~grin~
My opinions
in re this case are that the following items are established:
Zimmermann pursued Martin after being advised that it would be best if he did not do so. That saddles Z with a clear count of bad judgment imo.
Zimmermann shot Trayvon Martin dead.
Trayvon was unarmed.
A key witness is unavailable.
The following items are what i consider likely but not established.
Zimmermann pursued Trayvon and was pressing a confrontation.
He had absolutely no need to do so.
Testimonies are sparse, internally and externally inconsistent.
I suspect Z's head injuries to have been inconsequential, but to take it further I would have to trust the judgment of the treating individual (EMT?) at the crime scene. And that first bit of video did seem to show that Z ad a clean head. What to make of this? It's possible that a) M bopped Z's head on the ground, or that 2) Z bopped himself before the police arrived in order to back his account. I have no way of excluding either scenario.
The following are question marks to me.
Did Z corner M?
Did Z keep the gun concealed until the end?
What words were exchanged?
Who made the first aggressive move? (Likely Z in pressing the chase, but this is not established beyond doubt.)
Whose, and what was the second?
When things got physical, who engaged whom?
Who really screamed, and what?
It could break either way imo.
That Z would corner and attack M is the sentimentally appealing choice, but to me that is a good reason to redouble my caution.
That M would pre-emptively rush Z is also not to be excluded, but not to be assumed either.
The evidence and testimony i have seen do not allow any conclusions beyond the sentimental, based on our remote third-person read of the characters of the principals. While I accept that Z's is looking pretty damned bad, that should not influence the criminal case. That should be decided on proven actions, and info on those is far too thin for me to wear either camp's T-shirt quite yet.
Away from the criminal case, am I disgusted with Z's manifest lack of judgment? Oh hell yeah. Am i pissed that a young man died for no
apparent reason? That too. Am I darkly amused by Z's thrashing when asked the hard questions? definitely. But those are not to point in the end. The trial will be interesting but it's far from open&shut, especially if Dershowitz takes a serious interest. I do not doubt his ability to shred the prosecution. cn
