and day, and yes, black and white. I spoke with someone the other day who is completely convinced that George Zimmerman will be exonerated for plugging a hole in the 17-year-old boy’s chest and sending him to the morgue, that I was compelled to ask him why he supports the rogue neighborhood watch captain gone wild. He had no real reason; he just felt that way.

“Mark my words,” he exclaimed, “he did the right thing.”

He was quite furvent about it — was, that is — until I hit him with a blunt force statement. Sometimes, you’ve got to fight fire with something much hotter in order to cool the flames. I told him there are only three reasons why anyone would offer their complete support without all of the facts in hand, and they are that:

1. He is a racist;
2. He fully supports the policies of the NRA or;
3. Both 1 and 2

The fact is, this person had no real facts at all when he made the statement. Nor did any of the people who earlier donated over $200,000 to help George pay for his defense. And the money keeps pouring in.

To be fair, I could question some of Trayvon’s supporters as well about racism. Certainly, the New Black Panther party is one. However, there are two stark differences between Trayvon and George and what transpired the night of February 26. One, Trayvon didn’t have a gun and, two, he didn’t stalk George. Still, what strikes me as peculiar is the simple fact that plenty of those people have taken such a firm stand regarding their support for the shooter, that they seem to have no idea about other things, many of which are related to nothing more than what we typically consider to be simple common sense. Yes, George had a legal right to carry a concealed weapon, but that gave him no license to kill. Would he pack his pistol while walking on the beach? Why not? He could, but would it be practical or sensible? What about inside a church? A job interview? Walking into a police station? You see, there are many possible scenarios where being armed makes no sense at all, but what about someone else?

What about a police officer who shoots his/her cheating spouse and romantic partner in a fit of jealous rage? Don’t tell me it’s never happened. A cop has a license to carry, and one to kill, too. Even many white supremacists can carry a weapon just like George, so you can’t use the excuse that he had every right to shoot his target. White supremacists plot to kill minorities all the time. While not calling George a racist, how does anyone other than his close family members and friends know whether he really is one or not? Why give him the benefit of the doubt in every possible way and offer nothing to the victim? You see, my point is all about what’s good for the goose. Why shouldn’t it be good for the gander, too? What makes some think George, a complete stranger, is worth defending? To the point of exalting him? We don’t know the real George. None of us.

Enough of that. Let’s get down to the facts as we know them now. Yes, George Zimmerman had every right to walk anywhere he wanted in the housing development he does not own. So did Trayvon. At the same time, I can walk down the aisles of a supermarket I don’t own, and you’d better believe if I were eyeballing a young mom throughout the store, things would get edgy and a manager would be called. While George was the Neighborhood Watch captain at The Retreat at Twin Lakes, he was not the only one. As a matter of fact, the community newsletter routinely solicits other residents to come forward. In other words, he wasn’t police chief there. As a matter of fact, he wasn’t a cop at all. I’ve heard that he wasn’t acting as a Neighborhood Watch captain that night. Therefore, the implied policy against carrying a weapon shouldn’t apply. Okay fine, but I disagree. Neighborhood Watch people are always on call. There is no time clock. He mentions his capacity as such in almost every call he’s ever made to police — REAL POLICE, and in each case, the “perp” was always black. Never white or Hispanic.

George told police he stepped out of his truck to check house numbers and the name of the street he was on, and Trayvon attacked him from behind as he was returning to his vehicle. It was then that he shot the boy in self-defense. There are multiple problems with that scenario, though; the biggest one being where Trayvon was killed. It was in the common sidewalk area between the back yards of rows of townhouses. It was nowhere near George’s truck or where it was parked. It was a lie. Street names are found on the street and house numbers are located on the fronts of houses, not in back yards. Once he found the information he needed, why didn’t he return to his truck and call the dispatcher back instead of going behind the townhouses with flashlight in hand? There can only be one answer: To find Trayvon.

Police investigators told Trayvon’s father, Tracy Martin, that his son had confronted George at his truck, as George had said, yet nothing exists to substantiate his claim. Certainly, there’s nothing in the police recording of his phone call that evening, from 7:11 pm, when he placed the non-emergency call, through 7:15 pm, when the call ended. He never said anything about Trayvon approaching him in any threatening manner. As a matter of fact, the last thing we know is that he was chasing after the teen when the dispatcher asked and then advised him against it.

Approximately 80 seconds later, the first 911 call came in from someone who reported hearing screams for help. That means the fight was in full swing by then, but for how long? 27 seconds after the first emergency call, Trayvon was dead.

