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Presumption of evidence, until proven guilty.

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Martin told the girl he’d taken shelter from the rain briefly at an apartment building in the gated community before continuing his walk to where he was staying with his father nearby.

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ORIGINAL: Owner59
Critics have called Zimmerman a racist vigilante who initiated a conflict with Trayvon largely because of a profile: A black man wearing a hoodie walking through a gated neighborhood. If the FBI finds evidence of this, Zimmerman could be charged with a federal hate crime."

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ORIGINAL: Kirata

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ORIGINAL: erieangel

Zimmerman won't be proven guilty nor innocent if charges are never brought...

And they may not be. Here's some more grist for the mill, courtesy of the Salt Lake Tribune from the AP wire:

Attorney Benjamin Crump, who represents Martin’s parents, said the teenager was on the phone with his girlfriend back home in Miami after he left the store. Martin told the girl he’d taken shelter from the rain briefly at an apartment building in the gated community before continuing his walk to where he was staying with his father nearby.

It was then that Martin told the girl he was being followed, according to Crump. She said Martin told her someone was following him and that he was going to try to lose him. He thought he had lost Zimmerman but hadn’t...

So we have Martin loitering at the entrance to a building where he doesn't live, and trying to "lose" his tail, all certain to inspire confidence in Zimmerman that Martin is just a nice fellow on his way home from the store.

"He says, ‘Oh he’s right behind me, he’s right behind me again,’" Crump says the girl told him. "She says: ‘Run.’ He says, ‘I’m not going to run I’m just going to walk fast.’ She hears Trayvon say, ‘Why are you following me?’ Other voice says, ‘What are you doing around here?’"

She told Crump they both repeated themselves and then she thinks she heard Zimmerman push Martin "because his voice changes like something interrupted his speech." She heard an altercation and then the phone call was cut off.

Obviously you can't "hear" who pushed who. But what we do know is, when police arrived it was Zimmerman who was bleeding from the nose and the back of his head, with grass stains on his clothing and a witness who confirmed seeing him down. As for the weight difference between them, Martin was young and strong and fast, Zimmerman overweight and out of shape. Do the math. Zimmerman got a tuneup.

That said, however, the use of deadly force is only justified if a person reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm, and everything turns on the word "reasonably." Looks to me like that's the call the Grand Jury is going to have to make, but Martin's behavior is going to have to be considered in order to determine the reasonableness of Zimmerman's belief.

But shit, if either of these two clowns had just answered the other's fucking question we probably wouldn't be here. For my money, the problem is starting to look more like testosterone than racism.

K.

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ORIGINAL: Kirata

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ORIGINAL: farglebargle

Stop trying to blame the victim.

I'm getting a little tired of you accusing me of "blaming the victim" because I'm trying to consider all sides of this.

I know you're just having fun, but give it a break and type with both hands for a while.

K.

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ORIGINAL: MrBukani

I wouldnt play the racist card either, it could even help zimmerman in his defense in the end.
And if the victim would have been a whitey I think zimmerman would still have got his gun out.
He is just a triggerhappy fella.

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ORIGINAL: Kirata

If you're neighborhood watch in an area that experiences a fair amount of crime, is that really over the top? I dunno.