This page was last updated on July 23, 2013.
Legal loophole led to lost chance for justice; Patrick O’Shea – BCT editorial board; Beaver County Times; July 17, 2013.
Like Kirstin Kennedy, Rachel Morgan, and J.D. Prose, Mr. O’Shea is a part-time BCT reporter in addition to being a pundit.
Below is a detailed critique of portions of this column.
“When the six-woman Florida jury declared George Zimmerman not guilty in the death of Trayvon Martin this weekend, protests erupted immediately throughout the country.”
[RWC] Mr. O’Shea wrote at least one previous gun-control rant, “A shaky ladder.” As you will read, nearly everything in this editorial is false.
“But the verdict never really was in question. Not because a 17-year-old black male was the victim. Not because the jury even believed Zimmerman wasn’t in some way responsible for the horrible events of that night.”
[RWC] Mr. Martin was killed, but that doesn’t make him “the victim.”
“They were limited by the state’s stand-your-ground law, which stipulates as long as the jury believed Zimmerman believed he was acting in self-defense, no matter what led up to it, he was justified in using deadly force.”
[RWC] This is false. The Zimmerman defense team never used “the state’s stand-your-ground law” (SYG). Indeed, according to CNN, Mr. Zimmerman “waived his right to a ‘stand your ground’ pretrial immunity hearing. Zimmerman’s attorneys have decided they will try this as a self-defense case.” In an attempt to get around that inconvenient truth, Mother Jones (MJ) is trying to claim SYG came into play because of the judge’s jury instructions, but that too is false. The MJ article cites the following excerpt from the instructions to support its assertion: “If George Zimmerman was not engaged in an unlawful activity and was attacked in any place where he had a right to be, he had no duty to retreat and had the right to stand his ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he reasonably believed that it was necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.”
According to Jonathan Turley (a predominantly lefty lawyer), however, the instructions were not about SYG. Mr. Turley wrote, “However, the common law does not impose a duty to retreat. It preexisted the SYG law in most states. If it didn’t, hundreds of thousands of cases of self-defense would have had different results after people defended themselves rather than flee. Indeed, this is a point that I often made in opposing these laws: you already have the right to defend yourself and not to retreat.”
“So, even though a 911 dispatcher told Zimmerman to not pursue Martin, even though he could have backed off from the confrontation, and even though Martin was unarmed when he was shot, Zimmerman had the right under state law to fatally shoot the young man once he became the aggressor.”
[RWC] At least Mr. O’Shea referred to Mr. Martin as a “young man.” Much of the press still uses a photo of Mr. Martin when he was 12 years old. At the time of the incident, Mr. Martin was 5’11” and weighed 158 lbs according to the Medical Examiner. According to the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, Mr. Zimmerman was 5’8” and weighed 185 lbs.
“Pennsylvania has its own version of this law, but at least it requires the display of a weapon by the other person before you can kill them.”
[RWC] So, if a guy is on top of you pounding your head into concrete, “the other person [must display a weapon] before you can” use deadly force? If Mr. O’Shea’s representation of PA’s law is correct, the law needs fixed. Wasn’t the concrete turned into a weapon by Mr. Martin?
“Since the verdict, the protests have mostly focused on the racial and political overtures of the case, and those aspects do seem to have played a role in how individuals viewed the incident. But little has been said about how this case could only have played itself out like this in Florida or other states with too-far-reaching laws.”
[RWC] Not true. Even if you believe Florida’s SYG is “too-far-reaching,” it was not used in this case. That is, Mr. Zimmerman would have been acquitted even if Florida didn’t have an SYG.
“When these laws were being proposed over the last few years, they almost universally were being pushed by extremists in the NRA and other gun rights groups, who saw an opportunity to promote even more gun sales, as well as some far-right politicians who were only too happy to take some campaign cash for instilling a little fear into their constituents.”
[RWC] Blah, blah, blah.
“However, where was the need for these expansions in laws that already seemed to be working just fine? No one is arguing against defense of life and property, but you should not have the right to start a fight with someone and then gun them down if they try to retaliate.”
[RWC] There was no evidence Mr. Zimmerman “start[ed] a fight.” According to Mr. Zimmerman, Mr. Martin attacked him from behind as he was returning to his vehicle. Only Mr. Zimmerman knows for sure, however. All we know is both Mr. Zimmerman and Mr. Martin would likely have made different choices had they known the outcome.
“If a killing occurs as a result of true self-defense, our legal system already has provisions to help you.”
[RWC] As noted above, Mr. Zimmerman did claim “true self-defense” and did not use SYG.
“If you see someone acting suspiciously or doing something wrong, wouldn’t it make more sense to call someone trained to handle crime, such as a police officer, instead of putting yourself in harm’s way?”
[RWC] Doesn’t this also apply to Mr. Martin? Testimony by at least one prosecution witness (a friend of Mr. Martin) showed Mr. Martin knew he was being followed. Mr. Martin used his cell phone to speak with this friend and told her he was being followed by a “crazy ass cracker/cracka.” Why didn’t Mr. Martin “call someone trained to handle crime, such as a police officer” and/or run? Apparently, Mr. Martin did run at one point and Mr. Zimmerman lost sight of him. For reasons we’ll never know, however, Mr. Martin stopped running only 70 yards from his home. From the photos I saw of Messrs. Martin and Zimmerman, Mr. Martin (17 years old) would have had no trouble outrunning Mr. Zimmerman (28) to safety. According to the Sanford police chief at the time, “witness statements and physical evidence backed up Zimmerman’s version of events. He [the police chief] suggested that based on the timing of the call, he believed that Trayvon went out of his way to approach the person tailing him and mouth off.”
“We are not a nation of vigilantes. We are not a nation of fear mongers. We should be a nation of responsible people and appropriate laws. The Florida stand-your-ground law goes too far and is irresponsible.”
[RWC] I repeat; Mr. Zimmerman claimed “true self-defense” and DID NOT use “The Florida stand-your-ground law” in his defense.
It’s hard for me to believe Mr. O’Shea doesn’t know just about everything in this editorial is false or misleading.
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