According to ABC News, Sanford police had Trayvon’s phone records within days of his death, yet his girlfriend was never called and questioned about the incident. While I find it rather disconcerting that the police department did not do a thorough job, I can’t place all of the blame on them the night the shooting took place. One of the misconceptions about that phone centers on the length of time it took for SPD to take a look at the device. Why didn’t investigators check it that night? The answer is simple. It was wet and the charge was low. In order to bring it back to life, it had to dry out while someone searched for a charger — something Trayvon didn’t carry with him.  (See page 16 of evidence document.) And they needed the pass code.

Benjamin Crump is the attorney for Trayvon’s mother and father. He told the media that the boy talked on and off with his girlfriend for nearly 400 minutes the day he died. According to him, and based on those phone records, Trayvon’s final moments were spent talking to his girlfriend, initiated by a 7:12 pm call. She overheard the start of the altercation. In her recorded interview with an investigator working with Assistant State Attorney Angela Corey, she stated that Trayvon told her a (white) man was watching him from his vehicle. He put his hoodie on because it was still raining. Meanwhile, the man continued to watch him. She told Trayvon to get back to his father’s house. He agreed. Then, she could tell he was running because of the sound of wind she heard in the phone’s mouthpiece. Trayvon thought he had lost the guy at that point. Suddenly, he said the guy was getting close to him and within seconds, the altercation began.

“Why are you following me for?” Trayvon asked.

George responded with, “What are you doing around here?” 

Trayvon’s girlfriend kept asking him what was going on, but he never answered her. Instead, she said she heard a bump, like someone had hit Trayvon. She also heard what sounded like the phone had landed in the grass. She was asked if she heard any screams for help, and the sound of a gunshot. She did not. Before the phone went dead — and she frantically tried to call him back later to no avail — she faintly heard something else in the background — a voice telling the assailant to get off.

“Get off! Get off!” The investigator asked her whose voice it was and she said Trayvon. Then, the phone went dead.

Bill Lee was the police chief in Sanford on the night Trayvon died. He is now on temporary leave. According to the Huffington Post Website, Lee told HuffPost as early as March 8 that “Zimmerman disregarded a 911 dispatcher who told him to stand down and wait for the police to arrive.”

Lee described the events leading up to the shooting, and it corroberated the girl’s later account to the SAO investigator. Zimmerman, he said, told Sanford authorities that Trayvon noticed he was being followed and asked what the problem was. This is when the altercation took place.

What we now know is that George was, in fact, injured as he said he was, but was he beaten so badly that he came within an inch of his life as his father said in an interview?

According to the Sanford Fire Department report on the night of February 26, EMTs found Trayvon Martin unresponsive and declared him dead. George Zimmerman, on the other hand, was a bit bloodied up, but otherwise fine. Their report was filed at 19:41, or 7:41 pm. He was conscious and showed no outward signs of external hemorrhaging. His mucous membrane was normal. So was his color. Everything was within normal limits, including his breathing quality. His GCS (Glasgow Coma Scale: 0-15) was 15, with 0 being comatose and unconscious, and 15 being fully awake and conscious.

The report stated that he had abrasions on his forehead, bleeding and tenderness in his nose, and a small laceration on the back of his head. All injuries had minor bleeding. He denied LOC (loss of consciousness) and neck or back pain. He had PMS X4 with paresthesia. PMS X4 means that his pulse, motor and sensation were good in all four limbs. Paresthesia is interesting. Generally, it means tingling sensations in a person’s skin. Or it could be a change in bodily function generally associated with a disease. It could also be a hallucinated sensation that insects or snakes are crawling over the skin; usually a side-effect of extensive use of cocaine or speed. George did tell paramedics he was on Librax and Tamazepan, which have been shown to cause agitation and mood swings in less than 10 percent of patients, but I seriously doubt those medications had anything to do with his paresthesia.

While many people believe George’s injuries will play well for the defense, I am less sure. Why? The following day, a doctor at Altamonte Family Practice examined him and found no concussion. The doctor advised his patient to seek x-rays and other professional advice, including a psychological evaluation, but he chose not to. Ultimately, his refusal to pay more attention to his injuries may work against him because there is no further proof of the extent of his injuries beyond the initial photographs and the reports from paramedics and his doctor. Clearly, from the shape he was in from those photographs taken the night of the incident, he was nowhere near death, and within minutes of his initial examination, EMTs concurred. Incidentally, the doctor noted that he made the appointment in order to receive a legal clearance for returning to work. He was ready to rock ‘n’ roll. One down, who cares?

