Zimmerman attorney: We will get civil suit immunity

The Justice Department said Sunday it is looking into the shooting death of Trayvon Martin to determine whether federal prosecutors will file criminal civil-rights charges now that George Zimmerman has been acquitted in the Florida state case.

By Manuel Roig-Franzia
The Washington Post

In downtown Seattle, Sean Walker, center, addresses a rally protesting the acquittal of George Zimmerman in Trayvon Martin’s death.

The not-guilty verdict that sounded so final, so utterly unequivocal, in Courtroom 5D of the Seminole County courthouse Saturday night has quickly given way to a kaleidoscope of demonstrations across the country, debate about wrongful-death lawsuits and website-crashing demands for the filing of federal civil-rights charges.

On Saturday night, George Zimmerman was able to shed the GPS that had monitored his movements before he was acquitted of manslaughter and second-degree murder charges in the death of teenager Trayvon Martin. But the drama over the case persists, and it promises to go on and on.

Such is the cramped and rolling nature of this spectacle that Attorney General Eric Holder is to speak Tuesday in Orlando, Fla., just a short drive from the courthouse where the verdict was read. He will address the annual convention of an organization — the NAACP — whose leader, Benjamin Jealous, launched a petition late Saturday asking that Holder’s Justice Department file civil-rights charges against Zimmerman. The petition received such a massive response that it crashed the NAACP website.

Within hours of the petition’s debut, the Justice Department released a statement saying its civil-rights division still had an open investigation into Martin’s death, dating back more than a year.

Working with the FBI, federal prosecutors are reviewing evidence gathered during a Justice Department investigation — and revealed during Zimmerman’s trial — to see whether the case fits within “the limited federal criminal civil-rights statutes,” the statement said.

The White House issued a statement in which President Obama characterized Martin’s death as “a tragedy ... not just for his family ... but for America.” The president acknowledged that “passions may be running ever higher” in the wake of the verdict but urged citizens to remember a jury had spoken.

“I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflection from two parents who lost their young son,” Obama said. “And as we do, we should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to widen the circle of compassion and understanding in our own communities ... if we’re doing all we can to stem the tide of gun violence that claims too many lives across this country on a daily basis ... that’s the way to honor Trayvon Martin.”

Zimmerman, who has a white father and a Peruvian mother, claimed self-defense in the death of Martin, an unarmed African-American teenager he saw walking through his modest gated community in February 2012. Zimmerman said he shot Martin after the teenager sucker-punched him and started pounding his head into a concrete walkway. Zimmerman had a concealed-carry permit for the handgun he used that night.

“I think it was racial profiling,” Barbara Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said in an interview Sunday shortly after arriving in the Orlando area.

Arnwine said she had met with Justice Department officials before Zimmerman’s arrest in hopes of persuading them to file civil-rights charges and that she would renew the push now that Zimmerman has been acquitted by a six-woman jury with no African-American members.

However, doubts have been expressed by at least one Martin family attorney about the viability of a civil-rights charge.

In an interview with The Washington Post during the trial, Daryl Parks said: “There was not enough evidence to say that [Zimmerman] made this decision based on race ... On the facts of this case, you can’t say it was based on race.”

In closing arguments and in a news conference after the verdict, prosecutors insisted the trial was not about race. Arnwine criticized prosecutors, including State Attorney Angela Corey, who was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott, R, for taking that approach.

“What did she think it was about?” Arnwine said. “I do think that the case did show that the prosecutors did not have a good strategy for dealing with the racial element of the case,” she said.

Florida defense lawyer Diana Tennis argued in an interview that “if anybody has a civil-rights action, it’s George Zimmerman.”

Tennis said “black leaders and black lawyers got him maliciously prosecuted” by pressuring local politicians during the month and a half between the shooting and Zimmerman’s arrest.

Zimmerman, she said, is “the one who might end up in federal court asking a lot of embarrassing questions to a lot of shamefaced politicians.”

Zimmerman’s attorneys are poised for the possibility of civil lawsuits against their client. Defense attorney Mark O’Mara has said he will seek immunity for Zimmerman if civil suits “spawned by this fiasco” are filed.

Tennis said the defense pursued a pretrial strategy that seemed designed, at least in part, to avoid any risk of not being able to claim immunity in future civil lawsuits.

The defense opted against asking the judge to dismiss the case based on Florida’s “stand your ground” law, which in many cases justifies the use of deadly force, without the obligation to flee, when a person feels threatened.

If the judge had refused a dismissal on those grounds, Zimmerman might not have been able to claim immunity later, Tennis said.

“They took a gambit,” she said. “I think they were looking forward.”

