George Zimmerman Verdict Prediction Poll

It's my understanding that the jury will be instructed on what constitutes 2nd degree AND that if they don't have evidence to warrant THAT charge, they have the can look at the next, which would be manslaughter.

In other words, they'll be told they move from one to another after being sent to decide.

 

They know they can not get a 2nd Degree Murder charge to stick, so they will instruct the jury of the amendment to a possible Manslaughter charge to soothe the race relations side of this case. Because of the Martins age, he'll basically recieve the same punishment as 2nd Dehree Murder, but with the possibility of parole.
It's bullshit, and based several key and credible withnesses testimony, this should be nothing more than self defense. The politcal aspext of this case is sickening.

 

The State is now piling on bullshit in hopes of getting Zimmerman locked up since they know their case of 2nd degree Murder wasn't and can't be proven. Besides the 2nd degree Murder charge, they have added in the lesser charge of Manslaughter which we all knew was probably coming, but are also trying to add 3rd degree Murder by means of Child Abuse since Martin was 17.

 

That bitch definitely has some daddy issues.

Yeah, it seems he's phucked. I didn't realize until last night that there were ONLY 6 jurors. I knew there were 6 women but when I heard that said I thought 6 of 12. Not sure how I missed that.

 

He should walk, but he is going to get F'd hard. I can tell.

 

Yeah I do feel like he should walk. I also see a lot of ways he could have avoided having to be in a situation to be justified in using deadly force, too.

 

To start, let me say that I haven't closely followed the case. I realize it's going on and I've seen a couple of reports but don't really know the evidence.

From the little I've seen, it certainly doesn't look like the State has carried its burden, especially for a 2d degree murder conviction. Apparently, Florida, like Louisiana, allows jurors to return verdicts on lesser included crimes if the State doesn't carry its burden on the underlying charge (in Louisiana we call them responsive verdicts).

One of the differences I notice is in the jury instructions. In Louisiana, responsive verdicts are fairly narrowly defined and the jury gets instructions on all of the potential responsive verdicts. In other words, in Louisiana the possible verdicts after a trial on a 2d degree murder charge are: guilty of second degree murder, guilty of manslaughter, guilty of negligent homicide or not guilty. In Florida though, potential responsive verdicts to 2d degree murder include vehicular homicide, 3d degree murder, battery and a bunch of others. From what I understand, the most recent fight was how was the jury going to be instructed and I think the decision was they were going to be instructed that their verdict could be guilty of 2d degree murder, guilty of 3d degree murder, guilty of manslaughter or not guilty.

Again, not knowing the elements of those crimes, I can't really give a prediction as to what would happen under Florida law, but a guilty of any flavor murder would surprise me.

Finally, knowing that the jury is made up of six women does give me some pause. It reminds me of a trial I had years ago when I was prosecuting. It was a fairly minor charge and I thought my case was airtight. We also were picking a six person jury and I didn't give much effort in voir dire and didn't even strike any potential jurors. We ended up with a jury of 5 women and one man. We put on our case and gave it to the jury. I figured they'd be out 45 minutes or so. Over three hours later, they finally returned a guilty verdict. As they were filing out of the courtroom I caught the man -- and older guy -- and asked him if I had presented the case poorly or had done anything to upset the jury that kept them out so long. He looked at me and said, "Son, you put five women in one room and asked them to come to a decision. You're lucky we finished as soon as we did."

 

All I know is I hope there isn't any rioting, there has been a lot of talk about it and I work only about five minutes from the Sanford courthouse (Lake Mary).

 

Oh if he walks, you can bet on it. There have already been situations. I'll look for a link but there was a group of blacks who beat some random guy (white, not hispanic) and put him in the hospital. All this in the name of retaliation for Trayvon. Sounds stupid but think how many blacks still want whites to make reparations AND harbor the resentment they do against whites. This is evidenced by the fact that using the term "Cracker" is not racial while saying "Niggar" is.