We can ask many questions about why Trayvon’s blood was drawn that night for drugs, but not George’s, which is routine in cases like this. We can point to shoddy work by the Sanford Police Department, which is partially true. We know that George was known to SPD as a friend. Did that have any bearing on his treatment by law enforcement that night, on the scene and while in custody? The lead investigator later wrote:

(Edited for content)

[The] investigation reveals that Martin was in fact running generally in the direction of where he was staying as a guest in the neighborhood.

Investigation reveals that on August 3, August 4, and October 6, 2011, and February 2, 2012, George Zimmerman reported suspicious persons, all young Black males, in the Retreat neighborhood to the Sanford Police Department. According to records checks, all of Zimmerman’s suspicious persons calls while residing in the Retreat neighborhood have identified Black males as the subjects.

The encounter between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin was ultimately avoidable by Zimmerman, if Zimmerman had remained in his vehicle and awaited the arrival of law enforcement, or conversely if he had identified himself to Martin as a concerned citizen and initiated dialog in an effort to dispel each party’s concern. There is no indication that Trayvon Martin was involved in any criminal activity at the time of the encounter.

Based upon the facts and circumstances outlined in this narrative, I believe there exists probable cause for issuance of a capias [arrest] charging George Michael Zimmerman with Manslaughter, in violation of Ch. 782.07 FS.

This is precisely what I have been saying all along. Had George just acted like the cop he wanted to be instead of a stupid vigilante out to get “those assholes [that] always get away,” Trayvon would not be dead by his hands. For anyone to donate money to his defense is almost as reckless as he is because no one has given this complete tragedy much thought, just like George on that fateful night. 

Why did George carrry his gun that day? Most people with concealed carry permits don’t, other than bounty hunters, private investigators and the like. While not illegal, what did he expect to find at the grocery store or Target he said he was on his way to? Pit bulls?

Ultimately, this will come down to who looks and acts more honest and presentable to the jury. While the defense has George’s injuries and witnesses who haven’t abandoned him yet, not to mention his own personal pit bull, Frank Taaffe, what else do they have? (Personally, I think Taaffe did more harm than good. Always changing George’s account of the events.)

The State, on the other hand, has Trayvon’s girlfriend and it will be very tough to discredit her without looking like a creep. That’s not Mark O’Mara’s style, and he won’t outright call her a liar. They also have Trayvon’s dead body; a kid doing nothing wrong to begin with, and his mourning parents.

This was just so horrible. For the life of me, George must be held accountable for something. So help me dog.

[Note to Laurali — The Arizona iced tea can fell out of Trayvon’s pocket when the paramedics were moving him.]

Blackfields & McWhites, Part 1

“FBI may charge George Zimmerman with hate crime”

That was the heading of an online story published at the WFTV Website on Monday, May 14, 2012. WFTV-Channel 9 is the ABC network affiliate located in Orlando. The opening paragraph was very revealing in the sense of what it failed to do. It revealed nothing new or, for that matter, particularly newsworthy.

SANFORD, Fla. —  WFTV has learned charges against George Zimmerman could be getting more serious.

State prosecutors said Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman, profiled and stalked 17-year-old Trayvon Martin before killing him, so the FBI is now looking into charging him with a hate crime.

What’s so strange about this kind of journalism is that it fuels the fire. It’s called baiting. While starting the article with a leading statement, WFTV has learned, it offers nothing new beyond what we didn’t already know. What, exactly, did WFTV learn, and what does the word could mean, as in the charges could be getting more serious? THAT’S NOT NEWS! IT’S GUESSING! The article later adds a revelation:

FBI investigators are actively questioning witnesses in the retreat at the Twin Lakes neighborhood, seeking evidence for a possible federal hate crime charge.

Of course they are! That goes without saying. If the FBI is investigating any crime, agents from the bureau routinely interview everyone in sight of the crime. And everywhere else, for that matter. The remainder of the story is nothing more than superfluous fluff, a term I last used early in the Casey Anthony case — long before the trial and, quite possibly, while critiquing another WFTV piece. You see, soon after I began writing about Caylee and her mother, I was reminded of how biased the news could really be. In college in the 1970s, I wrote an article, An unbiased look at news slants that explained how it’s done every day. I’ve republished it over the years (with improvements) and it’s an easy read. It describes how simple it is to write a news story in a manner that subtly offers an opinion.

