Which means we now move into the next phase of this tragic saga, which is to have wingnut blogs spend weeks screaming about liberals getting their scalp.
Reader Interactions
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.
Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.
When we show up, we win.
Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.
if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.
Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.
DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.
If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.
Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.
“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”
The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.
Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!
Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.
Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.
Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.
Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.
Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?
You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.
This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.
I really should read my own blog.
Consistently wrong since 2002
Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.
That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.
Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.
Politically Lost
About friggin time.
Seebach
Zimmerman now has to pay someone to break his nose before he appears again.
Politically Lost
Adding the bleeding obvious:
If the race roles had been reversed, there would have been an arrest that night. Further, since Zimmerman’s father was a judge, I believe that factored in to the decision to let him go.
LGRooney
the next phase – it’s nice having a former insider tell us what to expect.
Short Bus Bully
Question to the BJ’ers: How much of the coming election will be about Zimmerman?
I think this case is going to rip the scab off the festering Republican id and the REALLY racist shit is going to come spewing out non-stop. Enough to make even Faux News cringe.
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
Thank god. That’s all that most people were asking for.
Comrade Dread
Anyone want to place bets on how long it is before one of the right wing blogs uses the word “lynching”?
I’d say about 30 minutes. Feel free to take the over/under on that.
The Ancient Randonneur
Now the wingers can go to work on pushing the “Zimmerman isn’t white anyway” meme that began with the Storm Front crowd last week, so it will just be minority vs. minority crime.
MikeJ
If he’s found not guilty the state will have to pay for his defense. Is there any other law you can be accused of breaking that is true of? If the cops catch you selling a hot TV, but you’re found not guilty, you’re still out the tens of thousands a decent defense costs. Unless you shoot somebody.
Satanicpanic
Finally. Can’t wait to hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth. Will the wingnuts riot?
General Stuck
But nobody knows where George is at. He could be cooling his heels in Venezuela, or some other burg with no US extradition treaty. It is what his lawyers hinted at yesterday ‘to way far away’. This special prosecutor about had to bring charges with the feds breathing down Florida’s neck, though the question remains of conviction for the fucked up ‘stand your ground’ law, as well as the fucked up non processing/investigating the crime scene from the local cops.
dmsilev
No, no, the next stage is screaming about politically-motivated prosecutions, claims that Obama “got to” the prosecutor, dark conspiracy theories about how Trayvon Martin was about to blow the lid off the birth certificate cover-up and therefore Obama had him whacked (and is now silencing the patsy who was manipulated into doing the job), and so forth.
Argive
They’ll throw “lynching” in there too. If he’s convicted, we should expect to see some crap about how the ballot box failed four years ago (and will do so again in November, since Barack 15X Hussein Abdullah Mohammed Obama will fix the election), and now the jury box has failed as well. So that leaves the cartridge box. Lock and load.
ETA: @Comrade Dread:
I’ll take the over on that. Say, about an hour.
pragmatism
VICTORY
Roger Moore
Ah, the sweet, sweet taste of wingnut tears.
James Hare
@Comrade Dread:
Already seen some comments along these lines on WaPo. Somehow asking for charges and a trial is now akin to extrajudicial punishment. It’s also interesting that behavior usually seen as evidence of guilt (running away) is now beneath comment.
I wonder what makes me so different from the many white folks who approve of Zimmerman’s actions. My dad voted for Reagan twice (my mother doesn’t usually discuss her votes). They’re both teachers now but when I was growing up they were computer programmers. I had a bike stolen a few weeks ago and didn’t immediately jump to the “a black guy must have done it” conclusion (partially because I live in a state that’s 98%+ white).
I guess I just know too many middle-class black folks to see black people as menacing. Probably doesn’t help that I grew up in Fairfax County, VA.
rikryah
don’t believe for one minute that the feds don’t know EXACTLY where Zimmerman is.
bemused
What are rightwingers saying about all the bizarre players that have showed up to defend Zimmerman, from the dad to the “friend” that barely knew Zimmerman but gave up his job to go to bat for him on every tv show that would have him on to the lawyers who have never met Zimmerman and shoot off their mouths in a very unprofessional manner at every opportunity?
