Instead, he showed them a photo of Martin bare-chested, wearing a baseball hat, taken three months before his death. He also displayed a photo that showed how dark it was in the area when Martin and Zimmerman began grappling. He questioned the credibility of several prosecution witnesses, and said over and over that prosecutors had not backed up their version of events with evidence.
The company strongly denies the allegation. IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. NBC News Logo. ET after instructing them on the law. They will be sequestered until they deliver a verdict. No, he did not. About two hours after jurors went behind closed doors, they sent a note out to the judge asking for a numbered list of the all the evidence, with descriptions.
Zimmerman, 29, who pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, says he shot an unarmed Martin, 17, when the teen attacked him after they crossed paths Feb.
That is a sidewalk. In his rebuttal, Guy showed photographs taken later that night after Zimmerman had cleaned up and did not look as battered. Did Zimmerman walk toward Martin, or did Martin come after him? Should Zimmerman have had more than a bloody nose and scratches on his head if he'd had his head slammed on the ground by the victim? Zimmerman "always has an excuse, or they catch him in a lie," de la Rionda said.
With manslaughter an option, prosecution uses Zimmerman's words. The prosecution got one last chance to present its case Friday, when Assistant State Attorney John Guy rebutted the defense's own closing argument.
Guy echoed many points de la Rionda had made, characterizing Zimmerman as a frustrated wannabe police officer who took the law into his own hands. He had decided Martin was one of the criminals who had been victimizing his neighborhood, Guy argued, then trailed him against the advice of police dispatchers and wrongly shot him to death. That's the bottom line. The prosecutor argued Zimmerman built a mountain of lies to conceal vengeful frustration and powerful determination not to allow someone he had already decided was a criminal to escape.
That's important because under Florida law, a conviction on second-degree murder requires jurors to find that Zimmerman shot Martin out of "ill will, hatred, spite, or an evil intent. A stranger? In the dark? And shoots him through him heart? What is that?
It was, defense attorney Mark O'Mara argued, nothing more than self-defense. Defense rests in Zimmerman trial Author: Zimmerman won't be convicted Ex-police chief: I upheld my oath Manslaughter more likely? Preparing for Zimmerman verdict They don't get to ask you that. No, no, no. O'Mara tried to discredit the prosecution's portrayal of Zimmerman as a frustrated, spiteful vengeance-seeker. His client wasn't the aggressor, the defense argued, contending it was Martin who stalked Zimmerman and emerged from the darkness to pounce.
There, O'Mara said, the teenager pinned Zimmerman to the ground and slammed his head into the sidewalk. The defense attorney lugged a heavy block of cement to show jurors what, he said, Zimmerman had struck. Opinion: what about Martin's right to 'stand his ground'?
Guy ridiculed the argument that Zimmerman had suffered substantial injuries, saying repeated blows against concrete would have caused more damage than the rivulets of blood and bumps seen in photographs from the night of the shooting. While this drama played out in a Sanford courtroom, authorities -- in that central Florida city and elsewhere around the state and the country -- braced for what might happen when or if the jury makes its decision.
In the weeks after Martin's death, tens of thousands attended rallies demanding Zimmerman's arrest and castigating authorities for their handling of the case. Some of them wore hoodies, as did Martin the night he was killed, in support of his family. On Friday, a lawyer for the late teenager's family said that, while he wouldn't call Zimmerman a racist, "this case in its totality has a racial undertone to it.
Daryl Parks told CNN's Anderson Cooper that the defendant surmised Martin was a criminal like those who'd struck in his neighborhood before -- at least one of whom was black. The defense, meanwhile, has strongly rejected accusations that Zimmerman is a racist, with O'Mara citing his client's work as a mentor to black children and his having taken a black girl to his prom as evidence of his non-racist beliefs.
But the perception is still out there, and it's a big reason Zimmerman moved out of his home after receiving death threats, his father Robert had said, then stayed at an undisclosed location awaiting trial. His defenders have been passionate as well, especially about a person's right to defend himself with a gun when attacked.
Debate swirled over Florida's "stand your ground" law, which allows those who believe they are in imminent danger to use deadly force to protect themselves. Soon after the jury got the case, Zimmerman's family released a statement urging people to accept the verdict, whatever it is. The judicial system has run its course -- pray for justice, pray for peace, pray for our country.
Authorities similarly appealed for calm -- and took steps in case some did not heed those appeals. During closing arguments, the jury heard dueling portraits ofthe neighborhood watch captain: a cop wannabe who took the law into his own hands or a well-meaning volunteer who shot Martin because he feared for his life. Zimmerman's lawyers put a concrete slab and two life-size cardboard cutouts in front of the jury box in one last attempt to convince the panel Zimmerman shot the unarmed black year-old in self-defense while his head was being slammed against the pavement.
Attorney Mark O'Mara used the slab to make the point that it could serve as a weapon. He showed the cutouts of Zimmerman and Martin to demonstrate that the teenager was considerably taller.
And he displayed a computer-animated depiction of the fight based on Zimmerman's account. He said prosecutors hadn't met their burden of proving Zimmerman's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Instead, he said, the case was built on "could've beens" and "maybes. You can't connect the dots. You're not allowed to. In a rebuttal, prosecutor John Guy accused Zimmerman of telling "so many lies.
0コメント