8516knicks wrote:HarthorneWingo wrote:thebuzzardman wrote:
Wasn't Zimmerman initially arrested?
God, I hope that isn't the result here.
You must’ve missed my other post on that. Yeah, I’m definitely concerned about where the case is tried, the make up of the jury, and the quality of the prosecutor.
Does Georgia have a “stand your ground” so-called defense law?
And, yes, I also believed then that it was a clear case of murder as I continue to today, which scary. This country is going down the crapper.
Can we change our minds and let Georgia succeed?
I think they will be found guilty. Though the jury make up could be absolutely ****.
The Zimmerman comparison isn't apples here mainly because, there was no video and the only other version of what happened died with Martin. No witnesses, just Zimmerman's word that Martin attacked him physically. Zimmerman did have the medical report, Zimmerman had a broken nose, black eyes, cuts on the back of his head.
I'm not justifying Zimmermans use of lethal force, but just contrasting that the two murderers in this case, had they chosen to not pursue Arbery would have been in no danger. That is pretty much indisputable. Had they just stayed on their property and not chosen to cut him off on a public street they wouldn't have been in any real or fabricated danger.
The other deathknell for these two is the 911 call. I think it will hurt their case of self defense quite a bit. They were told, on the call that police were coming. They also don't claim they are being threatened.
“OK. That’s fine. I’ll get them out there,” the dispatcher said, referring to the cops. “I just need to know what he was doing wrong. Was he just on the premises and not supposed to be?”
The construction site video actually hurts these two also, as it's clear that Arbery didn't harm anybody there, and appears to have not even stolen anything. Leaving them with essentially him trespassing on an unoccupied property. If their defense attorney leads with that as cause to arm up, block a public road and verbally threaten an un-armed man then it's open and shut.
As for hate crimes, I personally think they are absurd as most murders are fueled by hate. At the state level they are never enforced in any fair way. Federal civil rights violations aren't hate crime law, they are justified when local law fails (as it could here). Whether it's because a white person hates a black person because they are black. Or a muslim hates a bunch of club go'ers because they are gay. Or a black man hates a person because they are white or korean. It's all just murder. Murder charges already have multiple degrees to account for crimes of passion vs. pre-meditated. This IMO is first degree murder.
"Any intentional murder that is willful and premeditated with malice aforethought. "
The pre-meditated part doesn't have a minimum time period. These two absolutely thought of this murder, and had malice.
Second degree is
"Any intentional murder with malice aforethought, but is not premeditated or planned in advance"
This is obviously planned, it's an actual ambush. Prosecution can maybe find evidence of even further planning here as well, texts, etc where they planned to catch this guy doing anything.
Lastly there's the sentencing phase. The degree of malice, brutality of the crime etc. if a fair magistrate is involved will be reflected in the sentencing.