Someguy
Hopefully the charges are death penalty-eligible. Not that I particularly want to see him zapped (though he deserves it) but it will be nicely ironic hearing the wingers arguing about the disproportionality of the death penalty for the killing of just one african american.
Realistically though, I doubt he’ll ever come to trial. If he’s still in the U.S. and gets denied bail – which he should because he’s a flight risk due to his foreign ties – I’m betting that various prison gangs put a serious price on his head. Which is something he should have thought about before racially profiling then murdering Trayvon in cold blood.
Davis X. Machina
Someone told me that George Will has already brought up the Duke lacrosse team…
not motorik
He doesn’t seem particularly bright, but if you were him, wouldn’t you GET THE FUCK OUT OF DODGE, and by that I mean the US? Head south and don’t look back.
All options here are terrible for him.
The Fat Kate Middleton
What Stuck said – good luck finding him. He’s either in Mexico or somewhere in the Caribbean.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@rikryah: Guy on MSNBC said his sources are saying that law enforcement is not concerned about flight, FWIW.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Short Bus Bully: I really doubt a whole lot because we already have someone near.
gaz
It’s about fucking time. Let him answer to the charges in a court room like any other murdering asshole. Fuck the media’s bullshit, their opinion doesn’t mean shit.
If he beats the charges – in a court room, via trial by jury – I won’t complain.
But it’s high fucking time he was charged. Thank you keystone cops, for finally doing your goddamned job (now that he’s probably skipped the country, but still)
If he’s not stateside, we just effectively deported his ass – capital crime has no statute. Zimmerman, just another “wetback” now. I hope he hates that fact.
Lit3Bolt
Love that the entire right wing has hitched their coattails to the lead anchorweight that is the Zimmerman family, the integrity of the Sanford police, and Southern small town racial politics in general.
Queue another bewildered, whining article by Lowry or Goldberg that Democrats are the real racists by investigating crime and corruption in 3, 2…
Spaghetti Lee
To get all strategical for a minute, a lot of wingnuts out there poured a lot of energy into defending that guy on the assumption, I guess, that he’d get off. If he’d found guilty, every single one of them is culpable of trying to defend a convicted murderer. Don’t know if that means anything to the world at large, but I think it’s kind of poetic justice.
pragmatism
Close enough to on topic and definitely made me laugh:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/kkk-member-struggles-to-blame-blacks-for-his-hango,3031/
Klaus
Zimmerman’s last stand, Waco style.
Mattminus
thank god holder dodn’t have to do this or it would have been wall to wall “What about the Black Panthers?”
Bubblegum Tate
This just proves that liberals are the real racists.
Michael
@gaz: If he beats the charges – in a court room, via trial by jury, for any reason other than the incompetence of the original investigation – I won’t complain
JGabriel
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mJohn Cole @ Top:
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We’ll some of that, but I suspect we’ll see a lot more of “See, Republicans aren’t racist. Even the conservative Angela Corey brought charges against Zimmerman.”
.
4tehlulz
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: They shouldn’t be worried about flight. He already fled.
Jennifer
@Someguy: Charges won’t be death penalty eligible; for that it’s got to be murder one and I don’t think anyone would argue that Zimmerman premeditated killing Martin.
But a lot of interesting stuff should come out of the trial – stuff which I think will shred a “stand your ground” defense.
First of all, we already know the “broken nose” claim was bullshit – in the video at the police station, there’s no blood on Zimmerman. Next there’s the scuffle – undertaker has already said there were no marks on Trayvon’s hands, it’s impossible that Zimmerman shot him while he was on top of Zimmerman pounding him because again, no blood on Zimmerman, which you would have if he shot a guy sitting on top of him. Then there’s Zimmerman’s claim that Trayvon tried to grab his gun. If you’ve already ruled out that Zimmerman shot Martin while Martin was on top of him, that can only mean that Zimmerman had the gun out, pointing it. Otherwise Martin’s not going to know he had it and if he doesn’t know Zimmerman’s got a gun, how can he grab for it?
