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Cross posted from Frederick Leatherman Law Blog
A Trayvon Martin "Million Hoodies" rally last year.
Thanks to all who participated in yesterday’s memorial to Trayvon Martin.
I write today to express disgust and dismay regarding this excuse for journalism by Steve Almasy of CNN, Zimmerman’s lawyer works to dispel racial overtones in Trayvon Martin case.
The focus of the piece is Mark O’Mara’s “struggle” to get people to pay attention to the evidence instead of racism.
Whatever the outcome of the Trayvon Martin case, it will be viewed less as a determination of the shooter’s guilt or innocence and more as a victory or loss for civil rights, George Zimmerman’s lawyer fears.
Mark O’Mara said he has been busy trying to dispel the racial overtones in the case by getting out more evidence about his client.
Thereafter, we get the usual he-said-she-said description of the case interspersed with O’Mara’s unchallenged mischaracterizations of the evidence followed up with this description of Benjamin Crump as a rabble rousing troublemaker pushing the race card.
O’Mara indicated at trial he will dissect the recording of Zimmerman’s 911 call and point to evidence of the wounds Zimmerman said he suffered that night.
“I believe, you know, again, the evidence is what it is and that’s for a jury to determine,” O’Mara said. “But a close reading or looking at that tape and all the evidence that followed, particularly George’s injuries and Trayvon’s lack of injuries but for the fatal gunshot, suggest that George did not begin the fight, did not continue the fight and actually was the victim of the attack rather than the other way around.”
But a lawyer for the Martins said the fight against “senseless gun violence” will continue.
“He went home and slept in his bed the night he killed Trayvon,” attorney Benjamin Crump said. “And that wasn’t equal justice.”
Crump then led a chant of “Hoodies up! Hoodies up!” at the vigil.
This false concoction is presented with a cherry on top in the form of the optically distorted and likely photoshopped digital photo of the defendant seated in the back seat of a patrol vehicle with a bump on his nose and blood on his mustache. CNN has no excuse for not knowing that the photo presents a false picture because the police photos taken at the station house a few hours later with a much better camera under good lighting show a barely visible injury with little or no swelling or distortion to the shape of the nose.
As all of us know, despite conceding that his client was the aggressor, O’Mara has been shoving his demonstrably false “bloody” photograph in front of every camera he can find in pursuit of his easy-to-disprove false narrative that the peaceful and nonviolent Trayvon for no apparent reason attacked and attempted to kill the defendant with his bare hands in the middle of his phone conversation with his girlfriend after successfully running away from the defendant who had been stalking him in a vehicle and then on foot contrary to a police dispatcher’s warning.
The simple truth is this defendant has no defense and the only mystery in this case is why anyone believes that the he did not hunt, confront, and murder Trayvon Martin for the heinous crime of walking while Black in the rain with his hoodie up.
I said long ago and I will repeat it today:
Anyone who believes the defendant is innocent is a racist and anyone who contributes money to his defense is a stupid racist.
Let there be no mistake: Although he claims otherwise, Mark O’Mara and his client are deliberately appealing to racial hatred and fear of young Black males to literally get away with murder.
That is what this case is all about and shame on CNN for not reporting the truth.
Photo by Werth Media released under a Creative Commons license.
11 Comments
But this is a step too far:
“Anyone who believes the defendant is innocent is a racist and anyone who contributes money to his defense is a stupid racist.”
We need to preserve presumption of innocence. Same as we need to prevent our country from adopting torture as a tool for interrogations.
Every time.
Also, trust the jury system. Despite all the flaws, consider the alternatives.
I reject your comment.
I am expressing my opinion about a pending case and you are lecturing me about the presumption of innocence and trusting the jury system.
I was a criminal defense attorney for 30 years, so save your lectures for someone else.
Would a white kid in the same neighborhood, at the same time, with the same hoodie have suffered the same fate ?
Honesty demands acknowledgement of the racial element !
RIP Trayvon, far away from hellhole america.
Redundant, all racists are stupid.
Good point.
I guess I have to wonder the obvious out loud. What on earth were the CNN editors thinking with the timing off this article? I’m serious. Like, less than 12 hours after the one-year anniversary of Trayvon Martin’s death, they go ahead and publish this thing. Pretty insensitive and shameless.
GZ is entitled to the presumption of innocence. We gave it to Charles Manson, we owe it to ourselves to give it to GZ.
Which is why I would not qualify for the jury.
And I think most of GZ’s defense fund comes from racists and the rest from gun nuts. Though I’m sure there’s some overlap.
And were I judge, I’d challenge MOM to enter that photograph as evidence. If not, I’d order him to stop using it.
Boxturtle (If I were judge, the court system could run for a year on what I’d ALREADY fined MOM)
And trusting the jury in this case may be highly problematic. Even if you can find 12 people without preconceived notions of guilt/innocence, there are so many different agendas possible. I’d sure have felt better if that trial had moved.
Boxturtle (To a state NOT covered by VRA section 5)
CNN has turned into People magazine. They did just exactly what a tabloid would do, except CNN pretended it was relevant. The tabloid would admit it’s just titillating.
Anybody got a suggestion for a default news porthole? Right now, I’m using the Guardian.
Boxturtle (How long until CNN offers a Page 3 girl?)
Al Jazerra and Russia Today?
Problem is, it’s six jurors in Florida. Speaking as a person who can never serve on a jury and even if I could I would have to reject this one for solid reasons outside of my legal case, there will have to be some really good jury experts involved, just my .02.
This case is new ground because the evidence is in the public domain up front. It’s not so much that I don’t trust juries, it is a matter of not trusting the lawyers. Juries that are lied to cannot be blamed for an outcome. However, I do get that some folks are willing to lie about their objectivity to get into service in the first place, although I cannot cite a single study that has covered this topic.
I don’t know what they’ll need. A group of expert psychologists, maybe.
It’s going to be a jury of 6 people and the judge has ordered the Clerk of Court to send out a summons to jury duty to 500 people.
Only the defendant can move for a change of venue. Prosecution can’t because the defendant has a constitutional right to be tried in the jurisdiction where the alleged crime was committed.
I don’t believe there is any chance that the defense will move for a change of venue because the county is very white and very conservative and the defense will be looking for 6 racists to get on the jury.
I believe the KKK has an active chapter there, but not sure.
Jury selection will be the most important part of this trial.
They will be using a questionnaire and individual voir dire.
Prosecution estimates two weeks for jury selection.
Trial is scheduled to begin June 10.