Trayvon Martin case: FL stand-your-ground law on trial

[armoredman]

Gentlemen and ladies, if this thread gets any hotter, we'll shut it down and wait for the jury trial to show what the answers really are. Please be civil.

[Skookum]

I heard yesterday the case won't go to trial until sometime in 2013.

[armoredman]

That's entirely possible.

[Thor™]

There is an old moral to these events of which some will never acknowledge regardless of the outcome of a trial.......never bring skittles to a gun fight.

[Spirit 1]

No problem Skookum, I believe we are in agreement on the issues! I just didn't like the implication that most everyone was down on Zimmerman when so many had fought verbally here for his cause.

Regarding Zimmerman just getting arrested and jailed instead of being out on bail, I see them REALLY grasping at any straws to try for a conviction! They know they've acted entirely improperly since or including appointing a Special Prosecutor and know that they simply don't have a case against him, not even a weak one!

That money that was donated into a fund was for Geroge Zimmerman's Legal Defense, so that he could fight the charges. Many people that donated are fellow CCW licensed carry gunowners, so they also saw it as fighting for their own rights. I for one would be highly upset if monies for LEGAL DEFENSE were instead tossed down to throw his bail, with no money then left for a Legal Defense! The money collected was specifically for his legal defense, not his bail. Also as I understand it, George Zimmerman didn't set up the fund, didn't manage the fund and had no control over it to choose how or when it was used!

On top of that the judge took plenty of latitude with character assassination of Zimmerman, outright insults, proving he's unfit to serve as an impartial judge. So the Special Prosecutor is bogus, the Revocation of Bail is bogus, the Judge's insults are bogus and the Judge himself proved himself to be bogus and unfit to serve regarding impartiality. I see a mistrial in the future and a miscarriage of Justice in the present.

[th3ug1y0n3]

No problem Skookum, I believe we are in agreement on the issues! I just didn't like the implication that most everyone was down on Zimmerman when so many had fought verbally here for his cause.

Regarding Zimmerman just getting arrested and jailed instead of being out on bail, I see them REALLY grasping at any straws to try for a conviction! They know they've acted entirely improperly since or including appointing a Special Prosecutor and know that they simply don't have a case against him, not even a weak one!

That money that was donated into a fund was for Geroge Zimmerman's Legal Defense, so that he could fight the charges. Many people that donated are fellow CCW licensed carry gunowners, so they also saw it as fighting for their own rights. I for one would be highly upset if monies for LEGAL DEFENSE were instead tossed down to throw his bail, with no money then left for a Legal Defense! The money collected was specifically for his legal defense, not his bail. Also as I understand it, George Zimmerman didn't set up the fund, didn't manage the fund and had no control over it to choose how or when it was used!

On top of that the judge took plenty of latitude with character assassination of Zimmerman, outright insults, proving he's unfit to serve as an impartial judge. So the Special Prosecutor is bogus, the Revocation of Bail is bogus, the Judge's insults are bogus and the Judge himself proved himself to be bogus and unfit to serve regarding impartiality. I see a mistrial in the future and a miscarriage of Justice in the present.

+1

[DenStinett]

Shookum:
I apologize if my post seemed to be an insult, I honestly didn?t mean it that way
I simply meant that when you (originally) stated the lack of support for George, it was obvious you didn?t read enough of the thread to find it
I do see that you did go back and remove that part of your original post
Also, you are correct in the fact that too many people blindly take the mainstream (mostly liberal) media as truth, without question

[Skookum]

Spirit1,

I must admit to not being up to speed on GZ's bond revocation.  I look forward to he or his attorney explaining the concerns at a new bond hearing.  If he and his wife were using code to discuss the donated funds while he was in custody, that wasn't bright.  You make a great argument for the uee of the funds being limited to his defense, rather than his bail.  But, I'm guessing the validity of that argument depends on how the fund was set up and handled.

[Spirit 1]

Spirit1,

I must admit to not being up to speed on GZ's bond revocation.  I look forward to he or his attorney explaining the concerns at a new bond hearing.  If he and his wife were using code to discuss the donated funds while he was in custody, that wasn't bright.  You make a great argument for the uee of the funds being limited to his defense, rather than his bail.  But, I'm guessing the validity of that argument depends on how the fund was set up and handled.

Yeah, now I'm pretty confused on all that too, Skookum. Not sure who is doing what, but saw that his bond revocation is now up for review, next month I believe. I'm convinced that even at the very best and after a lot of searching etc. we're still only seeing the tip of the iceberg. It will be real nice for all concerned parties if that iceberg finally melts.