There’s going to be a lot that comes out of any trial.
Roger Moore
@gaz:
That depends on why. The situation extends far beyond Zimmerman, so some reasons for acquittal will say more about the fucked up system than about his actual guilt or innocence. For example, if he can’t be convicted because the Sanford PD failed to collect or preserve important evidence, that’s just one more sign of how crooked the whole system is.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@gaz: I’m pretty sure we’ll have plenty to complain about, but it will be American style justice, rather than American style vigilantism.
kindness
If a black man had shot & killed a white kid he’d have been jailed immediately. Racism was involved in this case. Probably by Zimmerman & certainly by the authorities in Florida.
Culture of Truth
@Short Bus Bully: The GOP convention is in Tampa, where Obama is going to be in a few days.
scav
Haven’t even heard what the charges are, isn’t this still rumor phase? Will she go for littering? Not that it will matter for the general screaming, keening and gnashing of teeth.
Roger Moore
@Jennifer:
Really? IANAL, but I think you could make a damned good case that he stalked Martin, which sounds like first degree murder to me. Also, too, there’s fairly solid evidence that racial animus was a motivating factor, which should count as a special circumstance. A good prosecutor should be able to make a capital case out of it, assuming the Sanford PD hasn’t ruined the evidence too badly.
Waynski
This… on about effing time, but I honestly think it will blow over rather quickly. I think even Fox has figured out this guy’s just a loser. They’ll play it a little longer, but not much. If the Feds had to take it up, that would have been a different story, but if the locals really follow through on what’s being reported, I think they move on mostly in a week to ten days.
FlipYrWhig
The wingnut reaction is going to be something like “Obama and Holder look after their own New Black Panthers constitution freedom wolverines YARRRRRRR!”
Legalize
I don’t buy for a minute that the authorities don’t know exactly where Zimmerman is. Just because his former attorneys unprofessionally trashed Zimmerman on tv and said they didn’t know where he was, doesn’t mean shit. They haven’t heard from him since Sunday? Big fucking deal; that doesn’t mean he’s on Mars or anything else. It means they were looking for an excuse to withdraw. They figured out that there wasn’t going to be money and glory in this case, so they bagged their client on tv when they got wind that he prosecutor was going to to charge him.
Mike
Waitaminnit, SCALP??!!?
Two weeks ago, Zimmerman was a Mexican Democrat.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jennifer: In their press conference (and I just saw clips) his lawyers (not sounding like ex-lawyers) were arguing that he was suffering from PTSD consistent with head trauma, so it sounded like they’re not only going to stick to the idea that he was defending his life, but maybe even that he’s not fit to testify? This is gonna be ugly.
(just flipped on CNN and they’re talking about PTSD. The anchor is dripping with contempt)
DougJ, Head of Infidelity
And yet the Daily Caller bike thief still walks among us.
Culture of Truth
Why the rush to judgment?
Martin
Charged with what, however? Gonna wait until we hear something real on this.
geg6
Excellent. Now we can have a trial and maybe some actual facts about what really happened that night.
I had done some research into this prosecutor. Apparently, she is NOT a fan of SYG and has been known to not take such defenses very seriously. She may be a GOPer, but she’s one of the relatively sane ones.
Jennifer
@Roger Moore: I don’t think you could make that fly. Martin wasn’t known to Zimmerman so you don’t have a case of someone planning a murder. As for the racial epithet that many are sure they heard on the 911 call, I tried really hard to hear it and I never could make it out, and I’ve got good ears. To me it sounded like it might have been nothing more than breathing and while I could hear something that sounded like “fucking” I never could hear him say “coons”. My point being that I’m predisposed to thinking Zimmerman should be convicted of at least manslaughter (though I lean towards murder 2) and I could not in good conscience claim that I heard Zimmerman say “fucking coons”; if it were someone who wasn’t predisposed to thinking Zimmerman guilty you’d never get them to accept that as evidence of racial motive.
