{"id":2439,"date":"2013-09-12T08:35:42","date_gmt":"2013-09-12T12:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=2439"},"modified":"2013-09-12T08:35:42","modified_gmt":"2013-09-12T12:35:42","slug":"zimmerman-verdict-part-19-lessons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/zimmerman-verdict-part-19-lessons\/","title":{"rendered":"ZIMMERMAN VERDICT PART 19: LESSONS"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was much for us all to learn from this case. For anyone who came in late, let me refer you here http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/articles2\/ayoob143.html<\/a> for a summary.\u00a0 It ends with one such lesson. Let\u2019s pick up from there.<\/p>\n

In this society, the person who moves toward danger in any respect is seen as \u201chaving gone looking for trouble,\u201d and widely blamed accordingly if it does not end well. I\u2019ve explained earlier why I don\u2019t think anything Zimmerman did within the totality of the circumstances was the proximate cause of the death, but there\u2019s a reason for the saying \u201cIt\u2019s not about fault, it\u2019s about blame.\u201d<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re on trial, you aren\u2019t the player, you\u2019re the stakes. The players are your lawyers, and you want the best. Zimmerman had that, and it saved him.\u00a0 The evidence dealt them a powerful hand of cards. I think their two highest cards were Ace of Experts Dr. Vincent DiMaio, Jr. and Ace of Eyewitnesses John Good.\u00a0 The master forensic pathologist tied it all together and proved from the hard evidence what Good, the closest eyewitness, testified: it was Martin on top brutally beating Zimmerman until the shot. I did a murder case with Dr. DiMaio in Texas years ago, also resulting in an acquittal, and DiMaio was extraordinary there, too.<\/p>\n

If anyone still has the fantasy that you\u2019ll always be treated as a hero after a clean shoot, this case teaches us the reality. It\u2019s often an ordeal of lies, misunderstandings, and false accusations\u2026and, as seen here, your family will go through that ordeal with you.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not something you want to face alone. Kudos to those who donated to Zimmerman\u2019s legal defense fund: you helped enormously to do justice.\u00a0 O\u2019Mara establishing a website to show the actual evidence (www.GZlegalcase.com<\/a>) \u00a0was powerful and effective, and I think we\u2019ll see other defense lawyers modeling on this strategy in the future. One useful ally would be the Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network, which I\u2019m involved with and have seen do good work. (http:\/\/armedcitizensnetwork.net<\/a>) . Mark O\u2019Mara consulted with ACLDN head Marty Hayes on the case, and appears to have put some of his advice to good use. Hayes\u2019 excellent analysis is found here: http:\/\/www.armedcitizensnetwork.net\/images\/stories\/Network_2013-08.pdf<\/a> .<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t believe everything you see in the papers or on TV when the news in question is a self-defense act. For decades as an expert witness in these cases, I\u2019d get back to the hotel after testifying, watch the news report on the day\u2019s events in court, and wonder what the hell trial the reporter was watching.\u00a0 We saw that classically here. The honest reporting was more in the blogosphere than in the mainstream media.<\/p>\n

The gun prohibition subculture in this country is powerful, abetted heavily by the MSM, and you can expect them to seize on incidents like this and demonize the shooter. Zimmerman has become the poster person for this venomous trend.\u00a0 Even those who grudgingly accept the verdict still mutter aloud, \u201cIf Zimmerman hadn\u2019t had a gun, Trayvon Martin would still be alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s probably true, but the final lesson is the flip side, which those commentators sometimes blindly and sometimes studiously ignore: If George Zimmerman hadn\u2019t been carrying a gun routinely on a night he wasn\u2019t expecting trouble, he would probably be dead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was much for us all to learn from this case. For anyone who came in late, let me refer you here http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/articles2\/ayoob143.html for a summary.\u00a0 It ends with one such lesson. Let\u2019s pick up from there. In this society, the person who moves toward danger in any respect is seen as \u201chaving gone looking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-firearm-owners-civil-rights","8":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}