She noted that even though Zimmerman is not wealthy, he may be able to strike lucrative book deals that would generate income that could potentially be at risk in a civil suit.

The legal standard in a civil lawsuit is lower — a preponderance of the evidence, rather than proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Zimmerman chose not to testify in his criminal trial, but it is likely he would have to testify and be deposed in a civil lawsuit, said Daniel Petrocelli, who led the legal team that won $33.5 million in damages in a civil wrongful-death trial against O.J. Simpson after his murder acquittal.

“In that sense, civil trials are a more pure search for the truth,” Petrocelli said in an interview Sunday. He said his deposition of Simpson lasted 14 days and that he received suggestions from around the world — all of which he ignored — about what questions to ask.

Arnwine said she has met frequently with Martin’s family since they began trying to persuade journalists and public officials to press for an arrest of Zimmerman.

She said she expects them to explore “all their options,” including possible civil litigation and a push for a civil-rights charge now that Zimmerman has been acquitted.

The verdict, she said, is likely to spur more people to attend events related to next month’s 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. And she knows what many of them will be wearing: hoodies.

The difference with South Africa is that at least there they had signs alerting blacks they would be shot...

And ho9w is Guyana different.  Young blacks there are shot up by cops in Guyana, regardless as to their guilt.  Black miners are killed in Guyana by cops.

Yet people like Druggie applaud when this happens much as the racist segment in the USA do.

I find it amusing when people in Guyana make issue of this when its no different if one is black, poor and young in Guyana.

Actually, Trayvon Martin was the aggressor and threw that first punch.  You like to play bad and when you get boomerang you cry wolf.

You blacks should listen to Larry Elders.

Since the Martin/Zimmerman incident, 400 blacks have been killed in Chicago mostly Black on Black, 200 of which remain unsolved.  Blacks would be better off with a White Zimmerman prowling their streets questioning, frisking and taking black bandits off the streets.  And yes, there will be the one-off error.

America hurting itself...

Let's exacerbate racism to divert the attention away from the domestic espionage scandal....

Wasn't Zimmerman charged with murder and tried in court?  

In America "justice" protects the Apartheid regime...the same as the police...I mean all the 
"institutions"  are there to protect the apartheid regime.

I remember that Mandela was also sentenced to life in prison by an apartheid court for protesting the apartheid regime

How do you know that Trayvon threw the first punch?  How do you know in what manner Zimmerman approached Trayvon?

Zimmerman wasw coached by his lawyers to say certain things and  Trayvon is not alive to tell his side of the story.

What is evident is that Zimmerman DISOBEYED the instruction provided to him by the police who stated that they did not need his help.  He goty out of his car, indicating that he was NOT initially afraid of Trayvon, and most likely he was very beligerent in his approach, causing Trayvon to try to flee him, and then forcing Trayvon to defend himself.

Its a pity that you hate blacks so much that you are being used as a tool by ultra right wing racists.   You and Elders who is a jackass.

And why should blacks listen to Elders?  He is paid well by ultra right wing lunatics and has grown wealthy as a result.

And those who shot people were arrested, not let go like Zimmerman.

Are you trying to say that the police force is ineffective?  If so there is nothing that Zimmerman can do.  His role is not to be a cop,. but to inform the cops of suspicious activity.  So if the police cannot dothere jobs who cartes what Zimmerman does.

ANd I very much doubt that middle and working class black parents want Zimmerman shooting and killing their sons who were returning from buying candy and soda and who were not bothering anybody.

He did, and the Jury agreed.  No police instructed Zimmerman, it was a 911 operator who also asked him what Martin was doing and where he was going.  That seems a mixed message.

Zimmerman, as a neighborhood watch, have a right to ask unfamiliar persons what they are doing.  It was incumbent on Martin to politely identify himself and let Zimmerman know where he is staying and why he is there.  Instead he chose to punch the man's nose, jump on him and beat his head on the side walk.  Remember, that enclave was under attack from Black youths, robbing, vandalizing and threatening the citizenry.

Rather than making a federal case of one questionable incident, you Blacks ought to figure out for to stop the 400 black-on-black murders in Chicago since the Martin incident.

When alyuh was prancing killing Indians in Guyana when you got the boomerang, alyuh run to Sharpton and Rangal with crocodile tears.  You need to teach yourself and kids not to go picking fight and playing bad.

Pity you didnt tell Zimmerman not to pick fights because the interaction was instigated by Zimmerman.  The fcat that he couldnt defend himself when he put himself into a position where he forced some one to have to defend himself, thinking that he might well have been a mugger.