I’d lay odds on the charge being manslaughter, negligent homicide or murder 2.
Elizabelle
Yeah, I am wondering what the charges will be.
And whether Zimmerman will remain in custody until trial. For his own protection, if necessary.
I am also hoping that any judging his father has been doing comes to an immediate halt.
What a horrible family.
JGabriel
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Jennifer:
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Personally, I think Zimmerman shot Martin in the back while he was running away and screaming for help, and that’s why Martin was found face down.
No doubt we’ll learn more when the forensics come out in court briefings, or if they’re leaked beforehand.
.
gaz
@Michael: fair enough.
JGabriel
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Elizabelle:
I’m guessing the charge will eventually be some sort of Manslaughter or Reckless Homicide.
.
Trinity
@rikryah: This.
Jennifer
@JGabriel: Well that too of course – I was just going by Zimmerman’s phony account of what happened.
Do we even know if they ever had the coroner do a forensic examination of the body? This thing has been so fucked since day one that I’ve been wondering if they even bothered with that.
Martin
@Mike: Last weeks Democrat is this weeks Republican. Remember, we’re all registered Communists now according to West.
Culture of Truth
Zimmerman, in his racist delusion, probably genuinely thought he was shooting a burglar. I bet he thought he’d a big hero the next day.
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
if you try him, you better convict him.
if he needs a defense team, its odd that any criminal lawyer would beg off the case.
these two things give me faith that justice will prevail. even in the casey anthony state.
pragmatism
subpoena hannity. good possibility that prosecutors could overcome the qualified privilege in FL for
journalistshelmet headed media hacksEl Cid
Being arrested and tried for the shooting and death of an apparently completely innocent young man, even if the verdict is not guilty, is a lot better than saying “Fuck it, we accept your story, and the law is probably on your side for killing him.”
not motorik
@Someguy: The charges clearly won’t be death-penalty-eligible. We’re gonna see something like 2nd degree murder, more likely manslaughter.
gaz
@Jennifer: You don’t need to know the person to catch a 1st degree murder charge.
All it takes is proof of premeditation. The target doesn’t have to be planned in advance. Just the act.
Anyway, for what it’s worth, I think he at the very least stands a pretty good chance of getting convicted on 2nd degree murder. If nothing else, the prosectution should have a good case to make for 2nd murder
FlipYrWhig
@JGabriel: IMHO Martin flipped when he realized the intense dude following him and not leaving him alone had a gun, tried to get the hell out of there knowing that if there’s gunplay in a strange neighborhood the black kid is going to get blamed, and took off. And IMHO Zimmerman became convinced that Martin was bad news and was going to get away unless he finally had the nerve to pull the trigger. Mutual incomprehension, mutual sense that the other guy was a dangerous thug. Yes, I’m speculating and mind-reading, but that’s how I imagine it going down.
Roger Moore
@Jennifer:
I don’t know if you could make murder 1 stick, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the prosecutor go for a capital charge as a plea bargaining position. It’s unfortunate, but that’s how a lot of this stuff is done. The prosecutor overreaches in the initial charges to scare the defendant into a plea bargain for something closer to what the evidence actually justifies.
Tone In DC
@Argive:
Sad, but all too likely (the election conspiracy theory).
Phoenix_rising
Charged?
…reckless discharge of a firearm.
…loitering.
…child abuse.
…littering.
…parking without a permit.
…disorderly conduct.
These are all illegal in Florida, and things Zimmerman says he did. So, um, when I see what “charged” means, I’ll start my Snoopy dance. Or, not so much.
FlipYrWhig
@Culture of Truth: Yup, that totally rings true to me too. I had a friend in college who was way into guns and got those gun-culture magazines where the whole back page is stories about heroic gun owners turning the tables on scummy criminals. Zimmerman feels to me like someone who had that same mindset. (The NRA eventually got too crazy for my friend to support them, so there was a happy ending to that whole episode too.)
Elizabelle
On the WaPost site front page: reader comment: “It is not possible for Zimmerman to get a fair trial.”