While attending most of the Casey Anthony hearings beginning in October, 2009, I got a lot of advice from many of the local journalists covering the case. They were familiar with me and my work. It wasn’t just advice, though. There were rumblings going on in O’do, the unofficial slang word for Orlando. Was WFTV on State Attorney Lawson Lamar’s payroll or something? I mean, it took me no time at all to see how blatant it was that the station got the jump on stories coming out of the State, and nothing at all from the defense. It was apparent that WFTV was pro-prosecution, in my opinion, and I was far from alone in my thinking.

In many of the posts I wrote before covering the trial for Orlando magazine, I made my assertions clear about bias. How I know I was far from alone in this regard was because of the feedback I garnered from other journalists covering the case. What’s up with that station? I was asked. 

Here’s the deal. I’m not about ready to accuse a television news organization of unfair reporting. You are smart enough to figure it out yourself; but doesn’t it seem like the WFTV headline about charging George Zimmerman with a hate crime is a bit premature and racially baiting? The article contains no meat or any legs to stand on and it only serves to provoke the Trayvon Martin camp of supporters.

I don’t know. Perhaps May 15 was a slow news day around Orlando. It’s interesting to note that the story broke at 4:47 pm, just in time for the 5:00 o’clock news hour, and only one station reported it. Huh. Do you think it has anything to do with ratings?

(By the way, other news outlets reporting on the WFTV story don’t count.)

Mere Oversight?

Several days ago, George Zimmerman’s attorney told the media that his client had nothing to do with any Websites bearing his name. That turned out to be untrue, but at the time, Mark O’Mara didn’t know that. He must have found out soon afterward because one site in particular, TheRealGeorgeZimmerman, did, in fact, belong to George. It was just taken down, but not before Ol’ Georgie Boy amassed a small fortune of $204,000. Oh my. At last week’s bond hearing, O’Mara declared him indigent. I understand that, to someone like Donald Trump, $204,000 is not much money, but to you, me and most people, including George, that’s a nice chunk of change. Granted, this is going to be an expensive run, but still…

My problem is two-fold. Did George keep the Website quiet by not disclosing its ownership until it became a bone of contention? In other words, was he deceitful about the site the moment O’Mara came on board? While that’s an issue, there’s something else that concerns me more; one that may shed light on George Zimmerman’s honesty. On CNN last night, O’Mara said he had no idea about the money at the time of the bond hearing, when he declared his client indigent. While it’s true that we, the public, have no idea how much money was in George’s PayPal account at that precise moment, it’s clear that O’Mara had no idea the account existed, let alone how much money was in it. 

If George was harboring information from his attorney, how much can we believe? In my opinion, he’s already changed his story about the fatal incident on February 26. Now this misrepresentation. He sat in court, sitting on a nest egg, while his attorney argued his indigence. I humbly ask you, can we trust anything that George says? Did George even know he had that money while he sat in court?

Trayvon’s parents’ attorney, Benjamin Crump, wants the bond revoked. I don’t think it will be. What do you think?

The Pyrrhic Victory of George Zimmerman

I try to avoid being controversial, but for those who don’t know me, seldom will I back away from something because it’s too sensitive an issue. Some things just irritate me to the point where I have to write about them.

In April of 2009, I published an article titled, Casey Anthony Must Die! Six months later, the presiding judge, Stan Strickland, called me to the bench to compliment my work for being fair to both sides; the prosecution and defense. Nearly a year after my article appeared, Casey’s defense team filed a motion demanding that the judge step down. They accused me of being pro-prosecution and based it on that post. Therefore, the judge was biased, but there’s no proof the judge had even read it. And had the defense team taken the time to actually read it, they would have known the title had little to do with Ms. Anthony’s demise. In fact, I thought it preposterous that 2,000 years ago, Romans crucified Christians for no other reason than their own pleasure, and here it was, 2,000 years later, that God-fearing Christians, of which there were many, wanted Casey’s head on a silver platter with no trial at all. It was the hypocrisy that riled me. Today, the hair is standing up on the back of my head. Again.

Teenagers are willing to take risks. It’s the nature of the beast. We need look no further than college campuses to see how far they are willing to go to have fun. Even high school kids do things we wouldn’t fathom as adults, but how quickly we forget that we were young once, too. Sometimes, kids break into their parents’ liquor cabinets and drive drunk. Sometimes, they just take risks for the thrill of it, like driving 100 miles-per-hour to find out how well they can take a sharp curve in the road. Who doesn’t think they have a full life ahead of them when they’re 17-years-old? Foolishness comes with the territory, and Trayvon Martin was a boy, not a man.

