If Convicted, Should Trayvon Murderer George Zimmerman Get Life in Prison or the Death Penalty ?
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If Convicted, Should Trayvon Murderer George Zimmerman Get The DEATH Penalty ?
The Rev. Al Sharptoncame to a podium outside Sanford Police Department headquarters amid raucous cheers. But he revealed few details about a plan he'd announced Friday for economic sanctions to force authorities to arrest Zimmerman.
Instead, he talked generally about sanctions against corporations that support and fund "stand your ground" laws.
Benjamin Jealous, national president of the NAACP, said no one was calling for a boycott of local businesses.
Meanwhile, the Orlando Sentinel reported the results of its inquiry into a lingering question in the case: Who was heard crying for help on a 911 call in the moments before Martin was shot?
On the night of the shooting, a woman called 911 to report someone crying out for help in her gated Sanford community. Though several of her neighbors eventually called authorities, she phoned early enough for dispatchers to hear the panicked cries and the gunshot that took Trayvon Martin's life.
Zimmerman, who has claimed self-defense in the shooting, told police he was the one screaming for help.
But Tom Owen, forensic consultant for Owen Forensic Services LLC and chairman emeritus of the American Board of Recorded Evidence, used voice identification software to compare Zimmerman's voice to the 911 screams. He ruled out the neighborhood watch volunteer.
The software returned a 48% match. Owen said that to reach a positive match with audio of such quality, he'd expect higher than 90%.
"You can say with reasonable scientific certainty that it's not Zimmerman," Owen says, stressing that he could not confirm the voice as Trayvon's because he didn't have a sample of the teen's voice to compare.
Another expert contacted by the Sentinel, utilizing different techniques, came to the same conclusion.
Outside police headquarters on Saturday, Jealous introduced Brenden Mitchell, a youth leader with the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.
"I am 17 years old. I'm a high school student. I'm a young black man," Mitchell said in a fiery speech. "I could be the next Trayvon Martin
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/01/nation/la-na-trayvon-...
Read More: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/01/nation/la-...
Top Opinion
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Rebel Yell 2012/04/04 14:21:14Life in Prison
+8The courts need to work this out. Two voice experts have said the screaming on the tape was not that of Zimmerman. They cannot say it was Trayvon because the parents have no home recordings . The biggest question is why did Zimmerman feel he needed to exit his vehicle with his gun? What was suspicious about a kid in a hoodie walking along talking on his cell? There are far too many unanswered questions, but if George had stayed in his vehicle , Trayvon would be alive.
My brother please get help.
I also dont hear you condemning Islam for its role in slavery, so why only white people.
Let me tell you something, and i want you to pay particular attention to it, if you go to any Muslim country, you will be seen as less that a Arab Muslim. This is wrong but it is the truth, so please my brother do some thing with that hatred in your heart. Instead of hate try to educate and try some empathy.
You and i may never see eye to eye on anything but this, but i want it to be known that i understand where his words are coming from, i do not condone them nor would i teach my children or anyone else his ideology.
But if this country is survive and move forward, we will need to have this conversation out in the open in a mature manner.
I honestly believe that America's reaction is a lot more important than whatever little details may turn up in what's really a fairly minor case (as awful as it is! I don't want to minimize it in any way, shape, or form!)
*Especially* when you add skin color into the mix.
There are very few people on the planet who have as many reasons as I to hate Europeans. Mainly because their ancestors were such treacherous murderous bastards that they wiped out so many of my ancestors.
I don't have any reason whatsoever to despise people with darker skin.
Trayvon's death is a horrific tragedy. It is almost as awful as the one that revolved around my niece's murder. To be honest, I care more about Trayvon than I did about her.
In the big scheme of things, they are both minor little details.
You don't know me. You don't know what motivates me. Claiming that my reaction has to do with skin color shows that you don't know much about humanity.
It sounds to me like the prosecutor is going for a verdict that is ridiculous. I hope I'm wrong about that, but I'm just not seeing Murder 2 stick on this one.
What kind of riots do we get if the judge throws it out for lack of evidence? Maybe that won't happen. Maybe the prosecutor's competent. The media's been very careful to feed us little bits and pieces, stringing us along, changing the story almost daily. The prosecutor's complaining that so much evidence has been leaked, but maybe she's holding back the really juicy pieces.
The riots that are brewing are the bigger picture. At this point, the real details of what happened that awful night are almost irrelevant. (As sickening as that is to type).
It's sickening, and it seems to be opening up some eyes. But it's part of the tragic reality that we live in.
Hopefully some good will come out of this. Hopefully people will realize that prejudice over skin color is just stupid. If Zimmerman was being protected by his daddy's connections, hopefully that particular part of the good ol' boy network will get blown up.
Yeah. Hopefully pigs will fly.
But the alternative to hope is to just give up.