I disagree.
And whatever happens to Zimmerman will be more humane and carefully considered than his killing of an unarmed seventeen year old high school student, with Skittles in his pocket and dreams of going to college.
Martin
The question I’ve yet to hear an answer to is how many shots were fired. The audio sounded like two, but it’s been reported as only one.
If Martin was shot, then while incapacitated shot a 2nd time, the charges might only apply to the 2nd shot while upholding the SYG law on the first shot. Too many unknowns here, which is part of why there’s so much outrage. Usually we’d at least have a definitive account of how many shots were fired a month after an incident like this.
cmorenc
@General Stuck:
More likely, some place like Idaho where Zimmerman has minimal reason to fear a crowd of black protesters. I’d think that if Zimmerman had tried to go abroad by commercial airliner, the US Justice Dept via TSA alert would have picked up on that immediately. The best way for Zimmerman to have gone abroad would have been for him to go by car to some busy crossing on the Mexican border and then simply walk across into Mexico, and take his further travel plans to duck US extradition from there.
Dave
Can’t wait for the gun nuts to start screaming about how our Founding Fathers intended for us to have the God-given right to gun down black teenagers, because, you know, black.
Elizabelle
On the WaPost site front page: reader comment: “It is not possible for Zimmerman to get a fair trial.”
I disagree.
And whatever happens to Zimmerman will be more humane and carefully considered than his killing of an unarmed seventeen year old high school student, with Skittles in his pocket and dreams of going to college.
Jennifer
@gaz: Yeah, you don’t need to know the person, but then again, how many people who are planning on shooting someone call 911 right before they do it?
I’m just sayin’, there’s a lot there against murder one for any competent defense attorney to hammer away at.
Elizabelle
On the WaPost site front page: reader comment: “It is not possible for Zimmerman to get a fair trial.”
I disagree.
And whatever happens to Zimmerman will be more humane and carefully considered than his killing of an unarmed seventeen year old high school student, with Skittles in his pocket and dreams of going to college.
Mouse Tolliver
@Comrade Dread: Brent Bozell already refereed to the treatment of Zimmerman as a lynching on Fox News. Since Zimmerman committed an actual lynching I expect to hear it used so often the word will lose all meaning.
not motorik
@Roger Moore: She can’t go for the death penalty because she dismissed the Grand Jury under Florida law, I believe. IAAL.
Yutsano
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: His mother is Peruvian. I’d bet a fiver he’s eating ceviche in Lima as we type.
Scott S.
It’s also important that the crooked Sanford cops either get fired or arrested on corruption charges. And that those too-easy-to-abuse “Stand your Ground” laws get repealed.
GregB
Romney/Zimmerman 2012.
We’ve found the one.
Jennifer
@gaz: Yeah, you don’t need to know the person, but then again, how many people call 911 when they’re planning on murdering someone in the next few minutes?
I’m just sayin’ – there is plenty there against murder one for any competent defense attorney to hammer away at.
Amir Khalid
This AP story says that the authorities know where Zimmerman is. So he’s not a fugitive, he’s just lying low; and his lawyers’ claim that they don’t know his whereabouts is bullshit. I expect he’s going to be arrested very soon, so he can be brought to court for his indictment.
I am not familiar with Florida’s penal code, having never watched any cop shows set in that state. The prediction of a manslaughter/reckless homicide charge sounds about right, but can any of the lawyer Juicers make an educated guess about the likely terms for bail?
Yutsano
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: His mother is Peruvian. I’d bet a fiver he’s eating ceviche in Lima as we type.
Clime Acts
Telling that the Obama DOJ is all over one anonymous member of the unwashed masses for the possible murder of one other anonymous member of the unwashed masses in Florida, but can’t be bothered to pursue justice in the case of GWB and Dick Cheney, et al, who are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands to say the least.
The principle of moral standing applies here: Having elected to “look forward, not back” and let members so the political/socioeconomic elite off the hook, Obama has no moral standing to go after anyone else.