I have spoken to adults about real-life incidents like the above examples. When a thrill-seeking teenage boy slams his vehicle into an oak tree, killing him and a few of his best friends, I have been told that, while being a terrible shame, those kids, especially the driver, got what they deserved for being so selfish, silly, stupid and sinful. They should spend the rest of eternity in Hell; all based on one fatal mistake made at a time in life when the brain is far from being fully developed. Who cares what they could have grown up to be?

Take Trayvon Martin. He was suspended from school for 10 days for having a plastic baggy in his possession that contained trace amounts of marijuana. Sure, he was wrong, but so are many other people dating back as far as I can remember, and at pushing 60, I can tell you a lot about the Hippie days of my youth. Did he deserve to die because of it? Absolutely not, but you wouldn’t know it by the remarks made by many people on various blogs, forums and other places where venting is allowed regarding the tragedy that took Trayvon’s young life and what led up to it. As a matter of fact, one such person wrote that it was bad parenting that caused the boy’s death. He should have known better than to walk outside in a world filled with hoodlums. In fact, he was one of them. Of course, the fact that Trayvon walked all the way to a 7-Eleven store and back unscathed had no bearing whatsoever on George Zimmerman’s act of holding up the fort of his own gated community, according to that commenter. To serve and to protect. Oh wait… you have to be a cop to say that, and it’s bad enough for Trayvon’s parents right now without laying another guilt trip on them. It was their fault. Imagine that!

Today, this unfortunate event has spurred all sorts of non-violent social and political unrest, although it has calmed since Zimmerman’s arrest. It’s pitted whites against blacks and blacks against whites in something that needn’t be racial at all except for the perception by some that the Sanford Police Department swept it under the rug for that very reason. I don’t know about that, but I can certainly understand why civil rights leaders attached themselves to this case and how it never would have gotten this far had it not been for the dedication of attorney Ben Crump and others who were willing to keep pressing. This is not just about one boy. It is about the fear of every parent of color living in a predominantly white society. Sadly, it’s also split conservative and liberal values and reaved Republicans and Democrats when this should be nothing more than an issue of justice — plain and simple; and justice comes from a courtroom and nowhere else.

Until this plays out in court, we will continue to argue over truths, half-truths and lies. Factual information will become so distorted that we end up knowing nothing. I saw firsthand how convoluted the facts became throughout the Anthony case, from the beginning to the end. People fought like cats and dogs over a family they didn’t even know. Friendships were lost, smear campaigns took hold, and in the end, nothing was gained. Not even a conviction.

Here we are again. Another tragedy and so much at stake. Tell me, will I lose your friendship today? I hope not, and for the sake of argument, I will readdress a timeline I published one week ago. According to Trayvon’s father, Tracy Martin, and from what investigators told him, George Zimmerman said that he began following the boy and in no time, Trayvon walked over to his truck.

“Why are you following me?” Trayvon asked.

“I’m not following you,” Zimmerman responded after rolling down his window.

Here’s where it falls apart:

7:04 PM:  Trayvon received a phone call from his girlfriend.

7:08 PM:  Trayvon’s phone call with his girlfriend ended.

7:09 PM:  Zimmerman spotted Trayvon while sitting in his truck and called the non-emergency police number. Log records showed the incoming call was received at 7:09:34 PM.

7:10:35 PM: Zimmerman told the dispatcher that Martin was coming toward him.

At no time during this period did Zimmerman say anything to the dispatcher about a verbal exchange between the two, while seated in his truck, nor is there any record of it on the phone call. As a matter of fact, Zimmerman said the boy was running away. This may have had something to do with why a charge was filed. Almost simultaneously, Trayvon was walking toward him and running away, and no verbal exchange took place.

7:11:48 PM: Dispatcher asked Zimmerman which way Martin was running. This is when he exits his truck.

7:12 PM:  Trayvon’s girlfriend called him back.

7:13 PM:  Zimmerman said his truck was parked at a cut-through. 15 seconds later, he lost sight of Trayvon.

It’s very important to note that Zimmerman was in his vehicle until he got out and chased after Trayvon. The dispatcher warned him against doing so upon hearing wind resistance from the cell phone.

7:13:41 PM: Zimmerman ended his call to the dispatcher.

Meanwhile, Trayvon was still on the phone with his girlfriend.

7:15 - 7:16 PM: Trayvon told his girlfriend he thinks he lost the guy. She then heard voices:

Trayvon: Why are you following me?

