Unreasonable Doubt

America is many things. It is unique. It is beautiful. It is ugly. It can be everything you want it to be, and it can also be like nothing you may have imagined it to be. Despite its contradiction and paradoxes, our Constitution protects us from unfair imprisonment, and from cruel punishment. It affords every defendant who is charged with any criminal act a fair trial in a court of law, where a jury of our peers is charged with determining guilt or innocence.  The Constitution also provides for the ultimate protection - the accused does not have to testify and may not be forced to (or induced into) being a witness during trial.  Our criminal justice system is built on, and around, these founding principles.  Hence, those accused are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and the State, or prosecution, has the burden to prove their case, or charge of guilt, beyond any reasonable doubt to the jury.  The criminal justice system thus imposes a very heavy burden on the prosecutors.  And rightly so, for someone’s Liberty, or their Life, is at stake.

The American Declaration of Independence proclaimed “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” to be unalienable rights endowed by our Creator. So, Mr. State Attorney, if you think I have committed a crime, and you want to prosecute away my Liberty, you have to prove your case, to a jury of my peers, beyond and to the exclusion of any reasonable doubt.

At about 10 PM last Saturday night, a jury of six women, in Seminole County, Sanford, FL, returned a Not Guilty verdict in the case of State v. George Zimmerman after about 16 hours of jury deliberations.  Zimmerman had been charged with one count of second degree murder and one lesser included count of manslaughter.  Clearly, in the eyes and minds of the jury, the State had failed to prove the criminal charges against Zimmerman, beyond any reasonable doubt.

Zimmerman was a “free” man, as his GPS tracking bracelet was removed in the minutes following the verdict, his bond released, and on his way to wherever he may be.

The Martin family – Trayvon Martin’s dad Tracey Martin, his mother Sybrina Fulton, and his older brother Jahvaris Fulton went home too.  Their lives had changed forever on the night Trayvon Martin was shot.  Last night must have been one of the most difficult of their lives. They had fought for justice for Trayvon. A conviction may have brought some sense of closure to their tragedy, their loss, and to their grief. People say, that for parents, nothing can compare to the emotion losing a child. Losing a child to a violent senseless murder would probably make the pain exponentially more acute.  I am surmising, for I do not know.  I wish I never have to find out.

Such a loss is bound to haunt the family rest of their lives. Time, surely, will be part of their salve.  But it takes a very long time; perhaps never.  The American justice system had spoken, and their son’s killer was a free man.  It had to hurt.  Like nothing else can.

The State Attorneys, though defeated and devastated, were gracious in their press conference “We are bound by the system we have; it is the best in the world, and we respect the jury’s verdict”. 

While all of the above may be true, I believe this jury got it wrong, and that a grave injustice was carried out last night. Trayvon Martin is dead, and his killer is a free man, presumably because of reasonable doubt.

I have watched many high profile trials, and I have always heard attorneys from both sides vehemently implore the jury to examine all the evidence and to use their “common sense”.  I have looked at every piece of testimony and evidence in this case, and I cannot believe this jury found reasonable doubt in the State’s theory of second degree murder, or manslaughter. 

I believe the verdict in State v. George Zimmerman rests upon “Unreasonable” Doubt, masquerading as otherwise. 

But before I go into how my own common sense helped me connect the dots (that is exactly what common sense is supposed to do), let me explain what reasonable doubt is:

No one on this planet has ever actually observed the Earth spinning.  Yet, we all accept that the Earth spins from East to West.  Why do we accept this? We accept it because the Sun rises every morning in the East, and sets each evening in the West. It is common sense that makes us connect the position/direction of sunsets and sunrises, a circumstantial evidence, to conclude that the Earth spins from the East to the West. If anyone doubts that the Earth spins so, they must have a reason for their doubt.  Having a reason behind the doubt is what makes a doubt reasonable.  Of course, the reason itself has to be lucid and not absurd.  Having an absurd or outlandish reason behind a doubt makes for Unreasonable Doubt.  And that is when killers like George Zimmerman walk away with their Liberty.

