WAS IT REALLY 2D MURDER?
boblonsberry.com ^ | 04/12/12 | Bob Lonsberry
George Zimmerman is guilty.
Of something.
But I’m not sure it’s second-degree murder.
Unless there is some bit of evidence we don’t know about, unless there is some smoking gun out there, there is nothing in the Florida statute on second-degree murder that sounds like what happened that night.
The special prosecutor got to strut for the cameras last night, but if she can’t deliver the goods, and there is an acquittal, there is going to be hell to pay – and riot police are probably going to get called out.
In a case that has turned out to be more about race politics than the events on the sidewalk of a Florida subdivision, you wonder what last night’s announcement was really about. Was it mollification? Was it the considered opinion of a veteran prosecutor? Was it the first step in a political lynching?
Time will tell.
But here’s what the law book says.
In Florida, there are two ways a person can be guilty of second-degree murder.
In the first, someone has to be killed by someone showing “a depraved mind.” There must also be the perpetration of an act “imminently dangerous to another.” If those two factors exist, without premeditation, in Florida, that’s second-degree murder.
In the second, someone has to be killed by someone who is committing another felony crime. That list of specified felony crimes runs from arson and kidnapping to aircraft piracy and aggravated stalking. But none of the specified crimes – including terrorism – is anything like what George Zimmerman did that night. Specifically, he has not been accused of any other felony crime, so he could not be charged under this part of Florida’s second-degree murder law.
Which gets back to the first part.
Did George Zimmerman commit an act “imminently dangerous to another” and did he do so with “a depraved mind.”
It is clear that shooting a gun at someone is an act that is “imminently dangerous.” But did George Zimmerman fire the gun with “a depraved mind?”
That’s harder to say, and maybe impossible to prove.
Was it “depraved” for a Neighborhood Watch guy to follow a young man down the street? Unwise and ultimately tragic, yes, but depraved?
Not in most dictionaries.
And then there is the aspect of self-defense. If George Zimmerman makes the argument that he was repelling an attack he thought endangered his life or limb, the whole situation changes. The prosecution would have to not only show that George Zimmerman was not in danger, and that no reasonable person would consider themselves endangered in that situation, but that he had a depraved mind.
Unless there’s evidence that we don’t know about, that goes to Zimmerman’s state of mind, that’s a very high standard for the prosecution to meet.
That phrase “beyond a reasonable doubt” is a purposefully difficult level of evidence.
In this case, we only have one version of events – George Zimmerman’s. We can’t presume he is being truthful, but the prosecution will have to affirmatively prove that he is being untruthful. And that will be hard, largely because Trayvon Martin is not here to tell his side of the story.
According to press accounts, a witness verifies Zimmerman’s claim that Trayvon was on top of him hitting him. The enhanced video from the police station shows an injury on the back of his head.
Those things, though not conclusive, are supportive of George Zimmerman’s version of events.
And in the absence of another theory, and evidence to support that theory, you’re not getting to “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
There are practical aspects of trying this charge that will be difficult and disruptive.
How, for example, do you seat a jury?
And what will the racial makeup of that jury be and will that ratio be satisfactory to the people and activists who have been shouting for justice? In the blood lust that is masquerading as justice, how does a trial on this charge lead to anything but chaos?
If George Zimmerman is acquitted, as there seems to be a fair chance he will be, is there a possibility of racial upset or riot? It’s happened before, more than once.
Have we just found this generation’s OJ trial? Have we just found this generation’s Rodney King?
I will trust that this prosecution is not political. But I will have my doubts.
Don’t get me wrong.
It’s George Zimmerman’s fault that Trayvon Martin is dead. If Zimmerman had stayed home or in his vehicle, none of this would have happened.
There is clearly reckless endangerment here, and maybe there is some species of criminally negligent homicide or maybe even a manslaughter. But murder, that’s unlikely, and even less likely of being proven.
So we got headlines last night.
And a show trial sometime down the road.
But after that we may have uncorked hell.