Do you think that Zimmerman showed some ID to prove who he was and that he had a right to inquire.  NO!!!!

Now run off with your usual joy and seeing dead black people.  I mean Indos killed Afros in 1964, but you never mention that do you.  Why may I ask when you know full well that BOTH groups were involved and BOTH suffered.

You knw whats funny is that the only reason why you know this is that mnay black community groups have shown great concern about this crime.

What you chose to ignore is that when cops encounter a black youth with agun who has just shot another, they do NOT assume that this was self defense, do a high five and try and hide the case.

You need to speak to the parents of this youth and tell them that it was their fault that this happened.

Not the person who badly wanted to be a cop, but wa srefused by the Sanford Polce Dept, and who had several prior incidents involving violence.  AS AN ADULT!

The 400 murders in Chicago has nothing to do with cops.  The 50% violent crimes committed by 3% of the population pool cause the population pool to be profiled.  Maybe Zimmerman profiled Martin due to race, but crime in that neighborhood were being committed by mainly black youths.  Martin chose the path of violence by punching Zimmerman, jumping on him and beating his head on the side walk.

We do not know for sure of anything, but we know for sure Zimmerman was badly beaten and Martin's only injury was the gunshot.  So, one can conclude Martin to be the aggressor.

Zimmerman was punched by the police who arrested him... they did this to help him.. he understood it was for his own good and he could claim he was beaten by his victim. This is standard unwritten procedure to protect white kids who commit crimes against blacks.

You too funny bai!

You are now being as ridiculous as baseman.

I have followed the story from the beginning...

What's wrong with the picture is that it is a load of crap.  There is nothing in common with the three. How come OJ picture is not included?  Not enough bandwidth?

Correct.  A woman who was defending herself against an abusive husbands is guilty and sent for 20 years.

A hot headed lunatic who disobeys the orders of the 911 operator not to intervene does so in any case, provokes a fight and then claims that he is defending himself.

Then you would know that you know litte about what happened as no one witnessed the entirety of the events so there are many questions that we have no answers to.

All I know is that America is a country for whites and that brown and black people are welcome as long as they understand that they will always be third class citizens and can cope with that fact.

True, as in the OJ verdict, reasonable doubt existed so the defendant gets the benefit of the doubt.  It is the process, isn't it!

I am sure that you screamed at the jury when OJ got off, so why do you endorse it. 

A juror (the Hispanic woman) is now saying that many felt he was guilty.  The verdict was rendered based on a biased judge and an incompetent prosecution.

And Guyana is for Indians and blacks must accept their place...or else.

So whats the difference?

You are a genius...

Continuing to babble your FOX news nonsense.

1.  The only reason why you know about Chicagos problems is because black leaders there last year begin to lament about the high levels of black on black violence.

2.   Blacks who are found with guns after shooting some one dead ARE ARRESTED AND KEPT in jail.

DEo you see how Zimmerman is treated differently?

So stop watching Fox News.

So why not spend more time discussing Guyana's racial inequities rather than worrying about the USA? You dont live here so it shouldnt worry you.

I cannot convince Indians that they aren't white... that's all I can say about Guyana's racial divide.

I was hopeful that a road to Brazil and more contact with South Americans would bring this  type of awareness, but who knows? May be that's the reason why successive governments have always found excuses to keep the country as isolated as the most remote island of the Caribbean.

Lucas many light skinned Indians will be considered white in Brazil.

Indeed they will learn a lot about how to oppress blacks in get them to hate themselves fro0m the Brazilian white/near white elites.

In the USA race is what it is and we are given ample room to protest.

Now prove to me that blacks in Brazil, or Guyana for that matter, have as much room to state their case as they have been given on MSNBC and CNN.

Brazil and Guyana race is discussed as it is on FOX News.  To quote an analyst, they are fine with discussing problems in racial terms, but when solutions are discussed in racial terms that the person wanting to do this is accused of bringing up race. 

See how Sugrim attacks me when I talk about racism against blacks from Indians...but yet never attacks baseman,druggie and the other black hating racists on GNI.  Any black man in Guyana who discusses discrimination against blacks is accused of formenting racial hatred of Indians.

I wonder how many white families will allow their kids to be looked after by Zimmerman...

Now that the guy is confined to his white ghetto I'd bet whites fear for their own.

Most whites consider Zimmerman to be a "dumb Mexican".  The idiot was only being used by the gun lobby to further their agenda.

10 years from now who will care about Zimmerman, who has badly damaged his life.  As the jurorB29  said, "God will take care of him", and she didnt meaN to ensure his success.

if you say dumb then you don't need to say mexican...