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Message: <blockquote data-quote="David2012" data-source="post: 1770702" data-attributes="member: 24428">I was talking with a police officer last night about this case. She said most of her fellow officers thought Zimmerman while having acted very foolishly... wasn't guilty of 2nd degree murder or Manslaughter. That one of her department's senior officers had been following this case pretty closely for them and apparently had some contacts down in Florida. He allowed that the Prosecutor may have done Zimmerman a back-door favor by charging him with 2nd degree murder instead of manslaughter. If Zimmerman hadn't been charged... the Martin Family and all their supporters would have felt he had gotten away with murder and for the rest of his life he would have that stigma hanging over his head every where he went... not to mention the racial hatred people like the Panthers would keep stirring up.But by charging him with 2nd degree murder, that not only could he claim protection under the Stand Your Ground law and possibly have the charge dropped out-right by the judge-- thus giving him a legal shield in the form of a judge's decision... that under Florida law, a jury could only consider the 2nd degree murder charge.... not any lesser charge. The general consensus among some police officers is that the Prosecutor deliberately went with a higher charge in order to appease the Martin family and their supporters because that was the least charge they would be satisfied with... and that the prosecution will put on a good show in order to quell the lynch mob hysteria... but knew that manslaughter would have been the better charge to go with.. having the best possibility of a conviction. Plus with all the negative national news media of the Panthers having issued a $10,000 dead or alive bounty on Zimmerman and all their rhetoric about blood running in the streets if Zimmerman isn't found guilty, his attorney can now easily argue that it would be virtually impossible to seat a jury any where in the country [much less Florida] because potential jurors would all be fearful of retaliation from the Panthers if the jury found him not guilty. That might put the decision into a Judge's hands who would decide Zimmerman's guilt or innocence based strictly upon the letter of the law & not put the decision into the hands of a emotionally prejudiced jury of 12, worried about their own personal safety and that of their families...... who probably wouldn't be clear thinking enough to properly evaluate the evidence.No matter how this turns out, if there is a trial... it should be very interesting!</blockquote>

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