Great Trust News - Reaction to George Zimmerman Acquittal for the Cold-blooded Murder of Trayvon...

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GREAT TRUST NEWS

George Zimmerman Acquitted for the Cold-blooded Slaying of the

Unarmed Teenager Trayvon Martin: Potential Stephen Lawrence Moment

for the United States Reaction by Dr Koku Adomdza, GREAT Group News,Miami, Sunday 14 July 2013

George Zimmerman in court before being found not guilty.

Dr Koku Adomdza, President of the GREAT Trust Group, Council for Afrika
https://sites.google.com/site/afrikaliberationgroup/Afrika-Liberation-News-Updates/georgezimmermanacquittedforthecold-bloodedslayingoftheunarmedteenagertrayvonmartinpotentialstephenlawrencemomentfortheunitedstates%E2%80%93reactionbydrkokuadomdzagreatgroupnewsmiamisunday14july2013https://sites.google.com/site/afrikaliberationgroup/Afrika-Liberation-News-Updates/georgezimmermanacquittedforthecold-bloodedslayingoftheunarmedteenagertrayvonmartinpotentialstephenlawrencemomentfortheunitedstates%E2%80%93reactionbydrkokuadomdzagreatgroupnewsmiamisunday14july2013https://sites.google.com/site/afrikaliberationgroup/Afrika-Liberation-News-Updates/georgezimmermanacquittedforthecold-bloodedslayingoftheunarmedteenagertrayvonmartinpotentialstephenlawrencemomentfortheunitedstates%E2%80%93reactionbydrkokuadomdzagreatgroupnewsmiamisunday14july2013https://sites.google.com/site/afrikaliberationgroup/Afrika-Liberation-News-Updates/georgezimmermanacquittedforthecold-bloodedslayingoftheunarmedteenagertrayvonmartinpotentialstephenlawrencemomentfortheunitedstates%E2%80%93reactionbydrkokuadomdzagreatgroupnewsmiamisunday14july2013https://sites.google.com/site/afrikaliberationgroup/Afrika-Liberation-News-Updates/georgezimmermanacquittedforthecold-bloodedslayingoftheunarmedteenagertrayvonmartinpotentialstephenlawrencemomentfortheunitedstates%E2%80%93reactionbydrkokuadomdzagreatgroupnewsmiamisunday14july2013https://sites.google.com/site/afrikaliberationgroup/Afrika-Liberation-News-Updates/georgezimmermanacquittedforthecold-bloodedslayingoftheunarmedteenagertrayvonmartinpotentialstephenlawrencemomentfortheunitedstates%E2%80%93reactionbydrkokuadomdzagreatgroupnewsmiamisunday14july2013https://sites.google.com/site/afrikaliberationgroup/Afrika-Liberation-News-Updates/georgezimmermanacquittedforthecold-bloodedslayingoftheunarmedteenagertrayvonmartinpotentialstephenlawrencemomentfortheunitedstates%E2%80%93reactionbydrkokuadomdzagreatgroupnewsmiamisunday14july2013


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International Group, the Afrika Liberation Group and the GREAT Consortium

has likened and described the George Zimmerman acquittal for the murder

of African American Teenager Trayvon Martin as a Stephen Lawrence

Moment for the United States. Reacting to the unanimous verdict by an all-

women jury Saturday 13th

July 2013, Dr K. Adomdza noted that thecredibility of criminal cases are based on the quality of assembled

evidence before the courts, which may not necessarily, conclusively

exonerate culpability. Specifically for this reason, the courts system has

appeal avenues as remedy to miscarriages of justice. The mass public

response of palpable anger, disappointment, shock and dismay with which

the no-guilty verdict has been received in the United States and beyond,

suggests a fundamental flaw within the judicial process which could be

that the prosecution's evidence brought before the court, was not

sufficiently compelling, convincing as to persuade the jury otherwise.

Besides the appeals process, there are other lawful pathways open to

attain the truth in this sad tragedy, which was completely avoidable. The

bereaved family and supporters may want to take a look at the Stephen

Lawrence case in the UK for some comfort and wisdom moving forwards.