Not in a sane/just world, anyway.
He’s full of shit.
Onihanzno
Mmm. These tears of outrage sweeten my tea. More please.
Clime Acts
Telling that the Obama DOJ is all over one anonymous member of the unwashed masses for the possible murder of one other anonymous member of the unwashed masses in Florida, but can’t be bothered to pursue justice in the case of GWB and Dick Cheney, et al, who are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands to say the least.
The principle of moral standing applies here: Having elected to “look forward, not back” and let members so the political/socioeconomic elite off the hook, Obama has no moral standing to go after anyone else.
Not in a sane/just world, anyway.
He’s full of shit.
Onihanzo
Somewhere Lee Atwater is chuckling.
Someguy
@Elizabelle:
I have a strong suspicion that he may face justice in prison long before he comes to trial. I also suspect that any whites on the jury will vote to acquit him of murder or manslaughter charges, should he manage to survive long enough to face trial.
lacp
@Clime Acts: It’s a Florida state prosecutor who’s bringing the charges. How exactly are you jackhammering Obama into this?
Amir Khalid
This AP story says the authorities know where George Zimmerman is: he’s not a fugitive, and his former lawyers were dafinitely bullshitting when they said they didn’t know where he was.
Can any lwyer Juier make a guess at the likely bail terms?
JGabriel
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I just wish these guys would be honest about their intentions for once. It would make a great news story:
.
Sentient Puddle
Whether or not this could qualify as first-degree murder is a moot point. To charge Zimmerman with that, the prosecutor needs a grand jury to indict. She decided to forgo that. The most he’ll be charged with is second-degree murder.
Chyron HR
@Clime Acts:
It’s telling that you consider the death of Trayvon Martin to be SHROUDED IN MYSTERY (so we should all leave Zimmerman alooooone), and yet you claim to know everything that goes on in the White House. Go figure.
Elizabelle
@Someguy:
Is that snark?
You think “any whites on the jury” will vote to acquit? Really?
Gremcat
The Miami Herald is reporting that it won’t be a first degree felony charge. So what does that leave?
Comrade Scrutinizer
@lacp: He’s a fucking idiot?
Tony J
FWIW the wingnuts on the WaPo site seem to have their talking points.
Apparently Obama is terrified that “The blackitudes” are going to riot and “burn down their own neighbourhoods” negatively impacting his Presidential campaign, so he’s staging a kangaroo trial to calm their childish tempers.
Plus ALL OF THE EVIDENCE shows that Zimmerman was a bleeding ruin when he got to the Police station, the “Enemedia” just altered the tapes to make it look like he has fully nosed and of unblemished head.
There can’t be a trial because the “race baiters” and the Media have already tried and convicted Zimmerman based on the skin colour of his attacker. Poor guy is just trying to avoid lynching.
Oh, and the word “thug” gets thrown around a lot, but they’re not referring to Zimmerman.
Charming people. Real salt of the earth types.
Catsy
@dmsilev:
Genius.
Martin
@Jennifer:
Well, in the case of SYG laws, I’d argue that calling 911 actually helps your defense by serving as a demonstration of a perceived threat. Without the 911 call, it’d be harder to view Zimmerman merely as a concerned citizen as the question that would be unanswered would be ‘if he was concerned about this young man, why didn’t he just call 911?’.
Seems to me if you’re planning on murdering your neighbor, call 911, describe some threatening activity while he’s out there watering his lawn, get off the phone, go out and shoot him, then claim self-defense with the 911 call as your first line of evidence.
gaz
@Jennifer: Yeah, I doubt murder one would stick – were it even charged.
Murder one is pretty rare even in capital cases.
Much more likely to get 2nd deg, or even felony murder (which Zimmerman is not guilty of in any case, so far as I can tell – just saying that these types of charges are more common than 1st deg)
Scott S.
@lacp: DON’T YOU KNOW HE IS THE HEAD OF THE CONSPIRACY?! WE ARE LUCKY HE DOES NOT KILL US ALL WITH HIS UFOs AND GOLDFISH FANCIER MINIONS!