Zimmerman’s initial Non-Emergency call with the 911 dispatcher ended at 7:13:43 PM.  Remember that by this time Zimmerman was already out of his truck, and walking along the concrete walkway that connects the two streets - Twin Trees Circle and Twin Trees Lane.  According to Google Maps, this walkway is about 217 feet, end-to-end, and the now infamous T-intersection is 125 feet from its Eastern edge.  According to Zimmerman, when he hung up with the Police dispatcher, Zimmerman was already walking back to his truck.  Then we have the “Lauer” 911 call – the one on which we heard the gunshot that killed Trayvon Martin.  The gunshot is at 7:16:55PM, or 3 minutes and 12 seconds after the end of Zimmerman’s non-Emergency call.  Lauer called 911 when she heard screaming from behind her townhome.  The Lauer call connected at 7:16:11PM.  So, at a minimum, the screaming went on for 44 seconds.  Probably more because Lauer testified it took her about 30 seconds from when she first heard the screams to when she called 911.  We also know that Trayvon Martin’s call with his friend Rachel Jentel ended at 7:15:44.  So if we back up 30 seconds from when Lauer first heard the screaming, we are almost at when Trayvon Martin’s call with Jentel ended.  So the question is where was Zimmerman between 7:13:43 (end of non-Emergency call) and 7:15:44? It does not take 2 minutes to walk 200 feet back to your car!  Giving Zimmerman full benefit of the doubt that he was walking back to his truck after he hung up with dispatch, and assuming he was at that time at the far-West edge of the sidewalk – the T-intersection, where Zimmerman claimed Trayvon accosted/confronted him was only 95 feet of a walk back, or about 32 steps.  Go walk 32 steps.  It does not take 2 minutes. Zimmerman was never going back to his truck.  As he told police dispatcher, regarding his location where the police could meet him, “just have them call me”.  Zimmerman was going to continue with his hunt that night.

Zimmerman claimed Trayvon Martin was straddled atop him, and that Trayvon was repeatedly banging Zimmerman’s head on the concrete sidewalk.  Yet, all Zimmerman suffered was two small lacerations (2cm and 0.5cm each) to the back of his skull? If you really want to see what banging a human skull against concrete look like, go get a cantaloupe and bang it on concrete.  Watch it explode.  Zimmerman’s claim does not make sense.  If he were telling the truth, he would have had a serious skull fracture. Zimmerman also claimed Trayvon was pummeling his face with blows, and at one point Trayvon Martin covered Zimmerman’s nose and face, and told Zimmerman “you are going to die motherfucker” and “keep quiet”.  The “keep quiet” bit was supposedly meant to bolster his claim that Zimmerman was the one screaming for help. 

Zimmerman was the one that was armed, and Zimmerman knew he was armed.  When people get into fights/scuffles (and I have seen my fair share), unless one has a firearm/deadly weapon, they do not issue dire warnings/death threats.  Especially not “you are going to die motherfucker”.  To the contrary, the person who has the gun/weapon is more likely to utter such a threat.  I believe Zimmerman’s gun was out of its holster way before he claimed it was, and I believe it was Zimmerman who uttered these words and attributed them to Trayvon Martin, during his police interviews (note that the forensic and DNA evidence that clearly showed that none of Zimmerman’s blood, or DNA was found on Trayvon Martin)

I believe Zimmerman took one punch to his face shortly after he ran into Trayvon, while trying to hunt down the “fucking punks” and “the assholes who always get away”.  That punch was sufficient to throw him off balance, perhaps even land on his back.  In the ensuing struggle, the two grappled down the sidewalk and fell on to the grass. Zimmerman drew his gun, and threatened to end Trayvon Martin’s life, at which point Trayvon would have had to hold Zimmerman’s hands down so Zimmerman could not get a shot off, and scream for help because Trayvon could not keep Zimmerman’s hands pinned indefinitely.  Men who are armed and in a fight do not scream for help.  They fight to get the gun out to end the fight.

Sometime during the time that Trayvon was holding Zimmerman’s hands down, John Good (a neighbor) came out on his patio and told the two “Stop it, I am calling the police”.  I believe this was the moment where Trayvon likely decided that his screams had been answered, and he may have been backing away and relaxing his grip on Zimmerman’s arms.  The fight was over since Trayvon now knew that police were on their way.  But for Zimmerman, his arms and wrists were gaining mobility, which gave him the opportunity to discharge his gun. 

It was not, and cannot be, self-defense.  It was the cowardly act of a grown man who had lost the fight that he went looking for and had gotten beat at.  The rest of how Zimmerman created his story to fit the self-defense narrative is just that – a story.  A story that is unworthy of any credibility and one built upon self-serving, and conniving mind of a cop wannabe.

The only reasonable doubt I have is that George Zimmerman acted (killed Trayvon) in self-defense.