One thing is clear from a broader perspective of the world we leave in

contemporary times, is that unless there is a renaissance of recognising

and protecting the Divinity, Sacredness, Sanctity of the most Precious,

Irreplaceable, Priceless but Free Gifts of Creation including Human Life,

Race Equality, Fundamental Human Rights, Global Citizenship Rights,Time, the Environment and Oxygen without which life is impossible,

human civilization will continue to be increasingly enveloped by Acts of

Forces for Evil which emerge under the most unsuspecting guises. A 21st

Century unconventional, unorthodox Race Equality and Human Rights,

Renaissance and Spiritual Enlightenment have become imperative across

all spectra and strands of society and our prayer is that this urgency is

grasped for redress in good time by Global Forces for Good across all the

Continents towards Community Cohesion, Fraternal Coexistence and

Global Peace."

George Zimmerman walked free from a Florida courtroom late on Saturday

after a jury acquitted the neighbourhood watch leader of murdering an

unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin, in a case that played into the

national debates about race, civil rights and the proliferation of guns in US

society.

Zimmerman, 29, smiled briefly and shook the hands of his lawyers Mark

O'Mara and Don West after the verdict from the jury of six women was

read.


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Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, the parents of the 17-year-old shot dead

by Zimmerman on the night of 26 February last year, were not in court to

hear the decision. Martin said he was "brokenhearted", and Fulton said it

was her "darkest hour".

The unanimous verdict came after more than 16 hours of deliberations by

the panel at the Seminole County criminal justice centre in Sanford. They

had sifted through the testimony of 56 witnesses and hours of lawyers'

arguments during the three-week trial. The jury accepted Zimmerman's

contention that he shot Martin in self-defence, believing his life to be in

immediate danger.

"You have no further business with this court," Judge Debra Nelson told

Zimmerman, informing him that he was free to go and that his GPS

tracking bracelet would be removed. Zimmerman's wife Shellie brokedown in tears and sobbed into a pink scarf, then beamed widely as she

hugged her husband's parents, Robert and Gladys.

The acquittal was greeted with cheers and angry shouts outside the

courthouse, where dozens of banner-carrying supporters of the Martin

family had gathered through the day.

Police stepped in to remove a vocal protester from the gathering but the

protests remained largely peaceful. Teams of officers from the Sanford

police department and the Seminole County sheriff's office kept a closeeye on the demonstrators, who included a smaller number calling for

Zimmerman to be found not guilty.

O'Mara, Zimmerman's lead attorney, said his client was "very, very happy"

with the jury's decision. Asked if Zimmerman was scared for his future,

O'Mara said: "I think he's going to be great, I think he's still worried and

hopefully everyone will respect the jury's verdict as they should and most

have said they will, and we'll take it day by day.

"I think he wishes he could wave a magic wand and get his life back. Hehas to be very cautious and protective for his safety because there's still a

fringe element out there who have said they want revenge."

Martin's parents said they were devastated. "Even though I am

brokenhearted, my faith is unshattered. I will always love my baby Tray,"

Tracy Martin said in one of three Tweets posted shortly after the decision

was announced.

His ex-wife, Sybrina Fulton, said she was relying on her faith. "Lord during

my darkest hour I lean on you," she wrote on Twitter. "You are all that I


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have."

Analysts said the verdict reflected a weak, circumstantial case put by the

prosecutors. "We were able to have a fair hearing and an open trial but

this is not a time for jubilance, it's a time for reflection," said Mark NeJame,

a prominent Orlando attorney who turned down the chance to represent

Zimmerman last year. "A young man is dead. This is just a tragedy and we

need to figure out a way to do better."

Martin, who lived in Miami, was walking back to the house of his father's

fiance at the Retreat at Twin Lakes gated community carrying a soft drink

and sweets he had bought at a local convenience store. Zimmerman, who

worked as a mortgage underwriter, said he spotted the hoodie-wearing

youth as he was on his way to buy groceries, then called police to report a

"suspicious male". Somehow, the two ended up in a fight.

Zimmerman was released without charge on the night of the shooting.

After a campaign by Trayvon Martin's parents prompted nationwide

protests, Florida's governor, Rick Scott, appointed a special prosecutor to

re-examine the circumstances of the case. Zimmerman was arrested in

April last year, 44 days after the shooting.