I imagine Zimmerman will end up facing a civil suit over this, soon as the smoke clears on official charges, just sorta smells that way...

[bozwell]

No problem Skookum, I believe we are in agreement on the issues! I just didn't like the implication that most everyone was down on Zimmerman when so many had fought verbally here for his cause.

Regarding Zimmerman just getting arrested and jailed instead of being out on bail, I see them REALLY grasping at any straws to try for a conviction! They know they've acted entirely improperly since or including appointing a Special Prosecutor and know that they simply don't have a case against him, not even a weak one!

That money that was donated into a fund was for Geroge Zimmerman's Legal Defense, so that he could fight the charges. Many people that donated are fellow CCW licensed carry gunowners, so they also saw it as fighting for their own rights. I for one would be highly upset if monies for LEGAL DEFENSE were instead tossed down to throw his bail, with no money then left for a Legal Defense! The money collected was specifically for his legal defense, not his bail. Also as I understand it, George Zimmerman didn't set up the fund, didn't manage the fund and had no control over it to choose how or when it was used!

On top of that the judge took plenty of latitude with character assassination of Zimmerman, outright insults, proving he's unfit to serve as an impartial judge. So the Special Prosecutor is bogus, the Revocation of Bail is bogus, the Judge's insults are bogus and the Judge himself proved himself to be bogus and unfit to serve regarding impartiality. I see a mistrial in the future and a miscarriage of Justice in the present.

Frankly, it doesn't matter why the money was donated.  It was given to GZ and thus it was relevant to his bail.  If GZ has money and lies to the judge about it at a bail hearing, the judge can and should revoke his bail.  No offense intended, but I think the situation "as you understand it" is flat out wrong.  This money was in GZ's bank account and later moved (by his wife, who also lied about it) to a safety deposit box.  She withdrew the money in a series of small sums (I would assume to avoid detection) and also funneled almost 50 grand of it off to GZ's sister.  In short, it's a completely sketchy affair on GZ's part and I don't see anything wrong with the judge's actions.

I personally don't have any stake in this nor am I entirely sympathetic to one side or the other.  I would just be careful about white knighting GZ and blaming anything that goes wrong on the "liberal media." 

Regarding Zimmerman just getting arrested and jailed instead of being out on bail, I see them REALLY grasping at any straws to try for a conviction! They know they've acted entirely improperly since or including appointing a Special Prosecutor and know that they simply don't have a case against him, not even a weak one!

I'm not entirely sure that's true.  I'd say there is enough evidence out there that a jury could go either way on this.  And GZ isn't helping his case by acting like an idiot and lying at his bail hearing.  He basically just handed the prosecutor some lovely evidence on a silver platter for impeaching any testimony given by himself or his wife.

My own $0.02, I'm not entirely sympathetic to either side in this case, but I personally wish we didn't have GZ representing CCW owners.

[DenStinett]

By now, I think it will be near impossible to find twelve people that haven?t heard something about and/or hasn?t already formed some kind of an opinion on this case
I truly believe, a Fair Trial in either direction is getting closer and closer to impossible

[Thor™]

Frankly, it doesn't matter why the money was donated.  It was given to GZ and thus it was relevant to his bail.  If GZ has money and lies to the judge about it at a bail hearing, the judge can and should revoke his bail.  No offense intended, but I think the situation "as you understand it" is flat out wrong.  This money was in GZ's bank account and later moved (by his wife, who also lied about it) to a safety deposit box.  She withdrew the money in a series of small sums (I would assume to avoid detection) and also funneled almost 50 grand of it off to GZ's sister.  In short, it's a completely sketchy affair on GZ's part and I don't see anything wrong with the judge's actions.

This is too rational for most to grasp........

[Twmaster]

Today a judge in Florida set George Zimmerman's bail at 1 Million dollars. The judge declared GZ a flight risk.

No word if GZ can actually make bail.

[Spirit 1]

Flight risk? Are you kidding me? Judge isn't exercising much in the way of good judgement but hey, we got politics to consider here, right?

If he did make bail it would wipe out the entire fund that was set up for his legal defense and the judge knows it, that's why he set it so high. Same as refusing him the possibility of bail, and again, the judge knows it.

"Sure, I'll let you out on bail, as long as you give me all the money collected for your legal defense fund and then find somebody else to handle your case pro-bono after your lawyer quits."

Forum decency standards prevent me from further comment.

[Twmaster]

He made bail today.

However I can see the judge doing something like this. Afterall GZ honked the judge off with his failure to report that 100K$ fund.