rationalskepticism.org

mcgruff wrote:There is no question that Zimmerman deliberately shot and killed Martin. No-one is disputing that.

It should therefore be upon him to prove that he had no choice. If he cannot, he should be convicted of murder.

The first problem Zimmerman has with that is the evidence does not support his story.

He does not have injuries consistent with being punched repeatedly and having his head repeatedly smashed into concrete. His injuries were a handful of minor cuts, scrapes and swelling. He did not have a broken nose. Detective Serino, who spoke with Zimmerman after the incident, has said that he thought Zimmerman's injuries were not consistent with the severe attack Zimmerman claimed to have suffered.

Martin was more or less the same height as Zimmerman (2" taller) but much, much lighter and this also calls into question Zimmerman's claims that he had to escalate to lethal force as a matter of life and death.

Forensics showed that Martin had none of Zimmerman's blood or other genetic material on his hands or under his nails. That is not possible given the description of the incident Zimmerman gave.

Martin's hands were not cut or bruised, again not possible if Zimmerman were telling the truth. There was one tiny abrasion on (I think) the ring finger of his left hand but it wasn't certain if this might have predated the incident. His hands were almost pristine.

Witness evidence was partial and contradictory, and so doesn't tell us much. All we know for sure is that Zimmerman himself killed the main witness.

Zimmerman has already lied to the court about his income. He and his partner had concealed a large sum of cash and Zimmerman had a second passport hidden in a safety deposit box.

Also, Zimmerman did not dare to take the stand. Why would he not, if everything happened just as he described it?

The only possible conclusion is that Zimmerman has lied repeatedly in order to escape punishment. We do not know if Martin threw the first punch, or was first to grab or push, but we can say with a high level of confidence that he did not launch the severe attack that Zimmerman claimed and, of course, he was not armed. Zimmerman alone is responsible for escalating the confrontation to lethal force. He murdered a kid who was only 16 years old a few weeks before and the fact that he got away with it will become a historic miscarriage of justice to rival OJ.