Yutsano
@cmorenc: His mother is Peruvian. I’d bet a fiver he’s eating ceviche in a hotel in Lima right about now.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Yutsano: echo echo echo
Maus
http://www.theroot.com/views/why-don-t-we-talk-about-white-white-crime
Vaguely related.
Satanicpanic
@Dave: Well, they did believe white people had a right to own them, so it’s not that far-fetched.
Suffern ACE
@Mouse Tolliver: I await John Fund’s analysis of the novel form of super lynching where people put pressure on authorities to use a court to determine what happened that resulted in a death. I’m sure it’s 100 times worse than anything that Shirley Sherrod’s father faced when he “wasn’t lynched according to Georgia law since only 3 men were involved not the required four.”
Culture of Truth
I am not familiar with Florida’s penal code, having never watched any cop shows set in that state
ha ha
Yeah I’m not familiar either so I will wait until 6 pm
JGabriel
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dmsilev:
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You know what this needs to be truly epic?
Glenn Beck delivering it from his “Oval Office” set.
.
Roger Moore
@not motorik:
If a capital charge can only be delivered by a grand jury (which seems like a perfectly sensible rule) then that would clearly rule it out in this case. I’d still expect the prosecutor to go for the strongest charge she can plausibly make stick as a plea bargaining position.
cmorenc
@Roger Moore:
The biggest reason by far why the Fla special prosecutor AND the US Justice Department have proceeded with frustratingly deliberate, rather than rapid, speed is precisely the risks to successful prosecution created by the initial wilful incompetence of the Sanford police, which compromised some critical evidentiary elements which would normally be available as a matter of course. They want to be sure they can make whatever charges are brought stick, in the case of the Florida special prosecutor, even against the flawed state self-defense laws. They don’t want an OJ-type “not guilty” verdict to be the final result of flawed prosecution in an attempt to satisfy public emotion against the defendant.
Elizabelle
@Tony J:
The WaPost comments section is pretty much raw sewage.
There might be some worthwhile stuff in there, but you have to swim through too much stench to access it.
John's Minions
Holy crap, this case is quickly turning into some sort of american racial rorschach test. C’mon folks, please. This is one of the good blogs, let’s hope only for the law to applied in a fair and even-handed manner. There’s enough chaff flying around at this point that we should all be careful of looking like those fools in Freeperland.
If Zimmerman is guilty of manslaughter as seems to be, then he’ll be sent to prison, I just feel a little leery of the broad-brush painting going on here. Do we want to have a race war in this country? There sure as shit are a lot on the right that are wangling for one..
The Sheriff's A Ni-
@John’s Minions: Your concern is duly noted.
Tony J
@Elizabelle:
I know. I go there mostly to see what the “Theme of the day” is.
Plus, y’know, what are all these wingnuts doing trolling the MSM? Don’t they know the Liberal Media is just going to hand their IP addresses over to the Oba-Mau-Mau for targeting?
geg6
@JGabriel:
Heh. Win.
geg6
@The Sheriff’s A Ni-:
My thoughts exactly.
Jeff Fecke
@Comrade Dread: Negative thirteen minutes from when you posted:
The prophet Nostradumbass
@JGabriel: When I heard about that, I thought of Dark Helmet playing with his toys in Spaceballs.
gaz
@The Fat Kate Middleton: If he didn’t die first in a mexican prison, Mexico actually would deport his happy ass back to the US.
They have a thing about that. They really don’t want our criminals.
28 Percent
@Roger Moore: that still sounds like aggravated second degree.
We live in a country where Henry Gates was arrested for mouthing off to a police officer and George Zimmerman is sent on his way after he commits child-murder with only the minor inconvenience of a police interview. But we also live in a country where the public still knows, by and large, that neither of those things is right, that neither of those things is just, and our government does respond, albeit slowly, to that public sense. So that’s far from ideal, but it’s something.
burnspbesq
@gaz:
Nice to see that you’re keeping an open mind.
