As a former federal prosecutor and a former attorney general, I want to talk about the Trayvon Martin story because it disturbs me as a prosecutor, and it deeply disturbs me as a mother of a teenage son. Let me say a word first as a prosecutor.
You've heard of this story -- Cenk Uygur, Keith Olbermann and others in the news media have covered this -- Trayvon Martin was the 17-year-old Florida high school football player who was shot and killed last month. He was visiting with his father and family friend in a gated community. He was walking back to the home from a convenience store in the rain in the early evening three weeks ago, carrying skittles and a can of iced tea.
Trayvon's killer, George Zimmerman, was the volunteer "watchman" for the gated community. That night, as Zimmerman followed Trayvon, he called 911 because he thought the teenager in the hoodie was suspicious. Zimmerman is 28-years-old, a criminal justice major, who had called the Sanford police department 46 times since he took on the role as guardian for the community.
Zimmerman claims that in shooting Trayvon he acted in self-defense based upon a 2005 law called "Stand Your Ground."
Here's what the law says:
A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity, and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.
This law is part of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)'s cluster of pro-NRA bills that shot through legislatures in the past few years. Florida's law was the first and 17 states now have a version of this law, many with virtually identical language.
The way the bill is written, in order for the defense to work, the prosecutor has to rebut Zimmerman's claim that he acted in self-defense.
Basically, the prosecutor has to prove that it was unreasonable for Zimmerman to believe that Trayvon Martin was about to kill him or greatly injure him.
Officer reports reveal that Zimmerman claimed he was jumped from behind by Trayvon and he acted in self-defense.
Here are the five main pieces of evidence that address the likelihood of that defense:
The evidence that we know of -- the public evidence -- establishes that Zimmerman was the pursuer, and not the victim.
So, without having heard directly from Zimmerman himself or knowing any other evidence, it seems to me it is 'probable' that Zimmerman's "Stand Your Ground" defense will not fly. Based just upon what we can see from the public record, Zimmerman should be arrested.
There's something even more troubling about this case to me, as a parent.
I keep looking at the pictures of the baby-faced handsome young man. His voice on that 911 tape crying for help is agonizing for any parent to hear.
I have a wonderful teenage son too. He wears hoodies, carries his cell phone and likes skittles. If this were my son, by god ...
But let's face it, this would not happen to my son. This happened to Trayvon Martin because he's black.
My heart breaks for Trayvon's parents. Imagine it were your son on that 911 tape, begging for someone to help.
Would you be satisfied with George Zimmerman being a free man?
The Sanford police department needs to take action.
And in fact, in the last hour, the Sanford city commission voted 3 to 2 that it had no confidence in Police Chief Bill Lee Jr. They can't fire him, so now Lee needs to take the next step and resign.
If the Sanford police department or the state does not take action, a much larger power -- the U.S. Department of Justice -- hopefully will.
NAACP President Turner Clayton said today that the Department of Justice had already taken a first step, with Eric Holder "summoning" Sanford's mayor and city manager to Washington.
One thing is for sure: this is not the end of this story.
Cross-posted at "The War Room" blog. Follow "The War Room" on Twitter and Facebook.
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Having been a prosecutor, as you noted, you should know two things:
1) The publicized evidence at similar points in time in similar cases represents a mere tip of an iceberg of all the case evidence.
AND
2) That small portion of the evidence made public is usually NOT going to be favorable to a defendant, because defense attorneys tend to limit statements and other actions by their client, regardless of how much they may tend to exonerate the defendant, until trial or other final resolution.
So, you may express your opinions with such flimsy caveats as "the evidence that we know of", but you should at least be aware that flimsy caveats are recognized for what they are, and your credibility suffers accordingly.
Listen to that 911 call beginning at 2:00 minutes, when Trayvon runs away. You hear the truck door open, the ding ding that occurs when a driver's side door opens with the keys in the car, and the door close. Zimmerman is then outside walking, when the dispatcher says only that "We don't need you to do that" and he stops walking, and talks for another two minutes.
Not a man in hot pursuit. Zimmerman never gets back in his car. The altercation occurs within 2 minutes of Zimmerman hanging up the 911 call, very close to his car. Trayvon had 2 minutes to run away in a dark neighborhood before that call ended. How far can a high school football player run in two minutes?
He obviously didn't go very far, but Zimmerman didn't see him again for the rest of the 911 call. Maybe he hid, and heard Zimmerman talking to 911 outside. Would that have made him angry? Who was stalking who?
Trayvon is listed on the police report as 6 feet tall, and 160 pounds. He played high school football. He's going to be too afraid to attack Zimmerman, 5 feet, 8 inches tall? (Zimmerman's true weight is unknown.) I don't think so.
OK, do you just want to meet with them at the mailboxes then? [3:42]
Zimmerman:
Yeah, that’s fine. [3:43]
911 dispatcher:
Alright, George, I’ll let them know you’ll meet them at …
Zimmerman:
Could you have them call me and I’ll tell them where I’m at? [3:49]
911 dispatcher:
OK, that’s no problem.
Zimmerman:
My number … you’ve got it?
Could you have them call me and I'll tell them where I'm at, indicates a man who's in pursuit. That's why he can't meet the police in a set place. If he was really on his way back to the car, he would've told dispatch to meet him there, or as the dispatch was suggesting at the mailboxes.
But Trayvon was running, and Zimmerman was determined to not "let this .........get away".
Those are the first words in the section. Okay, Zimmerman is following Trayvon, by his own admission. Zimmerman has no authority to stop, question or detain Trayvon. Following someone without their knowledge and with no official authority is stalking, right? Stalking is illegal. So one could conclude that from the very first words of the SYG section of the Castle Doctrine, that Zimmerman is in violation, as he is engaged in an illegal activity and therefore he cannot claim this law in his defense, right?
There has basically been no description of what happened in the actual confrontation between the 2, before the fatal shot; and no cop would let Zimmerman away without some specific narrative; and that is what is likely investigators will focus on.
The next question is, where can an uncontaminated jury be found to try Zimmerman? Swain's Island?
So despite the fact you may think that he did Not act as a reasonable police officer would, you would be wrong.
He acted EXACTLY like a reasonable police officer who understood his situation, and what was in his "personal best Interests" and acted accordingly.
This "Reasonable Officer" had "probable cause" to believe that this case might become a bit more than he wanted anything to do with.
He had "probable cause" to believe if he were the arresting officer he would draw a lot of attention to himself.
He had probable cause to believe arresting a big white man for a felony, was really "out of his pay grade", or at least anything that would be in his best interests.
And at that point, the quicker the shooter got home, the body was removed, and he was relieved of duty, the better for him, and the whole department.
Part I of II
Now if a "reasonable" Police Officer in were sent to a location to investigate a "suspicious person" he would look for a suspicious person, or even a crime.
One would assume, perhaps incorrectly that the 'reasonable' Officer,upon arriving, and noticing a freshly shot youngster, of slight build, dead on the ground, that something might be amiss. Even that a crime has been committed.
His curiosity to determine if a crime had actually committed might be further aroused by noting that there was a larger older man present, who had a gun.
Some further concern might have arisen when the bigger older man holding the gun introduced himself as the shooter, and had been following this "suspicious character".
But when the older, bigger man explained that he had no choice but to shoot the child, in self defense, that was all the "reasonable officer" felt he needed to know, or to do.
He well knew where he was, the race of the each individuals involved and the ethos of the residents.
"For the first two months of this year, at the Retreat at Twin Lakes, the Sanford police logged 51 calls for service. Half were just people requesting information. The others included eight burglaries, two bike thefts and three simple assaults."