To state emphatically that Trayvon "clearly panicked" when the evidence is that he made a conscious decision, after four minutes, to return and confront Zimmerman, is to ignore the facts as we know them and leap to unwarranted assumptions.
Shiping Bao, the associate medical examiner who performed the rather sloppy autopsy on Martin and who was a hostile witness who claimed he remembered nothing about that autopsy that was not in his notes, and who changed his testimony on three counts, has been fired by Volusia County.
The truly expert forensic pathologist with 40 years experience, Dr. Vincent Di Maio, testified that Zimmerman's multiple head wounds were significant, enough to cause transient stunning (what we would call "seeing stars") and sufficient to lead Zimmerman to believe himself to be in grave danger. Four witnesses testified to Zimmerman's clearly broken nose. And Dennis Root, defensive use of force expert, testified that a fit and proficient fighter can rarely sustain as much as 30 seconds of domination, let alone the at least 40 seconds that unfit and "soft" Zimmerman endured before resorting to lethal force.
The evidence of that evening also suggests that Zimmerman was trying to avoid any confrontation, not actively seeking one. And the jury, after careful deliberation and consideration of all the evidence, determined that Zimmerman was "guilty" only of self-defense.
My comments are based entirely on the facts, evidence, testimony and history of this incident and these people. Your bias could hardly be more evident, given what you've chosen to emphasize, what you've chosen to ignore, and the weight you assign to such things as claims in a domestic dispute (which are almost invariably exaggerated and unreliable, as the recent event with George and Shellie demonstrated).
I began my 18-month investigation into the Sanford shooting incident with a bias against anyone who would use a firearm to resolve a conflict, since I am a very vocal opponent of America's gun culture, concealed carry and stand your ground laws. But I allowed the facts to guide my conclusions, and those facts led to the same conclusion that the jury reached in trial: that Zimmerman was "guilty" of nothing more than protecting his own life after a long and brutal assault.
George Zimmerman is hardly a saint or a hero, and has had a checkered past that is probably not much different from that of most Americans. But he has been made the scapegoat for larger socio-political issues that were not involved in the shooting incident, such as racial profiling and vigilantism, and the Left has taken the role more typical of the Right in distorting an otherwise unremarkable incident to feed broader agendas.
I quoted a respected medical journal in regard to the effects of marijuana use and you've chosen to ignore that, just as you've ignored the facts of the shooting incident in Sanford. Zimmerman was clearly responding to the police dispatcher's directions ("which way is he running?"), as the dispatcher, Sean Noffke, testified in court.
Zimmerman's statements in regard to that incident were determined to be honest and accurate, according to sworn testimony of the highly skeptical lead investigator, Chris Serino.
That you would accuse me, who has spent much of my six decades fighting for peace and social justice, of the "same mindset" as a predator, indicates just how far from reality your perceptions are.
I am a smoker been smoking since I was 17 so I know for an ACTUAL FACT that cannabis DOES NOT cause panic and anxiety how ever crystal, coke and other harder dugs do so before you make your "bias" statement i suggest you really look at the big picture and not just one fake article the only way it will cause those problems is if the use has some kind of health problem other than that there's a 99.9% population and articles that says you and your "evidence" is wrong
I'll bite and say that yes pot does make you paranoid, but the trace amount in his system doesn't prove that he was high at the time, pot stays in your system a long time that's what sucks about it if a potential job drug tests lol. But let's say he was slightly stoned and paranoid, how would you react if you thought someone was following you? And the people who say, well why didn't he go home, would you lead someone you thought was following you directly to your house?? So he clearly panicked and punched Zimmerman and somehow Zimmerman hit the back of his head on the pavement, but the medical examiner testified the injuries were far from life threatening and relatively minor. George thought he was a tough guy until Martin showed him that he wasn't and instead of copping a beating at the most, a bloody nose and scraped head weren't consistent with potentially life threatening injuries, he decided to murder a teenager to save his own wounded pride.
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