George Zimmerman Acquitted.

On February 26th 2012 George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, US. Following a series of unofficial, behind the scenes meetings the police decided not to prosecute Zimmerman. This was wholly unjust because it meant that the polices actions were outside of any oversight of any Court or the law. When the police start behaving like this they stop being impartial servants of the law and instead become just another gang of thugs subject to the human failings such as racism, sexism and well just laziness that affect us all. It also meant that Trayvon Martin family were left without an explanation of how he came to die.

Therefore quite rightly citizens of the US responded with protests calling for Zimmerman to be put on trial. Following a review by the Florida state attorney a Grand Jury was convened and it decided to indict Zimmerman on a charge of second degree murder as defined by Section 782.4(2) of the Florida penal code. This led to a trial in which the facts of the case were laid out in open Court. The main thing this trial uncovered was that Trayvon Martin was not the innocent child that his supporters had portrayed him as.  Instead he was a young man who was already heavily involved in petty crime including offences of violence and unlawful firearm possession. The trial also uncovered that it was Martin who had attacked Zimmerman first and at the time Zimmerman fired the fatal shot Martin had him pinned to the ground, was striking him with his fists and forearms and was smashing his head into the concrete pavement.

With Zimmerman pinned down and therefore unable to escape Florida's controversial "Stand Your Ground" rules did not apply. However the fact that Martin was violently attacking Zimmerman at the time he was shot and killed meant that Zimmerman was able to argue that he needed to kill Martin in order to protect himself from serious harm or even death. This is the universal principle of self-defence that exists in Florida state law, US federal law and even international law.

After careful consideration the Jury accepted Zimmerman's argument and ruled that Martin was lawfully killed meaning that Zimmerman could not have committed the offence of second degree murder. They also rejected the charge of manslaughter as defined by Section 782.07(1) of the Florida penal code. However putting this offence to the jury in the first place struck me as the Court overstepping its bounds in order to make sure Zimmerman was convicted of something.

As I've said before I personally would have liked to see the jury consider the offence of aggravated assault as defined by Section 784.021(b) of the Florida penal code. Primarily this is because I think that it is the only offence Zimmerman could have been found guilty of over the incident. It would also have allowed for a lot of discussion about mandatory minimum sentences that disproportionally affect young, black men in the US and restrictions preventing convicted felons possessing firearms. However as I've said I think it was the protests that were calling for Zimmerman's head on a plate that discouraged the prosecutor from taking this unconventional route doing themselves a disservice in the process.

(Originally Posted) 10:40 on 14/7/13.