Zimmerman: What are you doing here?”

Trayvon’s phone cut out at 7:16 (approximate.) His girlfriend said it sounded like the phone was dropped. Who hit who first is a big issue, but it does seem Trayvon got the upper hand.

7:16:11 PM: First of seven 9-1-1 calls came in. A high-pitched male voice is heard screaming for help, and then…

7:16:56 PM: A GUNSHOT IS HEARD.

According to the initial police report, officers Ricardo Ayala and Timothy Smith arrived on the scene at 7:17 PM, seconds after the fatal shot.

When interviewed by the police, Zimmerman was unaware that Martin was on the phone with someone who would offer up a different account. So were the investigators.

What is so sad about this is that people are making up their own facts to suit their versions of events. Of course, the events are mostly based on what we’ve learned from the media and each side’s support group made up of friends and relatives, plus some eye and earwitness accounts. In truth, Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman did not exchange words early on or it would have been recorded. By his own admission to the dispatcher, he reported seeing this boy walking, looking strange and on drugs or something before there was any interaction, and no confrontation while in his truck occurred as he described to the police, if Tracy Martin’s account from investigators rings true.

As far as I’m concerned, all I want is the truth, so help me God. Just give me some truth. Whatever transpired leading up to Trayvon’s death, it had to have happened within the final minute after his cell phone fell silent and that’s all there is to it. One person’s account of events is not adding up.

Aside from a tragic death and the family devastated by it, this will be no picnic for George Zimmerman. For lack of a better way of expressing it in words, he may have won the battle that fateful night of February 26, but the war is far from over. The heavy cost of winning that battle was astronomical, and the horrible consequences now following George are destroying him from within. He will never have a reason to celebrate, even if he beats the second-degree murder charge in court. There will be no sense of achievement, and that, my friends, describes a Pyyrhic victory to a tee. Ad victorem spolias. Just ask the Romans.

I strongly encourage you to read Trayvon Martin: Before the world heard the cries by Daniel Trotta.

Zimmerman in Custody: Second-Degree Murder Charge Filed

 

There you have it. The most damning evidence to date, as far as I’m concerned, came from the interaction he had with the police dispatcher, which was recorded and released:

1) He got out of his truck to;

2) Pursue the victim

In my opinion, his major mistakes were that he carried and discharged his weapon, ignoring the edicts of the Neighborhood Watch program, and he ignored the dispatcher’s advice to stop chasing after the victim. 

On the recording, he admitted both.

George Zimmerman turned himself into the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Orlando attorney Mark O’Mara will represent him. You may recall that O’Mara was the first legal analyst to join WKMG during the Casey Anthony trial. (And he continued to be.) Mark NeJame later joined the team. O’Mara is well-respected by everyone, including me. He’s a very likeable, respectable and respectful guy.

May justice prevail.

The National Rally for Justice on behalf of Trayvon Martin

I attended the rally for Trayvon Martin last Thursday, March 22, in Sanford. I chose to go because I truly believe Trayvon Martin was murdered. I don’t believe George Zimmerman ever set out to kill anyone that day or any other time, but a teenager is dead and he alone is responsible. 

The Stand Your Ground law does not give citizens the right to kill on a whim. You cannot be the aggressor and use the law as an excuse. In truth George Zimmerman stalked a child.

Jeffrey Toobin is an attorney, author and legal analyst. On the slate.com Website, Toobin states, “Trayvon saw someone following him, felt threatened, retreated, was still followed, and then was approached by an armed man who had 100 lbs on him. … Because Zimmerman was acting as an aggressor, Trayvon had the right to defend himself by punching, kicking, tackling, etc. Because Zimmerman was acting as the aggressor, his actions cannot be considered self-defense: you can’t initiate and then claim self-defense. The evidence for initiation is there on the 911 tape. … Why is it that a black man cannot be afraid of a white man who follows and approaches him on a street at night?”

A lot of trashtalk is coming out on Trayvon now. Some of it may be true, but it still means nothing to me. Zimmerman may not be guilty of a hate crime, but that doesn’t mean he’s innocent in the 17-year-old’s death.

I will be posting more articles in the coming days, but first, the following is a video I put together of 50 of the 141 photographs that I took at the National Rally for Justice on behalf of Trayvon Martin. Please watch it and if you feel like it, let me know what you think. Right now, I’ve got 50 pictures to post on my blog, but not on my front page. I’ll post a link to it when it’s up.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL PHOTOGRAPHS