That said, this is good. I hope he gets the best defense money can buy. I don’t want to hear about “ineffective assistance” if he goes down.
burnspbesq
@Clime Acts:
Only in a bizarre parallel universe inhabited only by you are these two things even remotely connected.
gaz
@burnspbesq: I think it’s a pretty safe bet to call him a murdering asshole, just on the blatant facts of the case.
1. He admitted he did it.
2. He brought a gun to an (alleged) fist fight – i don’t know or care about SYG laws, because such a monstrosity hasn’t been visited on my state – BUT (mr lawyer person) you damn well know that absent SYG, this is NOT SELF DEFENSE any way you slice it.
So I’ll stand by my assessment. And I’ll call him a murdering asshole. My mind is not so open that my brain falls out.
Still, I want him tried in our courts, just like any american would.
You just don’t like me because I pointed out that you support child-rapists. Your support of child rapists is your problem. Ergo, I don’t give a fuck what you think. Is that clear enough, pedo-enthusiast?
Quaker in a Basement
I hope this means we finally get some reliable answers about what happened that night. I’m getting tired of all the cable TV yappers getting the facts balled up.
MikeJ
@burnspbesq:
He’ll get the best defense that will put up with his stunts. He already lost one set of lawyers because they weren’t dumb enough to stay on with an uncontrollable client.
Clime Acts
@lacp:
HAHAHHAAHAHAHA…
Chyron HR
@Clime Acts:
True Progressive idol Michelle Malkin agrees with you.
Clime Acts
@burnspbesq:
Sad that you consider “consistent” to equal “bizarre,” but that’s kind of where the U.S. has been for at least the last twelve years: Bizarro World.
Yutsano
@Comrade Scrutinizer: Yeah. Definite FYWP moment there.
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
@MikeJ:
this asshole wants to be a martyr. i wouldn’t be shocked at all if he defends himself. fuck, he alledgedly has a twitter account.
gaz
@John’s Minions:
Yeah – maybe if I was more civil the wingers wouldn’t try and reinstate lynching. Also too, those assholes of the Wiemar republic should have been more polite to the nazi party too. Cuz we all know what happened due to their lack of civility.
/snark
Mobile Grumpy Code Monkey
Why did this appear in the fucking politics section at WaPo? This has fuck-all to do with politics.
Clime Acts
@Mobile Grumpy Code Monkey:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…HAHAHAHAHAHA…
MildGyrate
@DougJ, Head of Infidelity:
Finally one of you preachy fuckwits gets to the real issue. Oh, I’m sorry, did I interrupt your circle jerk? Go back to pretending that racism only happens in the south or that the abuse of malt liquor isn’t a serious urban problem.
S-Cargo
The Florida Dept of Agriculture FAQ for concealed carry permits:
http://licgweb.doacs.state.fl.us/weapons/self_defense.html
TooManyJens
Second degree murder charge, AP is reporting.
Lojasmo
@Clime Acts:
Excellent pivot, troll.
Thymezone
1. Fuck the wingnut blogs, and
2. The less attention we pay to them, the better. Let them bray, who the hell cares?
shortstop
Sweet Jesus, could Corey’s simpering smile be any more inappropriate?
General Stuck
Here is some deja vu, italics monster released from the depths. Time to sacrifice another virgin to the FSM.
Thymezone
@shortstop:
Get off it, butthead. This woman is obviously a consummate pro, and you can thank your lucky fucking stars that you have people of this caliber looking out for justice in this country.
Clime Acts
@Lojasmo:
Troll yourself, troll.
Just go fucking troll yourself with a rusty troll fork, ok, troll?
Clime Acts
@shortstop:
Interesting…she’s playing the part you want to see portrayed, but not playing it CONVINCINGLY enough. How dare she subconsciously project that this is all a charade.
Grumpy Code Monkey
Gah, that’s my fault. Didn’t properly close an em tag; typing from the phone is a bitch.
And I still maintain this case has fuck-all to do with politics. Badly-written laws with unintended consequences on steroids, yes. Politics, no.