The case hinged on the conflicting testimony of witnesses and the key

issue of whose screams were heard on a recording of a 911 call made by

one of Zimmerman's neighbours, which also captured the fatal shot.

Trayvon Martin RIP


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Martin's mother, father and brother all testified that they were certain it

was the teenager who was pleading for his life. Zimmerman's parents and

a numbers of friends and neighbours took the stand to insist that it was

Zimmerman.

The earlier call, made to a non-emergency police line by Zimmerman,

caught the defendant using profanities that were repeated by the

prosecution to try to show he acted with spite, ill-will and hatred, the

benchmarks for a second-degree murder conviction.

"Fucking punks. These assholes, they always get away," assistant state

attorney John Guy said as he began his opening argument on the first day

of the trial. "Those were the words in that grown man's mouth as he

followed in the dark a 17-year-old boy that he didn't know."

He concluded by telling the jury: "George Zimmerman did not shoot

Trayvon Martin because he had to. He shot him for the worst of all reasons,

because he wanted to."

O'Mara, Zimmerman's lead attorney, worked hard to counter the state's

portrayal of his client as an overzealous, angry vigilante who was "fed up"

after a series of burglaries and who became a self-appointed guardian of

the community.

"There is not one witness to suggest that the guy is who they want you to

believe he is, that neighbourhood watch cop wannabe crazy rider walking

the neighbourhood looking for someone to harass," O'Mara said.

Instead, he argued, Martin was the aggressor, emerging from the darkness

to break Zimmerman's nose with a sucker punch and smashing his head

on a concrete pavement, forcing him to fire the single shot from his 9mm

semi-automatic pistol to save his life.

He used a number of props to make his points, including a life-size

mannequin that he wrestled with theatrically on the courtroom floor and a

slab of cement he dumped in front of the jury box to represent the

"weapon" he said Martin used, proving he was not unarmed.

O'Mara insisted Zimmerman had not disobeyed the police dispatcher's

instruction not to follow Martin.

Fellow Defence Attorney West proved the most colourful and controversial

character during the trial, opening his case with a questionable knock-

knock joke about Zimmerman's notoriety and clashing frequently with the

judge.

He also appeared in a photograph posted to Instagram by his daughter


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Molly showing the family enjoying a "celebration" ice cream after opening

statements. The accompanying caption "we beat stupidity" and hashtag

#dadkilledit prompted the state attorney's office to demand an inquiry.

Benjamin Crump, lawyer for the Martin family, expressed thanks to

supporters and prosecutors. Visibly shaken by the verdict, he said: "To

everybody who put their hoodies up, to everybody who said 'I am Trayvon',

his family express their heartfelt gratitude for helping them these past 17

months."

Crump said that the daughter of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther

King Jr, Dr Bernice King, had sent him a message that read: "Today is a

defining moment for the status of my father's dream. Whatever the

Zimmerman verdict is, in the words of my father we must conduct

ourselves on higher plane of dignity and discipline."

He added: "Trayvon Martin will forever remain in the annals of history next

to Medgar Evers and Emmett Till as symbols for the fight for equal justice

for all." He finished his remarks with an appeal for calm. "For Trayvon to

remain in peace, we must all be peaceful," he said.

Ben Jealous, President of the National Association for the Advancement of

Colored People, issued a statement condemning the acquittal. "We are

outraged and heartbroken over today's verdict. We stand with Trayvon's

family, and we are called to act," he said, in reference to plans to pursue acivil case against Zimmerman over Martin's death.

The group's chairman, Roslyn Brock, said: "Today, justice failed Trayvon

Martin and his family. We call for the Justice Department to conduct an

inquiry into the civil rights violations committed against Trayvon Martin."

Legal proceedings are still active against Zimmerman's wife. Shellie

Zimmerman faces a perjury charge for alleging lying at her husband's bail

hearing last summer over the state of the couple's finances, pleading

poverty soon after they raised $130,000 through donations to his onlinedefence fund.

O'Mara has said that fighting the murder charge effectively bankrupted the

couple, who have relied on friends for food and clothes for Zimmerman to

wear at his trial.

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